Memorial Montage

On this Memorial Day, I’m just posting a few photos from around the hill.

Thanks to all those who have served our country, both in the past and the present.  Thanks especially to Big Bill, my husband's dad, who served as a US Marine both in the Pacific in WWII and in the Korean war, and to his wife Alice, who kept the family together while he was serving in Korea.  They both passed away last year and we miss them.

This first photo shows what I am certain was the start of a tornado.  I was in the pasture, scratching Dee, and the county's deputy sheriff (who stopped by to ask me about my neighbor's loose cows) had just left.  The deputy told me there were tornado warnings in Bradford County, PA, just across the border.

Terrifying tornado cloud

So as I'm standing there, I looked up and saw a HUGE, disk-shaped dark cloud.  It was circular and wide, like a big hockey puck.  Then, under it, I saw whispy clouds forming, low to the ground.  It looked so strange that even the horses were staring at it. 

Then the whispy clouds connected to the big disk cloud and all of a sudden I realized that this could start rotating at any moment.

I'm not afraid of much, but the thought of a tornado terrifies me.  And they are so unusual in this part of the country that we just don't have a tornado plan.

I snapped this picture and was trying to figure out what to do, where to run, when the strong wind blew it up over the hill and it was gone.  There were tornado reports all over the place that evening, so it may have finished forming elsewhere.  

The next picture was my view from my truck as I tried to go to work one morning last week.  Mind you, I had already chased the cow thugs off our property that morning, causing me to get my work pants all wet and making me late for work.  Sorry about the quality.  It was taken through the windshield with my iTouch.

The Cow Thugs captivity was short lived and they are out in force.

The final photos are what I saw this morning when I went out to the barn.  All five of the horses were lying down around the round bale, and Hudson was flat out, sound asleep. 

We had two long, loud thunder storms last night, and I'm wondering if between those and their extra-long grazing period yesterday, they were just zonked.

DeCato and Hudson

Dee, Starlight and Hudson's big white butt

Stormkite snoring