Last night we were visited by what is described by the weather people as a severe thunderstorm.
That’s us – on ‘57.
Thunder, lightning and hail. And huge gusty surging high winds. Not steady wind – erratic live furious sometimes gale force winds ambushing the trees and roaring in voices.
At one point there was a terrifically loud clap of thunder and crack of lightening and BOTH my big French doors flew open. Wide. They banged wide open taking down a mirror on the wall. The doors face North – and are both three foot wide. And heavy. All of a sudden the storm was IN the room. It was raging through the trees and into the house. BooBoo shot out from under his thunder blanket and commando crawled UNDER the bed as I got up to wrestle the doors closed, against the fright full thundering storm.
Then I too took shelter in the bed, but on it not under it. Soon the rain came with a pounding vengeance.
Later the wildness gentled into heavy rain then gentle rain then quiet.
And I went back to sleep.
I had a message the other day that maybe I should create images that help you map the farm as you read; to get a clearer perspective of where everything is. The scale of the thing. So, today on our video channel TKG TAKE TEN I will show you around the farm. Usually our videos are static to capture the sounds but maybe you would like me to show you round sometimes. We will walk the talk.
As a rule I don’t pan or speak in our videos but maybe I should change things up every now and then.
So – don’t miss it!!
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The wind is howling again this morning and when I ran out at dawn (5.23 am) to let out the ducklings, I noticed that the porch light was working again – it had not worked in an age. In a lightning storm like last night I unplug my computer. We have been hit my lightning before, (but not as often now that the house is surrounded in trees) and it fries electronics on its way through. (Old houses).
I made pig bread in the slow cooker yesterday.
It is not pretty but quite tasty. Actually this loaf reminds me of my Mums bread. The flour is Red Fife. From Janie’s Mill.
Today’s pig bread will have additions of sprouted beans and eggs. I am going to experiment with laying whole eggs in the dough. To see how they will cook up.
Good morning! Time for me to go out and inspect the damage. And feed the animals!
Oh, I forgot to tell you! I rescued a whole lot of feeder goldfish (22 cents each) and after an afternoon slowly adding pond water to their bucket I released them into the pond. Already the pond feels more friendly. I hope those big frogs don’t eat them!
Have a lovely day.
See you this evening on The Kitchens Garden video channel.
Celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
11 responses to “The Rain Came with a Vengeance”
Last night sounds like one of those “you get what you wished for” situations but to extremes. Has Boo come out from under the bed yet? Poor boy. I’m looking forward to the vid later. We Tenners get such a bonus everyday…it’s nice to share and it’s also lovely to change things up sometimes 🙂
That was some storm. Similar to the storms we used to get on the farm. Sudden and fierce.
Feeder goldfish are carp, they will get enormous — and eat all future tadpoles and frog eggs. I put four or five into each of my stock-tank water gardens; they do a great job of controlling mosquito larvae, but I have to gather any amphibian egg masses into floating nets to get any new frogs or toads. So when a friend gave me a jar of grey tree frog tadpoles, I set up a new half-barrel for them, away from the voracious fish, and put in a chunk of Mosquito Dunk to keep down the bloodsuckers.
I had them in my rain barrels one year and the cats ate them!! I have read of people putting them in the cows water – I am not sure. What if the cows sucked them up? I am glad to hear that they eat mosquito larvae. That is the main reason I have the fish. Plus the kids love feeding them. I am not sure that they will survive the winter though so hopefully that allows frog breeding in the spring.
Goldfish or tadpoles? I put minnows in my rain barrels to keep down the skeeters; they (and the goldfish) hibernate over the winter in the sludge at the bottom of the barrels and stock tanks, so I watch for them when I clean out the tanks each April. But the fish do eat all the frog eggs and tadpoles, as well as any mosquito larvae. I got my grey tree-frog tads this spring from a friend who was annoyed to find them in his rainwater tanks even though he’d put screens on top; he went out at night with a flashlight and found the frogs mating on top of the wire screening and letting the eggs fall through the mesh into the water…
Yes, all kinds of hopeful critters come fishing; I’ve put inverted half-height milk crates at the edges of my stock tanks, with a good-sized piece of slate on top of each. The holes in the crates are big enough for even larger fish to dart through and hide from the raccoons, the slate is too heavy for the hunters to budge, and a bungee cord looped from the edge of the stock tank around the pots of swamp plants on top of the slates keeps the fishers from overturning everything when they try.
Cows like/can handle a little protein, and the smarter fish scoot away when they see a shadow looming over their water. Improves the IQ of the offspring of the remaining fish, yes?
Darn! Guess I was a bit too enthusiastic in sending you the rain! Next order is in for a gentle lasting rain. Hopefully the raging water last night tucked your seeds into the soil and away from the avian gobblers. Really looking forward to the tour tonight! ❤️
Blimey what a night and still up by 5.23! Bet Boo didn’t accompany you. Great evening to look forward to, your video, England playing in the euros and choir practise ready for a performance in 10 days! Life is never dull!
What a summer its been already!
Poor Boo – that thunder blanket wasn’t enough!
I believe all goldfish are carp and that the feeder kind can grow quite big. I think we have Koi Carp and some sort of large goldfish in the pond here. They definitely eat tadpoles, we rescue the frogspawn and decant it. Carp will also eat their own babies! However, they can look quite beautiful …and you can eat them, though I think they taste muddy. Mine, even the huge ones, regularly leap out of the pond to catch mosquitos and all sorts of small insects.
We had a massive rain storm early this morning too. Since Friday night we’ve gotten 4-1/2″, more than enough, thank you very much. With a high of 90* today it was very sauna like.
I do believe most gold fish will grow to the size of their environment, least ways that’s what I’ve heard.
Oh that storm sounds terrible! Poor you and the animals .. I just love the shot of the cat on the veranda!