Freezing Rain
Yesterday was a beautiful day....warm, in the 60's with the sun shining brightly.  That's a very good thing too because on Monday (Feb. 19, 2013) the house "next" door, the big white house behind the church was demolished in a wind anomoly: News Flash: is a link to our local news on the day of the storm..  All of us here, Mike and Mike2 and me watched the wind pass by our house.  It was really strong.  Mike, who is on crutches still from his broken leg six weeks ago was just getting ready to take a shower.  He changed his mind when the wind started whipping up outside and made his way toward the livingroom.  Sonny and I were in the kitchen talking about how dark it just had gotten outside when the noise started...and we talked briefly about whether or not the sound was hail...but the strong winds were short lived and by the time Mike got here and Sonny and I finished our conversation, the little storm was gone.  The clock on the oven said 2:46.  Our electricity blinked off and looking out the kitchen window I could see that outside, a lot of branches were down and the back yard full of debris.  Without electricity, we could not finish cooking dinner...meatloaf and baked potatoes--since the power was not immediately restored.  We left the supper in the oven and the cupcakes Sonny had been making stayed on the counter waiting until we would be able to use the oven again,

Outside, cardboard and branches had blown into the woods from off the burn pile.  The guttering that Gary removed from the house to make the repairs after our snow storm disappeared from my view because it had blown across the yard.  I didn't see that the chicken cage had blown end over end , but one of the chickens got out and came into the garage...which caused me to notice.  I had put the chickens up into the coop earlier because it looked like rain and I didn't want to have to go out and get wet if it was still raining when it was time to put them up later.  When I got outside I realized that the coop was overturned, the nests upside down and that the other two chickens were still inside unable to figure out how to get out.  I don't know how the third chicken got out and into the garage.  Maybe she blew. I have not heard yet whether it was actually a tornado or if it was a sustained wind gust that blew up in our yard and across behind the church and obviously to the Thornton's house behind. While Sonny and I were outside uprighting the chicken's coop, Cynthia, our insurance agent, pulled up into the yard and said, "I heard on the scanner that the house next to Hickory Grove Baptist Church was deomolished and thought that it was you, but everything looks fine here."

That's when we walked over to the edge of the yard and saw that the house to the East behind the church was completely toppled.  We walked over to the church and were told that everyone was out of the house...five or six people and that only one was hurt, a son-in-law who'd been in the shower one minute then found himself outside in the yard the next.  An ambulance came and took him to the hospital in Hot Springs.  Our electricity didn't come back on.  Entergy said that they hoped to get it back on by 7 in the evening...but when I called at 7 they said it would be two a.m.  We decided that we would start up our gasoline generator so we could have a light and the tv.  Sonny lit a fire in the fireplace so it was warm even though the temperature dropped to nearly freezing in the night.  When I called at midnight they said the lights would not be back on until 5 a.m.  The power was finally restored the next morning a little after 5am.  Finally we could finish baking the cupcakes!

Lots of the people who live in Bismarck came to help on Monday and again yesterday.  I hope the Thornton family we able to save their belongings!  Today little clean up would be possible.  It's too cold and wet.  It's freezing, and raining with some sleet in the rain and the spitting raindrops freeze as soon as they hit the ground.  Icy.  I went out and put the chickens up in their coop and covered part of it hoping it helps them to keep warm and out of the wind.  I fed them and fed the dogs and brought the cat in.  I drove to Bismarck and got milk and bread in case tomorrow we are not able to get out on the highway.  The daffodils are blooming outside along my back fence and I imagine that they will die back some from the cold.  So will the camelias blooming on the bush outside my kitchen window.  I hope the peach tree and pear tree survive all right and I am glad I did not plant my garden outside yet.

Zoey celebrated her 5th birthday on February 15, 2013

Mike and I went to Little Rock for his last doctor's appointment on the 25th of last month.  The first thing they did was remove his cast...then he had x-rays taken so that when we saw Dr. Nicholas he finished removing the staples from Mike's scar, checked the x-rays and the surgery and told him that he was making exemplary progress, then sent him him with just his knee brace, no cast and told him he would not need to return for a couple of months.  His next appointment is set for March...after the Pipeline Reunion in Shreveport that I am planning to go to (March 7-9) hoping to see my Dad and several of my brothers and their families.  I will make a definite plan about that later.  Mike is still progressing nicely from his broken leg. He is not supposed to bend it or put weight on it because the Doctor said that he needs more time to heal and for his bones to knit a bridge.  He has been going wherever he wants on his crutches, but I don't really think he will want to go to Shreveport to the Diamond Jack casino there.  We'll see.  Today when I went to get milk in Bismarck he offered to go...and said he would drive!