The outhouse is still upright and in its place! The first nice thunderstorm of spring came last night. As I have oft mentioned, it is WINDY at Cowfeathers. But, at times we have extraordinary wind. This usually means displacement of the outhouse. My efforts to keep the outhouse stable seem to be working. They consisted of sinking a post 3 feet deep in concrete and bolting the outhouse frame to the post. This does not mean the roof is still perched atop the structure, or that the window isn't in the creek. I will check those out later when it stops raining.
I heard the storm, of course, periodically during the night. Mostly I worried about the horses (are they too equine to stay in their stalls?) and my skunk. My skunk is the third skunk captured by a bounty of marshmallows, and I'm not well pleased that they keep coming in the barn to look for morsels of duck and chicken. But this little fellow is living in captivity for a few days until my friends at Critter Control can collect him. So, I went to the grocery and bought him canned cat food, and got him a water dish out of the tired Tupperware collection in the kitchen. He's made himself a nice little mound of mud and straw and pretty much just hangs out. Now, when he sees me coming, he gets excited for a can of cat food to rain from above. At first he was too cautious to eat it for a while, but now, he comes right over to the end of the cage and happily eats what squishes through the holes. But, I worried that he would be blown around by the wind. Even though he has nice protection from the rain and the wind in the cover around the cage (to prevent direct hits). Fortunately, he, too, seemed not worse for wear in the early morning light. And, seems to think highly of Turkey with Giblets.
I woke early this morning because the picture on the wall near my bed was bouncing on the wall. While this seemed to be just a repetitive annoyance, further consciousness revealed that the picture shouldn't bounce on the wall. Indeed, the house was trembling in the wind, and the roof sounded a bit pained as the metal tried to valiantly stick to it's assigned seat. Time to gather the troops downstairs. As I walked to the bedroom door, Youngest peeked in, hyperopic eyes not saved by glasses and squished up in worry and tears. "C'mon." I said, "Let's get the girls and go downstairs." Of course, with the wind we have no satellite service, so no television, no Internet. I eventually plonked enough keys on my smartphone to find we were under a Severe Thunderstorm Warning (Um, yep.) and a Tornado Watch. Which tickles me because it is dark, and I can't see anything.
Eventually, as the storm calms, it is time for the girls to get on the bus. I drive them out to the road, with an eye to what kind of repairs I'll be performing this morning. With joy, it seems that we have once again missed major damage. There are no big trees down, and relatively few branches (regular bursts of near hurricane force keep dead wood cleaned out). There are some flower urns tipped over and the obelisks in the kitchen garden likewise are reclining. The more subtle injuries I will need to investigate- slates off the house and barn roofs, further rending of the pasted together massive old maple trees around the house. Did the new gutters suffer during their first Cowfeathers Spring Orientation? Maybe the sun will come out and I'll have a look....
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