Mother Nature had a really, really, REALLY good cry last night…!

Well, I sure hope Mother Nature got it all off of her chest last night…

I mean, girl let it all out – ALL OF IT – over that last 48 hours. She has to feel better.

Meanwhile, us down here in Northern California, are drenched. Soaked. Floating away. Not to mention the wild stormy HIGH velocity winds to entertain us.

It had been a long time since I was actually afraid during a huge windstorm. Last night, I was a bit unsettled. The wind was whipping and howling and slamming the house – and I was nervous for myself, the horses and all of the drought-damaged trees around here.

The mustang pasture was almost totally underwater.

This wheelbarrow collected all this water and tree branches/leaves during the one storm. Probably 36 hours of constant rainfall. You can see that the ground is totally saturated.

WILD RIDE

Luckily, Hubby was home to batten down the hatches and listen to all the hullaballou outside. At one point, we heard a loud crash and knew one of our soldiers had fallen.

I ran around to every window to see if I could make out who had fallen… this morning, we saw that it was our patio tree. Bum-mer. She was so beautiful and provided much needed shade.

Very sad.

It is also very sad that she fell onto our apple tree and broke a very prolific limb. But, the apple tree will live, just with a few less arms to bear her very yummy fruit.

We lost our patio shade tree. It had been suffering since the drought and just couldn’t hang on.

She fell on our apple tree and broke a very stout limb.

There were many branches like this that had been ripped from the oaks and had been slammed against the fences.

LAYING IN BED

When I was a kid – before owning homes of my own… – I used to love listening to wild wind storms. At that time, I felt totally safe and would lay in my bed, thinking about the stories the wind could tell… That iconic image of Dorothy and Toto swirling up in the cyclone of the tornado would fill my mind.

Remember this image?

But last night, not so much. Instead, I chastised myself for not taking down the one dead oak tree this summer. Would it fall on the house? Would the shelters hold? Would a tree fall on a fence and let the horses out?

“Nah. We’re good”, I’d tell myself. “We’re good. Just relax and enjoy it.” So, I did.

I thought about Mother Nature. Was she angry or just finally hearing all of our cries for water down here in CA.?

Scouty helped me survey the new, large pond at the bottom of the property.

I always look for gold in the newfound streams – someday…

MOTHER NATURE… DID SHE JUST GET THE MEMO?

I thought that perhaps Mother Nature’s email/prayer account was backlogged. You see, all of California has been praying for rain for, oh, probably 4 years. We’ve had this drought and the land was under desertification. Driving down I-5, which formerly was a large harvest area, was now a dustbowl.

Had Mother Nature just gotten our prayers?

It is conceivable, with all the other planetary stuff going on, that she was needed elsewhere – until last night. Perhaps she finally got caught up and decided that there was so much need for water, she may as well open up the floodgates and give it to us all at once.

Or, she was throwing an epic tantrum…

I just don’t know.

Remi’s BLM scar almost looks like the mud all over her body. They all lay down, rain or shine…

Annie’s pasture is totally muddy as well. So is she.

Slick, one of the resident Shetlands, is totally soaked. But, he doesn’t care at all. I care, however, because the rain causes his allergies to flare.

THE AFTERMATH – will I find gold in them thar hills?!

It finally cleared up today around 4pm. So, I walked around.

The waterflow was epic. In fact, the Mustang Pasture was all water. Rainwater was flowing down from behind our hill, past the barn and towards our NEW POND! Of course, the neighbors are not happy about our new pond because it really isn’t a pond, it is a pool of water spilling onto the road. Usually, it recedes rapidly (crossing fingers).

Whenever Mother Nature has a hissyfit like this one, I always walk the new ‘seasonal creek’ to find gold.

Hubby says that this is not possible.

But, I say that we live in the Mother Lode and this is gold country. There is gold in them thar hills and I’m fixin to find it! And, if I am to find it, those nuggets would likely be in a tumbling stream. So, I ALWAYS look.

I’ve never found anything… but one day I will! Then I’ll save all the horses!

As another one of my favorite historical woman once said:
“There is no use trying,” said Alice; “one can’t believe impossible things.” “I dare say you haven’t had much practice, ” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” – Lewis Carroll