Tornado Nights

    Are so darn tiring ! I thought we did really good. We watched the weather news on the tv (which means your not about to have any good tv on) and we could see all evening the bad weather was staying to the west of us and traveling north east. In other words we are good. No need to have big worries. We could even go to sleep. At this age that is either in bed for a while or snoozing in the recliner. Wherever the sandman happens to visit.
    This night I woke up in bed hurting so bad in the hips I had to get up move around and get me some asthma meds in the machine while up. Hubby was in the recliner and I evidently snoozed back off in the recliner around 4:15 and he woke up about 4:30 to take his medicines. He watched the tv weather to kind of see what was going on. Looks like the tornado weather ginned back up..... it was just west of Shawnee and they said it would take about 1 hour to get here. He woke me up and I was in instant tornado mode. He went out and unlocked the gate in case we decided not to go to the cellar and just drive out of the way. Personally I would just rather go to the cellar it's here it's easier than worrying about which way the twisters are going!
    By the time he got back from opening the gate the news said we had 10 minutes. I had planned on calling a few friends around me to warn them but this happened so fast I didn't even have time. Out in the country we don't have sirens so something like this in the middle of the night we have to rely on others to make sure we don't get blown away.  I grabbed my medicine bag so I can breathe, undies and other clothing and stuffed into a bag I had ready with gallon size sliders full of toiletries and towels in the bottom of the bag. Grabbed the check books some water and my everyday carry I call a huge purse. We were out and gone in a flash it was almost to Meeker by the time we headed out into the truck. Even Heidi Ho new it was time to haul her tail and did everything she was supposed to and got in the cellar with us.
   As we were just walking in to the cellar Nikki called to tell us to run and but we didn't have any reception so had to wait until we came back out. She was so worried about us she was grumpy until I explained about no reception.
   This is the first time I had been in the cellar in a year or 2 thank goodness. That cellar leaks a little on the sides and through the door. The floor had a very light coating a mud on the bottom and naturally Heidi Ho had to go hide in the corner with the most mud. I don't call her a Pig Bull for nothing! LOL
   The three plastic chairs we had in there were naturally dirty but it was nice to have. The light we had installed is a life saver for sure! Hubby had taken some plastic shelves down there I no longer needed in the garage and it was nice to place our bags on them. I took inventory of some of the other things I have there and we are sitting pretty good for just in case.
   We came out of the rabbit hole and got back into the truck we left running for the headlights. Heidi didn't want to walk back to the house in the rain so we had a very muddy Heidi Ho butt, feet and tummy to deal with in the truck.
    Back at the house we just dropped anything muddy out in the garage went in a got comfy once again and snoozed until breakfast time. Man I tell you we are soooo useless today! Worn out and just can't get enough sleep can't get anything done ! Told hubby lets go get something to eat and get out of the house. It helped but we are still pretty tired. I thought we did really good getting enough sleep! I have had nights where I only got a couple of hours and done better than I am today. Sooo aggravating! 
   We didn't have any damage just got a whole lot of rain just not as much as west of us in the city. The roads were a mess and had lots of new ruts to watch out for. But we are all good! Just tired.
   God took care of our area really nice.
Love
Ranchmama

4 Legged Tornado

We thought it would be a good day a couple of weeks ago to catch some calves for weaning and move one of the bulls from this 120 acre pasture to the house to put with some heifers for breeding. He has always had really good babies with heifers without much trouble.      

     We were getting everything separated and one second the bull was in the corral the next he was stepping over / thru the panels like they were nothing. Something about at least a 1500 lb bull crashing around that turns everything he touches into a tangled mess. I looked around thinking maybe Heidi Ho had put him through the fence for some reason but I couldn't even blame it on her. She had been helping us all morning real good moving cows but she didn't do this one. I have no clue as to why this bull decided to all of a sudden go though over $300 worth of panels to go head to head with the other bull in the pasture. 

     We normally keep 2 bulls in with about 80 head of mama cows to take care of everything and they normally get along really well. Just for some reason the other bull must have been sniffing the wrong tail or something and he just had to go over and give him what for. Of course neither one was hurt just had to be boys!

     We have yet to figure out how to unbend, unwarp cattle panels good enough to be reliable to keep cows in again after being damaged.  We just keep them around for emergencies 

   Oh well, another day another few hundred dollars............... 

Ranchmama 

This is what a normal corral panel looks like

This is what 3 of the panels look like after one bull decides to leave the corral and go head to head with the other bull in the pasture.

Why NOT to Bug Out of Oklahoma

One good reason not to bug out of Oklahoma is..... IT WOULD BE FLAT OUT BORING!!!

Other states just do not have the adventure we do.

Where else can you live and get shaken and stirred all in one day?

Where else can you live and have snow in May with tornadoes right behind it?

Where else can you live and have a tornado in the morning and another one on the same day in the evening like we did here in Prague,Oklahoma?

If I lived in a area of Oklahoma that is known for having repeated tornado dances I would for sure not be living there.

Where I live now there are 100 yo homesteads still here that have not been touched by the storms

That doesn't mean it can't and won't happen but my odds are better.

IF I would be wiped out with the house gone and all I would for sure think about moving to a place that doesn't have weather "episodes" frequently.

My family is small. We no longer have a lot of family close by. 

The kind of work we do being self employed we can do somewhere else.

Not only that as tied down as we have been it might be the only time I get to travel and see things as we are scouting out someplace pretty to look at as we think of relocating.




Ranchmama