What does August mean?
Rally time....
What does Rally Time mean?
Bikers!
What always comes with bikers?
Storms! All Week and nearly all are tornadic!!!
Our biggest ones this year were August 7th (1st Sunday of Rally) when we had around golf ball sized hail (common for back home but rare up here in the Hills).
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| It was hammering down! |
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| from the gutter |
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| tractors are tough |
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| Brrrrr |
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| in the eves like snow |
We had filled the garage with garage sale stuff and a ping pong table so the van was in the driveway :(
Shellhammer's Windshield Cracked
Our awesome garden was hammered but surprisingly most everything still lived!
Plants from Grandma T....
Our Garden...
A little flooding....
The kids always enjoy collecting the hail and eating some and throwing some and freezing some.
Our next major producing storm was the last day of rally and was an amazing Supercell with a perfect shelf and multiple points of rotation. The city blew the tornado sirens but the storm was moving so fast and they were so baffled that it had already passed over town by the time they were blown. THEN normal tornado sirens are a constant undipping blare, this one was a drunken goofy sounding siren which sounded identical to our noon siren blown daily. So naturally everyone went OUTSIDE to try to figure out what was going on. Obviously I was already out on the deck taking pictures and telling Wayne how perfect the system was and pointing out all the dynamics and points of ratoation. It looked VERY SIMILAR to the system that produced the tornado that derailed the train and caused damage all over Kearney in 2009. By the time the siren blew the boys and Wayne were already ducking and covering in the basement reading books.
A few other close tornadic storms in August.....
August 1st...
August 5th....
During Rally week we decided to get out one last time before football started up and attempt to find some temporary peace and quiet away from the constant rumble of bikes. Don't get me wrong, its a very unique and awe-inspiring sound...... for the first day and a half.
We took a road trip down to Deerfield Lake where Ken and Gayle and some of their friends were camping. On the way down going through the scenic hills we did come across one biker sitting sideways across the highway on his bike at the edge of Nemo (I think it was). Good thing we were only going 25mph at the time! This is just one example of why it can be trying to make it through the week and a half long overpopulated takeover of an otherwise somewhat different way of life for the area. Manners are often forgotten, distractions run high and general chaos erupts. Accident, death, fights and shootings were down this year though, but as were the attendee numbers. Expected of a recession and where it can be nice for the sanity, its heck for the local economy.
Back to Deerfield......
We also had our friend Carrie Reynolds Lent come stay with us after her brother raced his dirt-bike at the Jackpine Gypsie Flat-track in Sturgis. We got into the spirit of the culture and went and watched. There were multiple age groups, variations and heats, some out there were as young as 4 YEARS OLD!!!!!
It was pretty impressive and we had a lot of fun.
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| doesn't he look like he needs a daughter? |
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| Zach didn't quite make it to the end. |
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| picnic lunch on the bleachers |
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| the 4 year old's bike |
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| and they're out |
