Ice Storms and Tornadoes

Gotta Love the Ozarks

With it's Beautiful scenery....

Beautiful yet destructive Ice Storms

(click on the pictures to get a closer view. Take a good look at the fence in front of Smokey and also the flag... it is coated in a 1" layer of ice on each side - it was not moving, even when Robert tried hitting it.)

Smokey looking through the ice, the sapling oaks bending with the weight of the ice

Look at the grass... it was covered in ice and looked like something from a cave,

Also, the branch that Sunshine is looking through is not normally that low. It is usually way above our heads. These are the oaks at the edge of the paddock bending with the weight of the ice. We are very lucky and only lost a couple of lower branches from these beautiful trees.

A look at the paddock toward the oaks, the back fence line faired a lot better than we thought it would. Things leaned in and the tree that was dieing within the paddock due to the late frost we had a couple of years lost some of its branches. Bob got up on the roof to remove some of the ice that had built up there and got some great pictures from that vantage point. You can see the entire garden from that viewpoint. The fence line nearest the road fell down and had to have the ice removed from it in order to put it back up so the chickens could get out and play.

Here are trees across the street from us. We were very lucky. A few years back the electric company had sent out crews to cut back the trees from the immediate line. It worked great and kept the ice laden tree branches away from the lines. Less work for them meant that our power was restored a lot sooner. You can see Gods tree trimming at hand with those trees when you zoom in. We listened for many days to the trees cracking and crashing to the forest floor. It was amazing... especially in the silence of the crisp night air.

Bob also got a couple of pictures of the ice covering our power coming into the farm.

Another view to the east of the farm at trees that are bent over touching the ground. These are NOT weeping willows!

Bob got on the roof again the next day and took these pictures... this is day three. The sun came out, but the promising temps in the mid 30's never did arrive and so the next day was the start of the big melt and evaporation. With 2" of ice on the roof of the farm we were worried that the roof would warm from underneath and the ice would come sliding off the roof in big sheets. There were a few minor break offs, but for the most part it all started to evaporate instead of melting. The snow covered ice didn't seem to bother the cats though... see the footprints on the last pic?

Here is our 'sorry' TV antenna and then Miranda is has got a kite string hanging from her finger. This was a small section of Roberts 'communication system' with his fort for playing 'telephone'. Can you believe the amount of ice that has built up on that thin piece of string???
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Beautiful sunny weather...

Awesome strength and suddenness of Tornadoes

A picture of the destruction of the Gassville '08 tornado

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Well, that is my gripe today. We have some 'great' weather coming in on Sunday and you can say that I am not amused by the prediction of the forthcoming events. I really want to just move out and move into our neighbors basement home, that is quite well protected, for all of next week. I didn't take her up on her offer during the ice storm and lack of power for 5 days. Felt that we should stick it out and frankly wasn't sure if we had left ... could we have gotten back to take care of the critters? But, right now, I am feeling very weak and don't want to stay up night after night wondering: what was that noise? and when will the wind end? And trying to 'listen for the train'.

Don't get me wrong. The Ozarks are a wonderful place to live and raise a family. But the weather that comes with it leaves me weak in the knees at times.

Along with the local weather guy telling us of the upcoming weather events on Sunday (through next week), mainly warning us of the "tornadic" weather that was approaching (like I couldn't tell... the wind has picked up a lot - so, I knew something was up) The News guy reminded us that tonight was the one year anniversary of the tornado that ripped up Gassville, AR and bounced right over Bob as he was on his way home from work that night. I had called the store several times with weather updates and he left anyway even though I told him to stay put and just find somewhere safe to hunker down. Well, the wind was roaring and he caught some hail on the way home. He could tell there was a tornado up in the clouds. I was never so glad to see him when he got home even though he tried to 'boo' us while we were in the tornado shelter. I could tell he was relieved to be home as well.

Hope your weather is better than ours!