Wednesday night we were supposed to have storms. Not long before I was ready for bed, a tornado watch was issued for our area. I figured a storm would blow through and Rita would keep us up. She was with me. Vince had already gone to bed. I stayed up til about 3 and we had not had any bad weather so I figured I’d take my chances and took Rita to bed. We never even had rain.
Yesterday Vince and I worked out side and by late afternoon, we could hear thunder begin to roll in. We never had any severe warnings . . or at least we didn’t know if we did.
Vince was trying to finish up some things before the storms got here. I had the greenhouse door open and a few plants sitting out. I went out, put those inside and closed the door.
The hens are still out wandering around but I think Wilbur realizes there’s a storm coming and he’s headed for the house . . chicken house that is!
The sky was getting dark and the wind was picking up. I was headed back to the house. My outside chores were done.
Just as I got back towards the house, I looked back and it was getting dark. Don’t say anything about the mistletoe in that tree. I used to say I had mistletoe in the mesquite tree. Now I say I have mesquite in my mistletoe tree. I have given up getting Vince to try to fix it but he’s going to miss that tree if it does. It’s our only big shade tree on that side of the house.
We both made it inside. Vince headed to the shower. I was finishing up dinner and the bottom fell out.
I was trying to capture a picture of the hail. You can see a bit of it in the foreground of the picture. The wind blew like crazy, and it rained really hard for about 15 minutes. Water was standing everywhere but the rain stopped, the sun came out and it was a beautiful evening!
Spring storms can move in fast and move out fast but thank goodness for the rain. Just hoping there wasn’t enough hail to knock off a lot of the peach blossoms. I haven’t even been out there to check.
Ruth says
It’s sad you are going to lose your mesquite tree. Mistletoe is a parasite that lives on the tree sap, and eventually drains it dry completely. Happened to the two trees next door to me, growing up. There was a British blog recently that complained about “someone cutting off the apple tree branch that the mistletoe was growing on.” That person probably saved the tree.
Cinda Moulds says
Nice pictures of your homestead and the weather. They’re sharp, crisp pictures.
Judy Laquidara says
Thanks . . from my phone. We really are lucky to have this place.
Phyllis says
Your place is beautiful. Looks so peaceful. We used to have mistletoe in some huge oaks. My brother used to shoot it out and give it to people for Christmas. It is all gone now. Never was enough to hurt the trees. I don’t remember seeing it anywhere else locally over the years. Makes me wonder where it came from. Near parts of our NC coast there is a lot of Spanish moss. When we come to Austin, I often see something that looks like Spanish moss, but it is ball shaped. Also see the mistletoe when we are in the countryside there. The weirdest thing (to me, but it may be common there) is a cactus growing about head high in a tree near her house.
Judy Laquidara says
That cactus in a tree does seem weird! We’ve heard about shooting it out but if we shoot one way, we’re shooting towards the highway; the tree is right near the house so we can’t shoot from the other direction. So . . mistletoe is probably going to win this one.
Lee says
Spring is my favorite time of year. In hot, dry climates it’s the usually the prettiest too, and the most volatile weather-wise. Green, green is good.
Susan Nixon says
So maybe that was the self-thinning storm? I hope there are plenty left. That’s the way I thought all rain storms were until I lived in New Jersey. LOL