Flood Pictures

Dh was driving over the bridge, that's the river almost to the top of the bridge!

More Flood Pictures

There have been a lot of on lookers, shocked most probably, it's amazing how fast the water came up.

Target and Walmart under water. We were promised by our city officials that this wouldn't happen if Target and Walmart were allowed to build in the flood plain - the theory was they dug a hole somewhere to offset the water issues. I argued the whole way that this was a load of horse apples it would flood again and would be worse, and I was right we have water in our basement which we DIDN"T have in 1993!!! That's how much the flood plain is now screwed up.

This is our local Target, and what used to be the parking lot.

Well it's amost 6 pm here and the water is still rising! Yesterday this was a corn field. To the left where the tree line is is the river, about 500 yards away.

Don't Do This!!!

More people driving through the flood waters.

Flood Waters

There used to be soccer fields here - Iowa State University property. The river is about 500 yards, or more, from the road in this shot. The news is now stating that this IS as bad as the flood of 1993 now.

It's Flooding Here

The water was really close to the road, the river is back a ways in this shot, about 100 yards

The guy driving the bus is my husband John! I can't believe people were driving through the water, what you don't see here is the river is about 175 yards to the right and down about 15 feet, well normally it is anyway!

The water is rising fast and it's really high! It's about where it was in 1993. In the half hour that Brenda and I were gone for lunch the water came up and covered most of the road we had been previously driving on.

Dangerous Waters

Don't try this at home kids! People were actually driving through the flood waters, the water covering the road (facing north across the intersection) came up in ;ess than a half hour. The guy in the bus is my husband John.

A River Runs Through It!!!

Here's a shot of the flood waters here in Ames at lunch this afternoon!!! I can hear the helicopters going overhead most are news choppers but I'm sure FEMA is here accessing the damage as well. We only got 3.54 inches of rain, it's all of the rain from up north, however, that is causing the most damage here.

Wonder Under

I've been playing with some painted wonder under, really it's been a struggle, and it won't iron to the fabric. I'm thinking it may be past it's prime and if I had my camera cable I'd download the images now! I was able to get a small portion to stick to my cotton fabric, but the foil wouldn't stick the Wonder Under, I even tried unpainted WU and no dice.

Fabric in the Bucket!!!

I pulled the fabric out of the bucket, finally it had stopped raining long enough for me to retrieve it, and washed it yesterday. If you remember this is fabric I didn't even know I had put out for rusting ;-)

Today's Word

Colossians 4:2 - 6

Star of Bethlehem

Photographed this beauty at a friends house this afternoon.

Leaf Pile

Ok I went and took a picture of the leaf pile because it just looks so cool! John is outside making gates for my compost bins as I write.

Rhubarb

So yesterday dh weeded my rhubarb and we decided that we'd make some rhubarb jam this morning. Well that didn't pan out as someone had made off with about half of my rhubarb plants, I'm still pissed off about this. There have been a LOT of things disappearing out of our lawn of late, pots, flowers, grapevines and now my rhubarb.

Sky Shots

I'm too tired to care right now see my other blog Survival Kitchen to see why! So here's a shot of of yesterday's sky for today's post. There were tornado's north of here yesterday, and entire town lost not good.

Leaf Pile

I'm too tired to walk out and photograph the leaf pile now, it's been a LONGGGGG day shoveling etc., but here's what it looks like to scale of the truck. Tomorrow, if it's dry enough, we will shred it and incorporate it into the compost pile. Rumor has it it's going to rain here again. John and I moved the pile from the back yard to the drive way and spred it out to dry up some.

Finished - Compost Bins

And they are about half full, full of horse apples that is! We picked up a truck full, just over a half ton, and with the help of our neighbor Carol, got it mixed in with some shredded leaves etc., it should be ready for this fall's garden applications.

Surfacing Sunday

This is this weeks piece for Surfacing Sunday - a Surface Design group I belong to. Because of the bad weather I'm not getting much done so this week it was paint. I'm thinking of cutting it up and making it into a garden piece.

Vintage Hankies

I picked these three hankies up for a dollar a piece and the buttons for two dollars at a local antiques mall yesterday. The pink floral one is really soft.

Blackberry Leaf

There are thorns going up the stem of the blackberry leaves!

Transplants

I transplanted mullien and milkweed from the neighbors lawn they are doing quite well.

Shade Garden Plants

I'm not sure what this plant is but it lives in my shade garden and spreads via little runners.

New Compost Bins

John is making new compost bins for me, three of them so I can sort if I want. Due to severe weather it will have to look like this until tomorrow!

Severe Weather

Well my rusted fabric endeavors have been cut short due to severe weather - will update tomorrow that's if we don't get blown away.

Found Rusted Fabric

Dh has been on me to empty some hanging buckets on the side of my garden shed, these are old decorative metal buckets and they had quite a bit of water in them - sure to become a home to a new mosquito population. So imagine my suprise when I found fabric rusting away in the bottoms! I'm thinking it's two year old fabric, seersucker variety. The first photo is kind of blurry, sorry about that!

I didn't remove the fabric tonight, will work on that tomorrow, because we were still working on the yard - dejunking. I'm curious to see what it looks like, it had leaves and all sorts of stuff in the bucket along with.

One lone blossom

I found one lone blossom had opened on my clematis vine out front the color of the blossoms is different every year and I'm not sure why.

Cool Weather

I still have to go out and plant rhutabegas and beets this afternoon and there are a lot of weeds to be pulled already, imagine that!!! I'll have to post a pic of my least favorites later this evening, but this one in particular Virginia Water Leaf is the bane of my existance, garden wise, it's a native but it's taking over everything.

Dh has the next four days off, it's going to be a major push to get the other garden spot uncovered and planted, it currently has a lot of construction stuff planted there.

Something New - Ads

I'm trying out Googles AdSense on this site and if it works out well then I will expand to my other blogs. Right now I'd just love to know how to make content specific Google Ads, I'm thinking I'm not to "brilliant" when it comes to reading the help sections. Oh well, onward as they say.

Updating

I've been spending a lot of time in the garden lately, not much studio work is being done. Today I spent some time updating my blogs and my links list.

Today

I didn't get the freezer addressed but that's ok John has Friday off from work, a four day weekend together he plans to take the new photos of the iceberg to the dealer to see about getting it fixed properly. It's still under warranty so why fight the thing, and I suspect because he's a guy that he'll be able to get the job done right this time.

I spent most of the day updating blogs and have applied for AdSense with Google, could be interesting. The rest of the evening was spent cleaning the kitchen, pulling out the fridge and vacuuming behind it, something that should be done at least once a decade right???

We did decide on putting hte maple flooring in the kitchen, will have to take a picture of the bare plywood, and I'll paint it whence it's in. I've plans to paint the floor in a black and white pattern. the walls will be painted Medici White ~ Sherwin Williams Paint, and the cabinets lettuce green, an nice soft green color ~ Dutch Boy Paint, and the ceiling Friendly Yellow ~ Sherwin Williams.

And since I didn't spend any time in the garden today here's a picture of last years marigolds, which turned out quite pretty.

Peacock Feather

Today's Inspiration!

Silk Cloth 3

This is my cochineal sack cloth, silk chiffon, I filled it with cochineal bugs and used it repeatedly to create red dyebaths over the span of two months. This is how the fabric looks untied.

Garden Day 2

Dh whose rather bothered by my need to snap his photo, he was stretching chicken wire onto little posts to, hopefully, keep the rabbits and stray dogs out of my garden.

Bell Peppers in front of the cattle panels, there will be pole beans growing on the panels and hopefully soon! The area right in front of the peppers I plan to fill with rhutabegas (sp?), beets, and turnips.

Some tomatoes, I've put coffee cans around them to protect them from the high winds we get during the spring and from birds, which love snapping off the young plants. To the left of the tomato cages are cattle panels on end I've planted pole beans, Kentucky Wonder and Blue Lake, around the perimeter of the garden.

Mystery Bundle

It's in the washer now who knows what it'll look like when it's done! The fabric is silk chiffon.

Wild Flowers

I've been spending a lot of time in the woods of late, getting inspiration, photo journaling the native plants throughout the seasons. When I'm not in the woods I've been in my garden, it's starting to warm up here and we are in the throes of creating a new compost pile - just in time for dye season!

You can see what I've been up to at my nature blog Thistle Quill, and over at my home blog Survival Kitchen and of course some artwork pieces on my art blog

Wood Anemone and Blue Violets

Freezer Issues

I've had the upright plugged in for about six weeks now, and it needs defrosting already. The repairman has informed me that it does NOT need a new seal it's my issue! I've plans for a meeting with his employer tomorrow! It's bad enough my 50 year old freezer died and took a quarter beef with it but dealing with this three year old freezer is just insane!

Cherry Tree in Bloom

Beans Beans and More Beans

I'm off to set up my panels and plant pole beans, more pictures later!

Some Plants

Baby purple cabbage plants - hey I'm a childless wonder so every plant is officially a baby!

Jerusalem Artichokes coming up everywhere, very yummy to eat btw.

Leeks they winter over here really well.

Garlic that is in desperate need of thinning.

Garden Scenes

A view from my porch my two gardens are pretty well shaded making a lot of vegetables a real challenge to grow.

Garlic, leeks, onions, summer herbs, tomatoes and purple cabbages in the east garden.

Mullien, Phlox, Blue Vervain, Plantain, Bee Balm and Echnicia

Creeping thyme, bloodroot, solomon's seal, false solomon's seal, and some other plant that have no idea what it is and can't seem to get rid of!

I'm trying to make the most of my law, here is my butterfly garden that also doubles as a native prairie plant and medicinal garden.