Wild weather....

 This was our view from the front porch a couple nights ago.  There is just nothing like watching a thunderstorm build on the horizon and finally arrive.  This ominous sky ended up producing 1.5" of rain and some marble sized hail all in just a few minutes.  The wind raged at approximately 50-60 mph so the damage that can be done by hail at those wind speeds is incredible.

 

S. took these first two photos.  He can do amazing things with the the exposure of the camera and can get a super picture even in the dark.  Catching lightning on film in digital is not an easy thing to do and catching it without it being a total blur is even cooler.

My veggie garden took a hard hit and 2 of our best hay fields were practically demolished.  We are not sure whether or not we can still go in and cut them or not.  The hay is flat and most of the alfalfa is broken off, but a few days will tell us a lot about how or if the field will snap out of it. Evidently it was a narrow strip of hail, because very few folks out here had the hail.  Those who did had damage.

We figured it had to have rained more to our south because about the time Hubs and I lay down to sleep, we heard a gurgling from our window.  And then a rushing-gushing sound.  We went downstairs, turned on the outdoor lights and found that the water had come down the draw so big and so hard and so fast that we had water rushing over our road grade.  We pulled on our boots and jackets and went looking around with flashlights.  I have never ever seen this happen here before, and Hubs said he had only seen it happen once in his lifetime.  Even our front yard was flooded half way to the front door.  Incredible.  I guess you could say we had a mini flash flood right here.  It has since gone down but we are wet, wet, wet!    Last night while all of us were in town, DIL saw a funnel cloud come out of a cloud and captured it on her camera.  She showed us the picture when she joined us for supper.

 

This morning Hubs and I went out to check the livestock and make sure nothing had been forced through the fences during those thunderstorms.  There was a lot of water puddled all over out in the pastures, but nothing had gone through the fences.  I loved seeing this picture of the cows and sheep together.  It is so very green out there on the range for July 2nd.  And wet.

As we made our way back home, it started to shower again.  The view through the ranger's window has been typical this year.  We are so grateful for the moisture, but wish we could share some of it with the folks down south who are suffering severe drought.

Tonight we are under another severe thunderstorm warning and tornado warnings too.  So far all the severe stuff has missed us.  That's how it is.  One ranch gets hit hard and another ranch never has a sprinkle.   It's so nice and calm now this evening that I think I'll take a walk.  Tomorrow the weatherman predicts we will have very hot weather -- in the upper 90's -- so by evening, we'll be in the severe thunderstorm warnings once again.  That's the weather from the prairie.  Tune in again tomorrow -- same prairie station, same prairie channel.

(click photos to enlarge)