I SAW THE CORN COBS SMILING

I didn't open the sliding patio door beside my chair to let in cooler night air early this morning.  No, I opened the door to hear joyous sounds of pattering rain on our roof.  Not something we have heard much of this summer.  Rains began in earnest around 10 Friday night and continued for hours well into Saturday morning and oh how we did need that welcome rain.   I'm sure all the area farmers woke up with big wide smiles on their faces and I can hear the corn and bean crops giggling from here.

TURNED OUT TO BE A COWSY KIND OF MORNING

I’M SURE PHEEBS (THE COW SMOOCHING DOG) WOULD LOVE TO GO SEE HER COW PALS

JUST A NICE LAZY SATURDAY MORNING GOING ON HERE

AND A FAMILY OF WILD TURKEYS TODAY TOO

I THINK THIS MIGHT BE APPLE’S IDEA OF A COWPOD OR WOULD THAT BE A COWPAD….WELL EITHER WAY I’M SURE IT ENDS UP IN MANY COWPIES

Knowing the ground would be soft after our overnight rains Pheebs and I headed out shortly around 8 under a heavy cloud overcast to see if we could locate us some diggable upable wildflowers along the roadside.  Didn’t take us long to find what we were looking for and we soon had us a bin full of country flowers.  Stopped for a couple leg stretches in the Hullett Marsh but didn’t walk far because of the long wet grass.  Just as well because the skies opened up around 10 and dumped a deluge of rain on us.  While passing by one corn field I swear I saw the corn cobs smiling.

SOMETIMES PHEEBS AND I GET A GAME OF ‘HIDE AND SEEK’ GOING AND THIS MORNING IT WAS HER TURN TO HIDE….HMMMMM, I WONDER WHERE SHE COULD BE

‘OH-OH THINK MY DAD MIGHT HAVE SPOTTED ME’

‘BETTER KEEP MY NOSE DOWN’

 

‘OH BUT I LOVE THOSE FRESH AIR COUNTRY SMELLS’ 

Water lay in puddles along gravel roads as we splashed our way through them.  Wipers on high at times and other times we had Libby’s windows down between traveling storm cells.  No chance of stopping for a leg stretch now or else we would have turned the outside muddy mess into an inside muddy mess with wet gooey doggy paws all over the place.

GOOD THING WE GOT OUR PLANTS DUG UP BEFORE THE RAIN CLOBBERED US

STARTING TO RAIN HARDER

FELT GREAT TO SEE ALL THE RAIN TODAY

Arriving home we had to sit in the Jeep for a few minutes waiting for a break in the downpour.  Finally out of the Jeep we quickly splashed through some driveway water puddles as we raced for the porch just before another heavy dump of water.  This is the badly needed rain everyone has been waiting for and especially the farmers. 

NOT OFTEN WE SEE PUDDLES OF WATER IN OUR DRIVEWAY

‘FINALLY’ A VERY WET FRONT YARD:))

I WAS ABLE TO GET THESE WILDFLOWERS INTO THE GROUND BETWEEN RAIN SHOWERS LATER THIS AFTERNOON….A NICE CLUMP OF GOLDENROD AND A MILKWEED PLANT……ALSO 4 OTHER CLUMPS OF VARIOUS FLOWERS BUT DON’T KNOW WHAT THEY ARE THEY JUST LOOKED PRETTY:)) 

After umpteen years of taking a countless number of photos and missing many opportunities due to wrong camera settings I think I have finally managed to settle myself into a routine of checking my camera gear before heading out.  For a couple weeks now each time I get into the Jeep and before starting it up I go over both my Nikon DSLR’s checking to see if the auto focus is on and do I have the cameras in the correct shooting mode.  I check the menu to make sure I have them set for the right lighting conditions such as Sun, Shade, or Cloud.  Have I remembered to put the ‘chip card’ back in??  I check my exposure settings because I have each camera set specifically to two different exposures.  My D90 has a habit of switching exposure numbers on me so I always have to keep a close eye on that.  Battery and ISO checks are done periodically now too.  And to think it only took me about 30 or 40 years to get myself into the routine of checking my camera gear.  Sometimes I just totally amaze myself……………………………….  

I am optimistic about the large weather front traveling through our area at the moment being the beginning of the annual mid August shift to early Autumns cooler days and nights.  All the signs are falling into place and all's we have to do now is get rid of this miserable humidity and we can turn the corner and set our sights on Autumns magical splendor soon to be upon us.  Just think, a month from now and we'll already be into mid September.  Now how cool is that thought eh:))))))))))

Storm cells began sweeping through our area late this afternoon dumping more rain and one of those cells grazed us coming inland heading east.  Pheebs and I chased that one for a few miles nabbing ourselves a few last photos for the day.

STORM IS MOVING OFF TO THE SOUTH-EAST IN THE DIRECTION OF STRATFORD AND ST. MARYS

THIS IS THE EXACT SAME SPOT WE WATCHED FOR METEORITES A COUPLE NIGHTS AGO….IT’S ONE OF OUR FAVORITE ‘GO TO’ SPOTS ONLY 2 MILES EAST OF OUR HOUSE AND THAT COUNTRY ROAD POINTS EXACTLY DUE SOUTH

AT NIGHT THE NORTH STAR IS ABOVE THIS ROAD UP YONDER SO WE KNOW THE ROAD (STIRLINGS LINE) POINTS NORTH

SKIES CLEARING A BIT TO THE NORTH BUT THE CLEARING WAS ONLY TEMPORARY AS MORE STORM CELLS WERE ALREADY HEADING ACROSS THE LAKE

FROM THIS LOCATION WE HAVE ‘CLEAR SKY’ VIEWS ALL WAY ROUND

TONIGHT’S GOOGLE EARTH MAP SHOWS OUR STIRLING LINE ‘GO TO’ SPOT ON THE RIGHT AND WHERE WE LIVE ON THE LEFT  (CLICK ON MAP TO ENLARGE)

A very close call for Tom way up there in that Alaska place as he woke up to chest pains in the pre-dawn hours nearly a week ago.  The decision he quickly made that night may very well have saved his life.  ZippyPinHead  No more great big greasy 10 pound Zippyburgers for Tom!!

STORMY SKIES TO THE SOUTHWEST AND THAT’S A FIELD OF BEANS ON THE RIGHT

GROANER’S CORNER:(( The doctor entered the room and advised his patient that a brain transplant was the only remedy.  "Fortunately" he continued, "this hospital has perfected the procedure,  however, it is not yet available on the National Health and you will  therefore have to pay.  We have two brains in stock at the moment, a female brain costing $100,000 and a male brain at $175,000"  "Why is the male brain so expensive?" asked the patient.  "Oh, that's easy, male brains are hardly ever used."

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Man says to God: "God, why did you make woman so beautiful?"  God says: "So you would love her."  "But God," the man says, "why did you make her so dumb?"  God says: "So she would love you."