8.53 pm. Tuesday night (NOT Wednesday night! hard to remember what day it is sometimes!)
Dear old Friend,
I am laughing at myself!
Fifteen minutes ago I was reading your email – my brain turned off – La La La I was humming, sleepy, sitting in my chair, cup of tea, dishes draining from dinner and writing a reply to you in my head when I saw your comment about Storms. Bad Storms!
What?! I said and quickly changed to the weather site to check the ETA of this storm, (soon) then looked out the window (sheets of lightening – non stop – when did that start?) so: On with the the jacket – On with the head lamp On with the boots and out I went to put the calves into shelter and lead Sheila (bless her) through the dark and back up to the big barn. She came to my call without question, hauling herself up out of her bed, hurrying to catch up with me, trotting along behind. Talking. 
Through the gates and fields and into the barn. The calves also bolted through their gate and straight into the rat house. I opened Pats gate for the big cows to come up off the fields in case they get hit by lightening (can lightening see in the dark? ) and checked that all the big birds were on the rafters. They were.
The wind had begun that insistent gentle swirl that it makes when bad weather is coming. Shifting air aimed from all directions. Lifting my hair, brushing my face. Like the warm air moving ahead of a train in the underground, full of the scents of dust and wet and watchfulness and black. The wind found an imperceptible sound, a faint whistle, that edged closer to my hearing. The hint of a warning.
The light attached to my head picked up the narrowing eyes of cats and rabbits and cows all stood with their heads up, quiet and still – waiting to see which way to move.
I picked up my pace and shut the big doors of the barns, barring them with bars top and bottom but leaving a gap between the doors for the wind to get in. To lessen the force of a high wind hitting a wide flat door.
I brought all the little plants back inside and my boots back inside too in case of rain and here I am in my chair again. Though my tea is cold now. 
And already I can hear the thunder rolling in, low and continuous. With loud whip cracks hurrying it along. The dogs have gone into hiding.
Now that I am in I see EXTREME weather alerts all over the internet, and lots of green and yellow in the radar. Looks like we might miss the worst but be hit by the tail of it. Hopefully. But I had to laugh at myself! Sitting here with my cup of tea. I was oblivious. 
If you had not have written to me from way up there I would not have known there was a storm coming! And though Sheila would probably have been fine the calves would have got a drenching! I just put them back out this morning!
Funny.
Have a great evening my dear old friend. Batten down the hatches. I think it is coming your way too!
I love a good thunderstorm. The high winds are not so good though.
Love c
PS I have a couple of turkeys for sale. Interested? Immediate delivery!
The Kitchen's Garden 
57 responses to “Dear Old Friend,”
I had to come back and let you know i loved everything about this post. I worry about the animals in the weather. I’m so glad you took care of them. I’m terrified of lightning. You write such beautiful words and your photos of birds in the house and Sheila in hers are just heart warmers. I’m glad the whistling wind passed you by. I know that sound and have been there.
Hmm, turkey for Easter dinner??? Naughty birds. Glad everyone was gotten in and safe even if it didn’t storm like mad. I thought we’d have more of a storm here but only had rumblings, lightning and wind, not much rain at all – mostly the worst was north of us. Smoky spent the evening hiding behind the chair shaking (his tags rattle against the wall with his shivering in fear, poor beast), it’s hard being a dog that’s afraid of thunder.
Enter Rescue Remedy. It’s homeopathic and is for animals as well as us bipeds. It WORKS!!! Google it. Love, Gayle
I did try that Gayle, Smoky is just not one of those dogs that will calm down once he is in freak-out mode. The only thing that has helped are calm collars (a little, since it stopped him from trying to climb to the ceiling – we once found him up on top of the kitchen cabinets inside the soffit after he had walked across the suspended ceiling, fallen, climbed back up and gotten in the soffit). The calm collars are infused with the pheromones of a lactating female dog, they have to be replaced monthly but it’s more than worth the cost. I had tried a homemade thunder shirt (a somewhat compressive shirt that is supposed to help the dog feel more secure – he chewed that off). I suspect that his origins did nothing to help the poor creature, he was born in a garage full of construction debris and which was more or less part of that debris. My spouse brought him home at about six to seven weeks old because the mother took off and left 13 puppies. I could not say no under the circumstances. He would not be rehomeable if anything happened to us, he’s 12 and a half now so hopefully that won’t be an issue. I do appreciate the suggestion, Rescue Remedy worked fine on my other dogs and we sold it in the store I had as well (I owned Sanctuary Crystals for awhile before the economy crashed and we had to close). Have a beautiful day.
I enjoy thunderstorms too, especially when I’m curled up in bed, warm and cozy.
I hope the storm isn’t too wild. High winds can be scary!
I’m a day late and a dollar short but I love that toad!
isn;t he lovely!
All over as I write our Thursday morning and hopefully nought on the farmy out of place. Actually I too knew of your storms and possible tornadoes ere they hit from comments made in letters – I now have the Chicago Weather Bureau on my computer ‘favourites’ to be able to look and cross fingers when ill threatens 🙂 ! [An extra prayer won’t hurt!] Still rather windy for you until about Saturday . . . but no tornado warnings and they would worry me silly! That said the ‘boidies’ are making themselves rather comfortable when Miss C is not around!! Hmmm!!! Even in her bestest reading chair 🙂 !
There were 9 tornadoes sighted, (not by me) just no damage to speak of thankfully. Only a few branches down here but nothing dramatic.
🙂 ! You see . . . had both my fingers and toes crossed and nearly emailed you until silly-billy me realized it was 3am on your spring morning !!! Hmm, either nasty things had already happened or you were peacefully asleep whilst I was watching your Weather Bureau showing scary maps and films !!!
i would love to have those turkeys
is west virginia on the delivery route?
Gosh are those turkeys inside? 😃
the door blew open + opportunists = bad turkeys.
Ha ha that made me laugh! They sure are opportunists 😃