East Coast Happenings

[Diane Amberg]

So, I heard Baxter Springs got hit pretty badly with many homes damaged and at least one death. Isn't this rather late in the season to finally have a bad one? Thinking of you all.

[Wilma]

No, Diane.  The one that hit Haysville in 1999 was just before Mother's Day.  I can't remember just when the one that hit Andover happened, but it was about this time, too.

[Diane Amberg]

Thanks for the information.I think I thought April was always the worst month there, although I know tornadoes can happen most any time when the heat and cool fronts find each other.
I feel so badly for the people in those long swaths that lost everything. I'm glad there weren't more deaths even though any are too many.
I'm fascinated with what is being done now with the little drones... great photos and they aren't as loud as helicopters are. They too get good photos for us, but if they get fairly low we can't hear ourselves or our officers giving orders and directions on our radios.
We've got the rain part of those storms coming in later today and are on flood watches. It's still getting down in the low 40s at night, so it's still too chilly for most garden plants yet.  I was going to plant some some cool weather seeds today but I might as well wait or they will just be washed out.   Stay safe all.

[Diane Amberg]

We had quite a storm here to not be associated with a hurricane.I  had 4.2 inches in the rain gauge and had serious flooding on the entire water shed here. Had quite a few vehicles in deep water, including a loaded school bus. No fatalities near here but several very close calls including one woman who was washed down White Clay Creek and had to be rescued out of a tree she had managed to climb into. We had a little water in the french drains, but nothing out on the floor.At least the field and marsh fires should stop for a few days.Now perhaps i can plant some seeds and they won't wash away.Have a good day all.

[Diane Amberg]

The male hummer has returned and I got buzzed this morning by a female. I put out the feeder so that should keep them happy. The catbirds came on Sunday, so all my usual friends have arrived. We've had a lot of warblers passing through and had a beautiful evening Grosbeak stop by too. Al saw an indigo bunting and I hear something this morning that I couldn't identify at all... never did see it.
A little warmer yet would be nice.I went overboard on new bird, bee and butterfly attractors, and I got my toms and peppers, now gotta get them all planted. I see we have impatiens again. Last year they were wiped out by disease. Later this week I think we'll go up to Groff's Amish Greenhouses and Nursery and see what unusual plants they might have, not the usual stuff.Feliz Cinco de Mayo.

[Diane Amberg]

Slowly it is warming up at last.We got into the mid 70s yesterday but it's still chilly at night. Al replaced all the dilapidated rabbit fence around our little veggie garden. We still have some black plastic to replace where the warm weather plants go and then we'll be ready to enjoy watching things grow. I expect we'll soon do battle with a ground hog or two also. One of the raccoons that sniff around every evening came to the deck door last night. Al slid it open just a bit to put out some stale rolls and it took one right from his hand.Fun, but not a good thing to get started. We do get lots of left over rolls and such from the fire house, but I don't want the bandits getting dependent on us.
Al's father's last sibling has died, so we have a grave side service to go to for Uncle Lawrence on Tuesday. He was a podiatrist before he retired.
I finally did something I've been planning to do. I got a big arrangement on a "saddle" for the top of my parent's headstone...  Artificial yellow roses and white mums. The cemetery has gotten very fussy about having anything that interferes with mowing, including arrangements on a shepherds crook, which I always thought looked nice. Have a great day all.

[Diane Amberg]

What a beautiful day here. Perfect weather. Happy Mother's Day to all you moms. We got most of the flowers and plants from the bulging nursery wagon load from Groff's in the ground in three of my 9 little beds. I'm almost finished with the hanging pots and will soon have the little veggie garden ready to plant with any and all comers. We had stopped on the way back from the nursery and got some  free range fresh eggs from an Amish farm to have with our "blue plate special" breakfast this morning.That lasted right through lunch. Al wants Buffalo Wings tonight, so we'll use a nice gift card we were given to get some for dinner. Stay safe from those crazy storms .

[Diane Amberg]

I'm sure some of you saw the story about the hot air balloon that crashed in VA. It had been built and was piloted by one of ours. Mr.Kirk was very experienced and was up with several other balloons when he lost altitude and drifted across a high line, which set it on fire and dropped the basket.All three occupants were killed. Today is another beautiful day.I'm going back out now to plant a few more flowers before dinner. Don't let all the negative grumps get you down.They can't understand why they are being ignored.

[Diane Amberg]

All the bees got sorted back into a truck that was sent to take what could be saved on their journey up the coast to the Maine blueberry fields.There were about 20 million in 460 hives and about half were saved from the tractor trailer that rolled over getting onto I 95.  Some hives were broken open but many remained intact,just tossed around.The bee keepers in the area are still trying to find some missing queens before the scent trails are lost. It took our fog nozzles and some air guard foam to keep them under control. A few rode back to the fire house on one of our engines. It was much easier to round them up once the sun went down. Honey bees are so scarce now it's a shame to lose any.

[Diane Amberg]

We had a weird srorm come rolling through yesteday afternoon. It split and went north and south of us. Down state had "something" that took a house off it's foundation and made it into a pile of sticks, and a mobile home was rolled into a wrinkled ball of metal. Straight line winds? Micro burst? Tornado? They don't know yet. There was also more, but with lesser damage. Thankfully, no injuries.
Congrats on Tobina's new son, Cord.