Summer Storms

Last year I was amazed at the fact that, every afternoon in the summer the clouds would gather and the rain would come.  Every afternoon we had some sort of rain storm.

This year we are thankful and relieved that the summer storms have returned.  It has been so hot and so dry.  Our friend, Carlos, who has 10,000 acres of land east of town, has sold most of his herd of cattle.  He raises his own feed for the cattle, but this year the answer was -- no rain -- no grass.  As a sad result, most of his herd have been sold so that the remaining cattle can survive on what little grass there is.

I suppose that the cattle will rebuild their extended family themselves over the future years.  Now that it's raining, the herds are happy.  And that's the antelope, the deer, the elk -- and the domestic stock.  The range is turning green.  Rejoice.

But with the rain and the storms comes the thunder and lightning.  Those who know me know that I love the thunder and lightning.  I can sit on the porch and watch for hours when there's lightning going on.  Schultz hated the thunder... I loved it.

Up on the property, the storms seem more intense.  That 3 miles of distance and 1,000 feet in elevation seems to make a real difference.  Lightning and thunder roars up there.  The lightning and the thunder seem almost simultaneous.  The rain so much more intense.  Lightning strikes happen.

That being said and in hind-sight, we should have put in a "whole house surge protector" on the "shed."  That was a given on the house, but for some reason it never occurred to me to put one on the garage.

Yesterday Les and I visited the property.  I haven't been up there all week as I've been chained to my desk with quarter end stuff for my clients.  I put the last envelope in the mail yesterday and we celebrated by going up to Raton to buy a new chain for Les's chainsaw.  Whoo-Hoo!

After coming back from our southern neighbor we went up to the property just to sit and think for awhile.  I went to the freezer to get some chops out for dinner and found that most of the contents of the freezer was thawed out.  It was still cold, so I grabbed what was completely thawed to bring it home.  The freezer was purchased no more than 3-4 years ago and it's a Fridgedaire so I thought we'd have a few more years of use out of it.  But after talking to my friend Angela today we figured out that a power surge must have caused the motor to go out.  The light goes on... but no one is home.

Damn... another $400 out the door!

Today Andy and I went up to the property to see if the remaining items froze up again.  Sigh -- no dice.

Today we had chicken piccata, tomorrow I will be roasting a turkey.  I put 3 pork roasts into the crock pot today.  I'll throw a little BBQ sauce in that later this week.  I cooked up 4-1/2 pounds of ground turkey.  Put in salt and pepper and re-froze it when it was cooked.  I'll probably make some chili or some Sloppy Joe's with that.

I visited Angela and gave her 6 chicken breasts.  I visited Jim & Joelle and gave them a roast beef and tamales.  Jim and Joelle will be sharing our turkey dinner tomorrow with the fresh corn I bought at the Farmer's Market.

Summer and storms.  The year is passing so quickly.

I love it here!