typical monsoon downpour
Sue’s been thinking a lot about water lately. I’m hoping that means that the Monsoon Season is quickly arriving. According the National Weather Service, the “official” start of Monsoon season is June 15th. The doesn’t necessarily mean that we’ll be getting a rain on that particular day, but that “in general” the season begins around then. Technically it begins when the dew point is at 55° for three days in a row, in Phoenix. But the weather service got tired of trying to get that information out and decided to just pick a date. Whatever, we’re praying for it! But praying for it, also means you need to plan for it! Holding it, directing it, moving it, using it, keeping it out of structures, etc. So, we’ve been talking about a few ways of doing that. Continue reading
and… it’s Monday. Sue and I were just talking about how quickly time files. Days are fleeting in and of themselves, weeks and months melt away. It is amazing to me. Especially when we are trying to get anything accomplished. I know that there are scientific reason why time seems to speed up as you get older, but I can’t always wrap my mind around that. Makes my head hurt some days – yet it fascinates me. I like listening to pod casts about this interesting topic… if you want to explore along with me try Radio Lab: there’s one specific episode I’m thinking of called 
The winds that is. Every time I think we’ve seen the highest winds, they get higher! Today we caught a high of 54 mph as it was showing on the weather station. At another time, I think the meter was overwhelmed because we had an amazingly strong gust, which did some minor damage around outside, and it never moved from 28 mph. We’ve had a slight chance of rain all day, and have had some; right now it shows we have around 41% chance of rain, but the humidity has dropped a bit in the last couple of hours. We might not have a respite from the wind until late tonight or early tomorrow. 
Do you feel the love? Our chickens don’t think they got much love today, it was wet and stormy. We, on the other hand, are so grateful for these wet things falling from the sky!!! The weather continues the tradition of raining on my birthday. I used to hate it as a kid, but I really have come to enjoy it as an adult. So far, our little rain guage has recorded .11 of an inch of rain, but it’s supposed to rain through out the night and into tomorrow, perhaps. It has been rather cold, with the wind that has accompanied the rain. 
Today is Groundhog day…do you care? Did you even remember? I didn’t, until I got home and started poking around on the internet. Supposedly, we’ll be having 6 more weeks of winter. Which, for us, means 6 more weeks of opportunities for winter rain. Which would be a good thing. Then, in my poking around, I come to discover that the groundhog is only about 40% accurate. Poop. I bet my hedgehog could predict just as well. That got me to wondering, what else do we rely on that is only 40% accurate? 
Wednesday night and most of Thursday, we had some fierce winter winds. They were blowing like crazy! On the littles’ side of the coop, the wind was just barreling through the small chicken door – heedless of the wind shield Sue put up for just this reason. So, Sue went and picked up some straw bales from Gem’s, our local feed store, and arranged a wind break for them. You can see Imen there, inspecting for bugs today. This is really the first day they’ve been out with the bales, because it was so bitterly cold and windy yesterday – they all
hung around inside. Today it was warm and calm enough to have the door open for a few minutes when the sun was shining right inside. They love to hang out in the door way and sun themselves. Anyway~ Sue also added three bales on the other side for the biggies as well. Just so their food pallet would have a little protection as well. The biggies were out a bit more yesterday than the littles, but they are all still quite interested in the new hairy lumps that have been added to their run. I was out there watching them this afternoon, and I goy the distinct feeling they think that the additions are for a Christmas Barn Dance. I saw them making all kinds of little preparations….