Storm and the Aftermath

Good Sunday to All!

I am feeling good today! Praise God and praise all my wonderful friends and prayer warriors for praying.  This is going to be a good week filled with an adventure or a blessing around every corner.

Saturday night we had a welcome thunder storm.  I am so thankful for the drenching rain.  I am from California though and lightening, thunder and high winds still scare me.  The lightening struck something really close to the house and sounded like a gunshot in the house.  The power went out soon thereafter and it was warm in the house so I opened my bedroom window and lay and listened to the cracks of thunder and the pitter-pat of rain drops on the fig tree leaves outside my window.  We had a casualty.  One of the curly willow trees was blown over but it did not damage anything.

I had to perform a chicken rescue at about 2am. The winds were howling and rain was blowing sideways. I went to check on Whitey and Cleopatra who are now residing in my backyard and roost up on the shelf above the gas grill. They were babies in May and it has not rained since May. We have not had a storm since they left the protective cocoon of their cage in the garage.  Poor Whitey had her little head up under Cleopatra and was shivering and blinking her eyes really quickly at me so I assumed she wanted to be rescued.  I snatched her off of the shelf and took her into my tack room and placed her gently on a planting cart.  I had the brilliant idea to try to rescue Cleopatra who is a Fayoumis chicken. She is not cuddly like Whitey who is an Americauna.  She pecked me when I tried to rescue her so she was allowed to brave the storm without my blessing! I am still afraid of chickens who peck me. 

Chicken Breed History:
The Fayoumi is a very old breed of chicken native to an area of Egypt southwest of the Nile called the Faium Governorate. They have been raised in that area since B.C. They were first imported to the west in the 1940's by a professor from the University of Iowa.

Will and Daulton spent all day yesterday treasure hunting and came away with pull tabs, coins, fishing weights and bottle caps.  A big haul.  I am currently trying to clean the corrosion off of the coins. I am trying Dawn dishwashing liquid, vinegar and baking soda.  Does anyone else have any ideas of something that removed corrosion?  I went to the creek for awhile and watched them.  They were using snorkels and diving masks and said that Boston the dog alerted them by being on the shore and barking and they looked and a water moccasin snake aka cotton mouth (venemous) was swimming across the water.  I am still unclear about whether or not it was swimming towards or away but Will (Johnny Ranger) was on the shore when I arrived attempting to smash the snake with a large brick.  He said it was nearly as large around as a soda can and about 5-6 feet long.  They can be aggressive in the spring time but it went and hid after he tried to smash it under a shoreline tree. He is much braver than I am.  I was nervous sitting on the shore watching them knowing there was a large snake somewhere in the water.