Awesome pic!

 

I don't remember there ever being a tornado in winter before, but last Thursday we had 2 here in Genesee County and 2 more next-door in Shiawassee County. The closest of the 4 tornadoes that day was less than 4 miles away from my house. This has me wondering what's going to happen when tornado season gets here. Tornado season is also riding season, and there's been one tornado I know of that wiped out the northern half of Mio Trail. There have been other tornadoes in that area too. On the 3rd of July, 1999 an F3 tornado went right through the middle of Comins Township just east of there and destroyed buildings along a path several miles long. That might be the time we were all stuck in a hailstorm on Mio Trail but I thought it was years later. Everyone pulled over and tried to hide under tree branches while we were pelted with hail over 1/2" diameter for several minutes. When it was over the low spots in the trail were full of water and hailstones. When I drove through them it washed piles of hail up on the berms. It was really weird seeing ice all over the place in summer.

 

I enjoy a good ole thunder storm but not tornadoes. Been in 5 over my lifetime and have been able to walk away from all 5. Dont need my luck to run out so I watch carefully when conditions are ripe. I wont be out on the trails if there is severe weather on the horizon, rather live to ride another day. However a good ole thunderstorm with knarly clouds, some wind and rain are very interesting to watch. Should have been a stotm chaser I guess, just need a heavier duty vehicle than my UTV!!

 

Thinking spring here!!

 

Yep. It officially started at 5:58 pm yesterday.

 

Yes and I'm already celebrating!!

 

I thought I heard fireworks yesterday, but around here gun shots are more likely, so I don't know.

 

It wasn't me....I celebrate by screaming out the back door, never a gun or fireworks My neighbors accept me doing this every spring! lol

 

It snowed just a tiny bit in the wee hours of the morning. It only halfway covered the top of my truck and trailer if it was even that much. It was still there at 7:00 but by 9:00 it was gone and there were just water drops on my truck. The deck of my trailer will dry out eventually, maybe next month.

It's supposed to get up around 60 degrees next Thursday and Friday but might rain 6 days a week. That's when you know spring is here to stay. Get out there and whoop it up.

 

ICE!? My indoor turtle pond pump went on the frets last night, so I went out before daybreak to swap/borrow the outdoor pond pump to replace it with, but to my surprise it was frozen, in 2 feet of ''solid'' rock hard ice!! The dry turtle pond basking area is 25' dia., 2' deep, that was dug out way back when kids were little, for a swimming pool, that finally went through its last pool liner (6 in all) leaving us to rip it out, leaving this huge crater in the back yard....hence....the turtle pond! lol The actual turtle pond that has the ice, is just a small 5' oval that is dug down another 2' or a total 4' below ground level, so how is that still frozen, that deep below ground, when everything else has been thawed out for almost a week already?? Does this mean that we have permafrost 4' deep everywhere? lol Remember in history class how frozen lk Erie was sawed into big heave blocks, before electrical refrigerated freezers? and how those were kept frozen for summer ice. or like in ww2 how our government was building an aircraft carrier out of blocks of ice, since torpedoes couldn't penetrate its hull. so i'm thing that I could serve cold drinks all summer long, saving on high electric bill, having to run window air conditioner all summer long! Just hope our company won't mind a little pond poop in the bottom of their glass lol I really think I'm onto something here! lol Need ice? How about a cold drink? Hey Ken I'll bring the block of ice next trip lol