Idaho Tornado

On Tuesday, June 21st, my husband and I were walking out to the garden to check on some gopher traps.  My husband looked towards the East and told me to look.  He exclaimed that what we were looking at was indeed a tornado.  Now, in our little town in Idaho, that is something you don't see every day.  In fact, in the 60+ years of my husband living here (with the exception of years missed from serving a mission in England and college), he has never, ever, seen one.
I told him I was heading to the house to get my camera and he told me I'd better run because it would probably disappear fast.  R.U.N.!  Was he serious?!  But, in a round-about-way, I did run to the house, if you want to call it running.
After getting my camera, I did not go back to the garden area but headed to the fence in our backyard and took my photos from there.  Amazing, really something amazing to see.  It was approximately 15-18 miles from our home but it was large enough that it gave me the opportunity to get a few photos before disappearing back into the sky. 
You can go HERE, if you would like to watch the news footage that someone else in the area captured on video.  Their footage was coming from a different angle and the tornado looked white,  whereas our view showed us a much darker tornado.

 

Bird Eggs....Everywhere

My friend told me a few weeks ago about a bird that built a nest under the hood of their truck.  She found the eggs because she had noticed a bird that kept flying out from under the truck.  When she  opened truck hood, this is what she saw....4 eggs nestled down inside.

The bird eggs actually traveled around to different locations.  Eventually, they hatched and when my friend looked under the hood, she saw the little baby birdies with their mouths open.  Later when she checked, sad to say, the little babies were all dead and she had to clean them out.
I made a visit to that same friends home approximately one week ago, where she showed me another nest filled with eggs that a bird had built inside their outdoor BBQ grill. When we opened the grill, a tiny bird flew out. I took a picture of the nest and all the little eggs were nestled deeply among twigs and feathers.

My friend removed some of the feathers which made it possible to get a better photo.

After taking pictures, we put feathers back around the eggs and left them.  We had no idea what kind of eggs were in the BBQ so after returning home I decided to get on the internet to search out the eggs.  I knew it was a small bird and with the pictures, I knew the size and color of the eggs.  Upon searching it out, I believe that the eggs belong to a House Wren.

I was talking on the phone with my friend today and she said the eggs are still there, which puts her in a bit of a dilemma.  Next week she has a large group of people coming to her home and they are going to have a BBQ.  Another neighbor and myself offered our BBQs for her company so I guess we'll just have to see what happens. 
What's up with these birds using vehicles and BBQs for places to build their nest.....isn't that what trees are for?!  Silly birds! 

It Got A Bit Chilly Last Night...6-12-2018

Ok, I had to think a minute, or two, about how to even post something on my blog.  I haven't blogged anything for almost two months.  My daughter and her husband got me interested in Instagram and Marco Polo and my blog has kind of taken a back burner.  I even had a blogger friend that asked me if I was OK because I hadn't blogged for such a long time.  Guess I'd better start blogging a bit more often, huh?! 
This morning as my husband and I were talking at the breakfast table, he stated that it got pretty cold last night.  When he went out at 6am this morning to move his wheel lines he said that everything under the wheel lines had received a coating of ice.  In my mind, I was thinking of a bit of frost and I didn't think much of it until we were driving to the mechanics (approx. 12 miles from our home) and as we drove past the fields in the area, I saw the ice.  My husband said ours looked just like that this morning.  I don't have pictures of our wheel lines so I took some others on our way home from dropping our car off.  Burrrrrrrrrrrrr!

 

As we were on our way home, we passed by a canal and I asked my husband to stop so I could get a picture because it looked so pretty with the mountain reflections and it was really full of water.  He stated that this canal is actually an abandoned canal but where we have received so much moisture, they are using it to divert water.  I took photos from both sides of the road.

 

It's beautiful, but sad at the same time.  It's nice to see the water where we were in a drought situation for so many years but sad that peoples property and homes are being damaged.