They Weren’t Kidding

Alerts were heard beeping on our phones during the day. Talk of possible flash flooding in the Cascades where many fires had decimated large tracts of the landscape. Closer to the farm we heard that thunderstorms would be rolling in even though this day did not feel any different than the last week of smoky, acrid air. We had downgraded from off the charts in air quality standards to just in the unhealthy range. We could actually, finally see the hillsides on both sides of the farm from our vantage point (a range of a couple of miles). It was easier to be outside.

During the evening chores we again were blessed with a couple of drops of moisture as we fed the main herd. It was very weird that the only moisture we have been getting are the few drops during feeding time for four consecutive evenings, but I was more than willing to get any rain at all.

Thursday night round 9pm the light and sound show started. Yes, I was already asleep since my head had hit my pillow more than five minutes earlier. By 930 everyone was awake and counting beats between the flashes and sounds. Ten miles away, eight miles away, closer, closer. It never did get directly over us, when the flash and the boom happens at the same time, but windows rattled and the whole house shook.

This morning it was glorious to see puddles as the morning began to get bright enough to see. There is still some smoke and more fog in the air  to keep things twilight looking, but it is much, much better out there.

My first order of business at 7am was to check the rain gauge to document our precious moisture. 1.10 inches! The first thing that Mike said was that he knows in ten days I will be out in the woods looking for Chanterelles! (That man does know me well.) The second order of business was to record the rainfall in the Citizen Science Project of CoCoRaHS. When I logged in, the early birds had just begun recording their findings, the map will fill in as other Project reporters tally their findings. The maps are helpful and interesting to follow especially after a dynamic storm like we just experienced. I really like being able to go back through the data to specific days to see what had happened. Data is added from all over the world and it is easy with the interactive map to view totals from the east coast or around the world.

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