Strike Me!

July has been one hot day after another. It's been meltingly hot in a region where air conditioners are few and far between, but at least it's been good for the garden. Caleb has heard me say that so many times he can finish my sentence before I start it!

The heat means a lot of things....uncomfortable working conditions, hot children begging for swimming trips, an increase in fan and Popsicle sales. But most of all, in Prairie Pothole country, it means thunderstorms. Lots of them.

Potholes are the little ponds of water that dot the rolling hills of North Dakota and eastern Montana. Minnesota may be the land of 10,000 lakes, but we're the land of 10,000,000 puddles. All that water sits around with nothing better to do than evaporate and feed huge thunderstorms that roll through later in the afternoon. We've had some nice ones, which has fueled another summer activity...obsessively trying to get lightning shots.

The one time I had my best chance of getting some good pictures I was much too busy trying to make it to safety to care. We were in the middle of a severe thunderstorm warning, with lots of cloud-to-ground lightning when I decided I'd better get back out to my house. The storm seemed to have moved on a little, and I was worried one of my cats might be trapped out on my roof (she does that sometimes).

Stupid move.

Once I left the shelter of town, I was able to observe that I was ringed by VERY active cells which were having lightning strikes several times a minute. Storms aren't so bad in town, but out in the country you quickly become aware that YOU are the tallest thing out there. In fact, one long stretch of the road doesn't even have power poles as decoys. Just you and your little tin foil van with a big "Strike Me" sign taped to the back of it.


That was a storm, but until I got to the shelter of my house there was no way I was stopping to take pictures. However, once I got there, out came the camera! Oh, and the cat was snug inside the house. She's not stupid!

I wasn't about to leave the house, so I had to put up with water drops on the windows and ugly power poles smack in the middle of my shot, but that was a small price to pay to keep from being fricasseed. And it was this storm that finally gave me my first "good" lightning picture. This was taken as another cell rolled in from the south. In about a minute my view was completely obscured as it dumped a waterfall of rain on us, but for a moment I had a good shot.

The weather service was warning of quarter-sized hail, but I didn't think we'd end up with anything the size of quarters.

I was sort of right.

Our hail was even bigger than a quarter. Thankfully it didn't hail much or our garden might have suffered just a bit! 

We've had lots more storms since then, some big, some small. A good thunderstorm can be so refreshing after a sticky-hot day, but I do like it when they behave respectably. Nothing worse than a pushy thunderstorm with no social boundaries.

The VBS Zone

I don't know how it is, but there lurks in the innocent bosom of Vacation Bible Schools the capacity to suck up entire months of your life like some super-absorbent black hole. There you are, innocently strolling through June and suddenly, without warning, it's almost August. You have some vague memory of children singing and some sort of program, but other than that, it's like July disappeared!


We were doing the same program that we did for campmeeting, so there wasn't quite as much work ahead of time as usual. Which is a good thing, because I literally didn't start my main preparations until TWO days before VBS was to start. Every year I have VBS nightmares about waking up on the first day of VBS with no preparations done, but this year came entirely too close to that in my opinion!

In spite of an incredible short-fall of my human effort, God blessed as usual. What worries me is that each year I tend to give a little less preparation time than the year before. If this trend continues, somewhere I'm going to cross the line from faith in God's power to presumption!

I had a great group of helpers, including quite a few teen staff since these kids insist on growing up and all but one of them has aged out of the system. No problem. You turn 13, you're staff now. Tiggy is always a great group leader, and this year the two boys were the leaders of our Manly Craft station. They weren't too thrilled about hemming their masculinity in with crafts, but they pulled through OK, and did a great job in the process.

The theme of our program was "Truth Seekers", a look at how science and archaeology confirm the Bible account. Noni was Super Archaeology Girl, so I got to be the Science Person. I don't hate science, but we don't have a passionate love affair either. But it was fun to do the simple experiments up front each night. Well, that is every night but one.

That was the night we had a guest scientist.

Noni was supposed to do it that night, but she had a migraine. I don't work with fire...hey, I'm the person who was well into her teens before I'd light matches.... but my mom came to help us out because she is a professional. The idea is to take a flammable powder and hold it in your hand. If done correctly, a match can be extinguished in the powder. The lesson is that when we are in God's hands, we are safe, even when  fiery trials come into our lives.After making that point, she always contrasts it with what happens when someone is out of God's hands and confronted with those same fiery trials. A small amount of the powder is dumped over a lit match in her hand. When the powder is air-born, with ample oxygen supplies, it makes a controlled flash explosion always exciting to those who aren't expecting it.

And sometimes to those who are, as it turns out.

We had to get new powder this year because my mom hid hers during the move so no kids could find it and get into themselves into trouble. Now she can't find it either, so she ordered some new stuff off the internet. On the big night, she got up front and did her usual bit.  We're safe in God's hands as the match extinguishes in her hand. But if we're not in God's hands, when trouble comes......

Pht.


She dramatically dumped the powder from her hand, but because of the fans blowing, it dispersed too rapidly and nothing happened. Hmmmmm. That didn't help the lesson any. She tried it again.

Phhhhhht.


A small sizzle, but nothing of the dramatic nature that she was going for. Well, that was easily fixed. Instead of putting a small amount in her hand, she took the entire bottle (which was small, thankfully), prepared to dump until she got the effect she wanted.

SWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!  

I was standing off to the side, so I could still see my mom as she leaned back to escape the wall of flame stretching from her knees to above her head. She jerked the bottle away, but the flame followed her hand in a graceful arc. Sadly, I have no pictures. Even more sadly, I have no video. Not knowing it was going to be anything out of the ordinary, I wasn't prepared. It was all over in a second, but what a memorable object lesson. Not only will the kids always remember about God's powerful protection and being safe in His hands, but the adults will never forget, either!

Clash of the Cold Front

Yesterday we were melting under an smothering blanket of heat. The high was near 100 degrees and it was so humid you had to swim everywhere instead of walking. Blast those men who can strip down far more than is socially appropriate for a modest lady of distinction. But we were promised a respite of cooler temperatures come evening.

Evening came and with it, nothing. We were still melting.

Nonetheless, the weather promised that there was a cold front moving in. We had just finished readying my grandpa for bed. I took a peek out the window and saw bugs, back-lit by the setting sun, buzzing about busily. I had thoughts of the calm before the storm, that oppressive calm filled with simmering energy right before a storm breaks. Then I dropped the curtain and moved to leave the room.

Suddenly, a blast of wind shook the house. It blew the screen off the window facing west and a crash sounded from outside as a tree branch broke off and landed in my parents' yard. Trees were whipping back and forth, dust choked the air, and the temperature, so sticky and overwhelming just a moment before, dropped rapidly. A colossal battle was being fought over our heads by two opposing fronts, one cold and one very, very hot.

Of course, the only thing for us to do was to stand in the yard looking at the tree the limb came off of, then to jump in the car and drive around to look at the weather without any trees or buildings to block our view. No tornadoes, but we did get to see some impressive cloud structures as the cold air chiseled under the large mass of moist air located north-east of town.

I love the weather here. So much fun. Until the tornado comes and sucks you away.

The sunset north-west of town.

The large cloud building as the cold front moves in.

This is the cloud action to the south of town. We were ringed by storms
(we always are, to the sorrow of my mom who wants to see some action
up close). When the sun set, you could see flashes of lightning all around.

The dark pink clouds represent the lower-level cold air
sweeping in under the warm moist air (the white cloud edge).
The pink cloud moved across the sky until in the next picture,
it's now under the white cloud.

Because of the different colored clouds, we could
actually see the fronts moving together and the
cold air being sucked underneath.

Driving Adventures

Right after I got back from campmeeting, I had to make another trip across a state, this time heading east instead of west. I wish I lived in New England where going across a state can take a couple of hours instead of a a whole day, but out here in the west, we believe in SPACE. And people here grow used to making 6-8 hour trips for shopping or medical care---come Christmas you hear people talk of going to Fargo or even Minneapolis to do their Christmas shopping as casually as someone might mention driving to the mall.

I have not grown used to it, but a few more trips across the state and I'll at least be acclimated. Those drives have a way of wearing you into submission!

So anyway, there I was headed to Fargo, a trip of about 7 hours. I had my bags packed for an over-nighter and a cage of motherless kittens in the back. I left at 4 AM so I could arrive on time for my appointment, but half-way there I came smack up against the perpetual curse of summer driving....road construction. As I made my way through one of the towns along the route, traffic suddenly came to a standstill and I found myself behind a large dump truck and a black pickup truck.

We waited there a respectable length of time, then traffic began to move as first the dump truck and then the pickup pulled out and around the.....Frito Lay truck? Why was the Frito Lay truck just parked there in the middle of the road? Maybe its engine stalled or something. Oh, well, at least we were on our way again. I, too, pulled out and around the Frito Lay truck and saw to my horror a long, unbroken line of vehicles, probably 100-150 stretched out before me.

"Why didn't you just pull back in?" people ask me. Because I just didn't, that's why! The dump truck, no doubt part of the construction and radioed to the front, led our impromptu parade past car after car of formerly bored and now very amused drivers. I tried to pull my cloak of invisibility around me, but I think it had a few holes.

When we reached the end of the line and came upon the flagger, he frowned fiercely at us and gestured us onto a side road. I already had my turn signal on, and while the black pickup did a u-turn in order to get back on the road, I grandly pretended I had meant to do that all along and continued driving down the side road. Around here everything is laid out on a grid, so I knew all I had to do was make a right turn at some point and I would find the highway again.

Sure enough, I found a road, followed it, and was back at the highway again. Only to find out that the construction went for miles and I was in the middle of it with no flagger. The only traffic in sight was going the wrong direction. Thankfully, another large truck lumbered by just then and I pulled desperately behind it. As long as I kept on his tail, I knew no one would crash into me. We zigged and we zagged through the construction, crossing lanes and dodging equipment. At one point there was a line of stopped cars going west, in the middle a bunch of west-bound semis whizzing around them, and then in the far lane, our little convoy of two heading east. I never did see any cars going my direction or I gladly would have joined them.

At last we reached the end of the construction and the semi pulled over to dump his load of dirt, no doubt wondering if I would follow him right through his dirt pile. I drove bravely off, trying not to signal any low-flying aircraft with my flaming red face, and resolved not to drive through that town again until I've changed the color on my van.

The rest of the trip was fine and I had fun, but when it was time to return, like the Wise Men of old, I "returned a different way." Highway 3 is lovely this time of year.

Campmeeting!

June came in with a rush of long-postponed preparations. I was helping my sister provide the Primary 1 children's meetings at the Seventh-day Adventist campmeetings in Bozeman, MT. Now, I had never done any campmeeting work before, so I didn't completely know what I was in for, but I knew enough to know that I should have started preparing quite a while back. Alack and alas, I never figure that out until I've already passed the point of "enough time". In fact, it's far behind in my rear view mirror and I'm already rapidly approaching "there's no way".

We were doing a theme of "Truth Seekers", a program about how archaeology and science support the Bible and the literal Genesis account, so I needed to pull both science and biblical archaeology elements into the decorations. I started first with the backdrop for the archaeology room. I was envisioning a stone wall, something a little Indiana Jones-ish. I started with a plain tan sheet (Lesson Learned #1: You need two sheets for the big walls at campmeeting) and went to work with my spray paints.


A half an hour later, the stone wall was taking shape.



Now to add detail with my acrylic paints.....



Voila! Finished. Whew, now if we only had a program ready to go with the awesome stone wall. Making copies and gathering supplies isn't as much fun as painting, but little by little, the program content began to take shape. If only time weren't passing quite so quickly!

I got the basic shapes of all my props painted, and most of them finished with the spray painting before it was time to go. I'd rather have had them completely  finished, but I was out of time. Monday night and time to load up the car for the trip across Montana on Tuesday.

Bozeman, MT is a beautiful place, but unfortunately, someone, through a complete lack of foresight, has put it clear on the opposite side of the state. It takes 8 hours of solid driving to get there, through some very repetitive countryside. But at last we pulled into the driveway of Mount Ellis Academy, found out where our rooms were, and began to unload.

It wasn't until the next day that things in the rooms really began to take shape. The first meeting was Wednesday night, so life became a hurried countdown trying to finish everything by zero hour, but God blessed and we were ready for business by 7:00 PM.Fortunately, that was also the time for the first meeting to begin! Pretty cool how that worked out......

The Archaeology Dig Site, the room where we had Bible story,
History's Mysteries, and the skit using our willing volunteer offspring.

The ancient stone pottery are my favorite pieces,
though I'm also very partial to the scroll.

These pillars were fun to paint...sort of .
I used a board as my template, spraying dark first
and then light.

Each night we had a short skit set in a school room. Devon was
the only believer in Creation and got to present compelling
arguments for his case. Devon and arguing just go together like, well,  like
strawberries and ice cream.

Our science lab where we did activities and had a
science experiment every class. 

With three meetings a day, we barely had time to catch a spare breath, but it was lots of fun. Plus you get free food in the cafeteria. The kids really enjoyed it, and God helped everything to go smoothly, even though we had to make quite a few last second adjustments....like when our helpers and skit actors got stranded all day in Yellowstone with their youth group. They got to see more of Old Faithful than they ever wanted to!

It was bitter-sweet to come to the end of our time there in Bozeman, but I was ready for a break. Not so our attendees who kept saying they wished campmeeting were longer. All summer even. Are you trying to kill me!? I think 4 days is PLENTY! I glad we got the opportunity, and I'd definitely do it again. In a few decades when I'm rested up again.

Super Stealth Ninjas Die Young

Seriously, I am getting too old for this. I need my sleep. ALL of it!!!! See, after the Memorial Day Concert I randomly decided to stop off at the ol' Cat Shed of Loose-Moraled Felines and see how the young mothers were growing. My current evil plot is to kidnap mothers when they are just about to pop, force them to live in well-fed safety while raising tame babies that can be given away to loving homes of luxury. Did I mention the forced sterilization before the victims are allowed to go free? How low can I go? So I've been keeping tabs on some of the local watermelon-shaped ladies.

But when I walked in, I beheld a box full of beautiful, approx. 3-week old kittens. Their mother  (a kitty I had never met up to that point) had fled at my approach and I was left with a quick decision of leaving them and possibly having her move them, or taking them right then. I chose to kidnap them, but with the hope of capturing their mom and reuniting them at a later date.

Thus I descended a twilight haze of frenzied, futile activity for a day and a half. That crafty mother refused to cooperate with every single trap I set. Like a gambler caught in uncontrollable fever, I crept about town with my traps and bait, sure that I'd get her if I tried only one more time. I really did want to catch her because her babies missed her very much and I don't have the time to take on the feeding of a batch of kittens right at the moment. The clock was ticking, as her milk supply would run dry if she was away from her babies for too long.

At last I had to concede defeat.  

Right after I tried one last time.

I assembled a team of crack special ops (Motto: We Put the "Special" in Ops) consisting of Damon, Caleb, Tiggy, myself, and my mom. The idea was to creep up to the shed in the twilight and simultaneously cover all exits. Then I would GO INSIDE.

It worked great...except one of the exits didn't quite get covered and a torrent of skittish cats poured out of the shed. So much for that. There was no way she'd come back after now! I had to give up.

After I tried just once more.

 In an hour and a half.

At midnight.

The alley we spent a great deal of
time skulking around in last night.

Hungry kittens were locked in a kitty carrier and put in the shed, like a goat staked out in the jungle as a tiger trap. The special forces then played a few bleary-eyed games of rack rummy before we headed out again. I had plugged the hole in the floor before we left, so now all we had to do was cover the two windows and hold the door shut. Silently we parked the van and prepared to disembark. Quietly we started the van back up again and returned to mom's house for the flashlight an anonymous member of the team (let's call her "Wiggy") had thoughtlessly carried inside after the last attempt. Silently we parked down the street again, and walked up the hill in the dark. Using hand signals, we flawlessly executed our agreed-upon plan. I crept in next to the shed, being careful not to snap any twigs in the process---might as well have saved myself the effort because my knees popped loudly and unceasingly as I moved forward in a crouch.

A white, cat-shaped blur whizzed past me in the dark.

Oh, phooey.

"Tiggy, hold the door quickly!" I already had the window covered so I lowered the board a crack to check with my flashlight, sure we'd lost her again. Amazing miracle--there she was inside, right next to the "goat".

"Damon, move up quickly and cover your window." Poor Damon--all he had brought to use was a pillow. Somewhat of a tactical error, as events would prove. The cats shifted about nervously inside. I handed over holding the window to Mom and Caleb and prepared to GO INSIDE. I had on a poofy jacket and thick gloves as armor. My support gear was the flashlight. My weapon of choice was a towel. .

I'M GOING IN!!!!!

What happened next has been mercifully blurred in memory. Or maybe it was just blurred as it happened. Time after time I tossed the towel, several times grabbing a bit of her, but having to release her when her business end got pointed in the direction of parts I had every intention of keeping. She made several fierce assaults on the windows, hitting plywood on one side and a soft, yielding pillow on the other.

The shredded window where
Damon fought his noble battle.

Hmm, which window would she choose? Well, I already told you Mama Cat is smart, so it should be no surprise that she went with "soft" and "yielding"...and nearly made it out, too, but Damon bravely held the line and I was able to grab her by the hind legs and pull her back in. I used the hind legs, because that's all that was left inside as Damon faced down one biting mouth and two slashing paws with nothing but his bare hands and determination. Damon put the "Ops" in Special!

I finally got the towel solidly around her, Tiggy put the kitty carrier up to the door and I popped her inside. Then the babies, one terrified mother, and I hightailed it back to my house, while the special ops team was abandoned by the roadside and left to hoof it back to base camp. The poor mother was understandably traumatized by her ordeal and spent the night and part of the next morning crouched in the bathtub with her head shoved up inside a tupperware. (Motto: If I Can't See You, You Can't See Me) But at last she calmed down enough to get in the box with her babies, and mother and children are at this very moment purring away together.

Noni told us later that she'd had a special prayer that, if it was God's will, we'd be able to catch her that night and, since we'd failed at every attempt before, that it would be obvious that God was the one who gave us our success. I have to say, God certainly answered that prayer. We were more Keystone cops than warriors, but in spite of all that we were still able to succeed. I'm so grateful for His help and for the good-spirited cooperation of all those that I kept dragging out in my quest to capture the mama cat.

And if anyone saw a brown van, full of suspicious characters and creeping up dark alleys, at say, 11:00 last night, it was probably your imagination.

I have more cuteness than you!

Snapshots from the Edge

Once again, I have been mugged by spring. Not by allergies, but by the sudden influx of tasks that had sat safely and quietly on a shelf for the last 6 months. Suddenly there are lawns to be mowed, weeds to be pulled, plants to be coddled, dirt to be swept....and that's just my work for other people. Then I get to go home and do it all over again for me. Life has become one desperate race against an ever-shrinking 24 hours.

So to catch my faithful readers up quickly, I will synop-size the last month and a half into a short photo essay.....

In April I........

Made a heavenly mansion out of a refrigerator  box
for my Sabbath School.

Here is the finished mansion, sparkly, albeit rather....boxy.

I took a cleanse for my health and outrageously cheated during it,
but I've never eaten so many fruits and veggies in my life.
And I'm a vegetarian!

I adopted a new little stray kitten. What's one more
in the family, anyway?

In May I..............

Enjoyed the spring flowers.

Had a distemper outbreak that put 4 of my cats
in the "isolation" ward.

Got the coolest piece of furniture at the thrift
store and repainted it. (This IS the
repainted version, so don't be insulting!)

Went birthday camping at Lake Skjermo with Caleb.

Saw a mother fox and her two babies right next
to this very fox den. Just before I took the picture.
Isn't that exciting?

Planted a zillion seedlings and nurtured them.
Why do I over-plant EVERY year?
(This photo only shows a fraction of my green extravagance.)

Was reminded that there is some benefit to being awake to see the sun rise!