A 4 Quilt Night

Oh, the weather outside is frightful...

But on Tuesday we gave thanks for rain:

                               

With the exception of a 6" snow in early December, we haven't had a lick of moisture since October so these little puddles may or may not have inspired a little happy dance.

                                 

It may seem strange to many of you that 3/4" of rain can be described as a gully-washer, but around here, when there is nothing but bare ground and when it rains hard, it runs off:

                                                  

It filled our dirt tanks on either side of the house which is a good thing because tank water is a necessity out here. Gentle, soaking rains are always welcome as well because that allows for optimum grass growth. When it comes to rain, we're not picky. We take it any way we can get it and we praise God for every drop.

The next day, Wednesday, we had record winds. When it blows like this. our famous crisp blue skies turn brown. That's dirt folks:

                            

We broke records for what is known, in meteorology circles, as a Bomb Cyclone - a rapid drop in pressure, generally 24 millibars in 24 hours - ours fell 42 millibars in less than 12 hours. I guess it's generally associated with winter storms, but in our case, we got wind - lots of wind:

And it blew fiercely and steadily ALL day and night. We're used to being sandblasted around here, but it's not much fun. I was going to feed with DH after an early dinner, but I stayed behind to bake cookies as we had sold our Corriente steers and we were shipping them out the next day, meaning I was going to have extras to feed. Alas, the electricity went out and stayed out for 36 hours.

Just before it went out, we heard that tornadoes had been spotted just SW of us. With sustained winds of over 50 mph, we couldn't see anything. DH was making his feed run and I was out trying to batten down the hatches.

Thankfully, the tornadoes did not visit us, although there was substantial damage in a tiny farming community to the south. The challenge for us came as I tried to prepare food without getting into the fridge or freezer. We have a gas stove

so with the help of our handy dandy headlamps and lanterns, 

fresh eggs from the coop, fried potatoes, onion, and jalapeno made a tasty breakfast without opening the fridge:

                              

We're on a well, so we had water, but we were VERY conservative with it as we didn't want to drain our storage and we share that water with cattle. After hauling the boys out on Thursday morning

                               

Special K cookies were easy to whip up on the stove top for dessert:

                                             

And I did sneak into the deep freeze for a package of meat, thawing it (in a freezer bag and warm water) for Steak Tampequena. I served it with rice and corn on the side for dinner...on paper plates.

I had time to work on my current quilt binding:

And time to catch up on our current reads

The 2nd night, we were expecting 20° for a low so I dug out the silk long-johns and piled on the quilts. It was a 4 quilt night:

But we were nice and toasty and the next morning we had electricity and the great dirt removal from the old leaky ranch house commenced:

                                   

We're grateful that we didn't lose our freezers full of meat, that everyone is safe, and that I am a quilter! 😉