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+--- Thread: Win some, lose some... (/thread-12798.html)
- hotwine - 07-20-2002
We've got a big grounding rod for the house, and that probably protected us. But the cable and phone lines are not protected, so I've got to fix that vulnerability pretty quick.
I was in the sunroom, which overlooks the back yard, and had just turned from watching the downpour to go to the wine cooler in the laundry room (it was 1500, after all), when the bolt hit... so I missed seeing it in action. Although these storms have produced torrential rains, most have been quiet. That one was certainly an exception.
I've got a healthy respect for lightning. Recall back during field training in the Army, when we'd be caught out in the open by a thunderstorm, we'd disperse as though for an artillery strike, and squat down low with our weapons flat on the ground. They were easy enough to clean later in the shower. We never had a strike, but heard horror stories of outfits that did.
Still haven't talked to the ranch foreman; scuttlebutt has it that we had 10 inches down there early in the week.....
- Bucko - 07-20-2002
I was an intern at Bragg when a lightning strike brought a bunch of troops in. They huddled under a tree when a rainstorm started -- wrong idea......
- hotwine - 07-20-2002
Eeeow. No kiddin'.
- wondersofwine - 07-22-2002
HW, send us some rain in eastern North Carolina. Please!
- hotwine - 07-22-2002
Hmmm, I'm checkin' the ol' crystal ball here, Wow, and there seems to be a tropical storm in your future....
- hotwine - 07-22-2002
mutter, mutter....Just discovered that the lightning strike last week also claimed our ancient deep freeze. It's in auto-defrost, and it doesn't have that feature. There's at least 100 lb of beef in there, plus the usual baby-backs, chickens, fish, etc., so I've laid big bags of ice over everything and ordered a new upright by phone from Lowe's. muttermuttermutter.... I may have to get both pits goin' tonight or tomorrow.
- winedope1 - 07-22-2002
love to take some of it off your hands, Hotwine. I'm sure all of us in the Northeast would love to use the barbeques while we have the chance !!
- winoweenie - 07-22-2002
The fire is burning brite here in the desert . WW
- Drew - 07-23-2002
We're starting to get desert here in Maryland...hows that rain dance/chant go WW?
Drew
- hotwine - 07-23-2002
Most of the meat still seems firm. Received the new freezer this morning and will transfer the meat shortly. Finally talked to the foreman this morning, and he said the ranch only received 12 inches last week, and the cattle all came through just fine. Good news. Had been worried about the little fellas.
- winedope1 - 07-23-2002
good to hear that the critters are ok, Hotwine !! : )
- Bucko - 07-23-2002
Moo ahhhh!! [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/wink.gif[/img]
- hotwine - 07-23-2002
Thanks, WD. We've got a good calf crop, and would sure hate to lose any. The mature animals can climb out of the way of rising water (usually), but new-borns have to struggle. The mother cows must have led 'em to safety in plenty of time, encouraged by the hired hands.
That old creek could sure tell us the tales, and they would begin with stories of the wines that have been made from the mustang grapes that are so abundant along its banks; I've got some that I've been nursin' now since 1980. And after a rise, there will nearly always be an arrowhead or two appear along the sandy banks, and sometimes other stone tools - and once, part of a mastodon's jawbone containing three teeth. Really a fascinating place. But the pockets of quicksand can be kind of tricky when a fellow gets all engrossed in fly-fishing, and doesn't pay attention to what's happening. Then there's the cottonmouths....
- winedope1 - 07-23-2002
I'm packin my digging tools and my steel toed boots ....
- winoweenie - 07-24-2002
Think that may have been one of my college loves. Did one of the teeth have a gold-crown? WW
- wondersofwine - 07-24-2002
My grandfather had a nice collection of arrowheads found in Nebraska. He had them arranged and framed and they are hanging in my mother's enclosed back porch in Lincoln.
One uncle on my father's side went fossil hunting in his younger days with the noted author Loren Eiseley and Bertrand Schultz who later headed Morrill Hall (museum of natural history at University of Nebraska) and was a consultant to James Michener on paleontology for the novel "Centennial." (Dr. Schultz was also a professor at the University I believe). Morrill Hall has some nice woolly mammoth or mastodon remains--not sure which and also impressive dinosaur bones.
- hotwine - 07-24-2002
The jawbone fragment was found by my late father-in-law at the base of a bluff, downstream from two large prehistoric campsites. We figure the critter was driven off the bluff and butchered where it fell. I've found a couple of "Clear Fork" tools there, which indicates the site is indeed ancient, and dates to at least 5,000 B.C.
Sorry, W.D., but no diggin' is allowed. We pick up what we find on the surface, but we don't excavate. The boots would be handy, though, if a cottonmouth were to slither between your feet, like happened to me a few years back; was emptyin' my old .32 Colt at him when I realized I could be blowin' off a big toe. Fortunately, he just went on about his business. Brother-in-law got in the same predicament a while back though and managed to crease his leg with his .44. We're just a laugh a minute.
[This message has been edited by hotwine (edited 07-24-2002).]
- Kcwhippet - 07-24-2002
hotwine,
Just saw this - http://news.mysanantonio.com/story.cfm?xla=saen&xlc=766063
Kind of the down side to all that rain. I can't say that I've ever had a Chard from Texas, so I don't know if this a good thing or a bad thing.
- hotwine - 07-24-2002
I saw that article this morning in the San Antonio Express-News. As far as the Chardonnay goes, it's no great loss, except to the growers. I don't know of anyone who actually drinks the stuff. But it's a good indication of the troubles facing ag businesses across the board - after 18 days of heavy rain, a lot of crops began rotting in the fields, and many are still there, because the ground is too soft to support machinery for harvest and hauling. So the state ag officials will be a while assessing the damages from this one. Some ranchers due south of SA haven't even found all of their livestock yet.
- winedope1 - 07-24-2002
bummer about the diggin, but it would be fun just to look at the geography and geology. I feel so bad about the loss of critters and crops. Will there be any sort of relief/aid program set up ?