Catching Up

The day after I returned from my trip to Santa Fe over Christmas holidays, we had a tornado in NW Arkansas (New Year's Eve).  The next day a friend called to say that it had hit another friend's farm (Mr. Morrow) and that the couple living on the farm were injured.  I went out, along with others, to help in the cleanup and took these photos.  Driving out you could see the complete destruction in the tornado's path, with everything on either side just as it was, untouched.  Seeing pictures is one thing, but seeing it firsthand is unbelievable.

Kelley was just waking up when she felt the trailer shake so she woke Jeff.  At that moment, the trailer was lifted off its foundation and thrown against the old farm house about 50 feet away.  (Everyone agreed that if the house hadn't been there, nothing and no one would have survived.)  As you can see on the bottom photo, half of the trailer on the left is totally gone. . . that's where their bedroom was. (A car sitting right next to the trailer was untouched.) Both survived -- Jeff has fractures of several vertebrae, broken ribs and other problems, Kelley has a broken femur, back injuries and other problems.  I personally don't see how they survived this.

Mr. Morrow's close neighbor's farm was also hit and, while it didn't touch one home, it completely demolished their daughter's but thankfully she and her children were in Arizona.  His mother's house, however, was also hit and she was found out in the middle of the road.  It was two hours before she could be reached and taken to the hospital where she died a couple of days later.
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January 2nd, Little Nuevo was born.  Named, so must be a heifer -- yea!













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Cold, cold weather, then some snow last week.  Got out the skis and did some cross-country until snow got too sticky -- just enough exercise to warrant a nice cup of hot chocolate.

Since my freeze-proof livestock tank froze last year, I tried to outsmart it this year.  Bought a quarter-inch hose, duck-taped it to the tank and siphoned a continuous flow of water, hoping that would make it run enough to keep it from freezing yet not drain it.  Worked so far!

First cold spell it worked like a charm.  The second time, last week, not so well.  You have to suck on the hose to get the water flowing from the tank and I guess I wasn't paying enough attention -- got a mouthful of pond water.  Did a lot of spitting until I got back in the house and rinsed and gargled with some hydrogen peroxide.  Would have preferred using something stronger, like Tequila, but was out.
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Ellie.  Last night.  Reading glasses.  Not happy.