`Tornadoes and Twisters!

This week has been pretty exciting with sirens, tornado watches and tornado warnings!  We are glad that we have a basement to escape to and that we can share with the missionaries in Scott since they live in an upstairs apartment.  On Tuesday, May 24, we had an amazing experience of a tornado coming within about 5 miles of our house so we were able to safely take some wonderful pictures.

This is what we saw just straight out from our back fence.  Since we look out to pastures, it was a perfect view of an awesome and terrifying tornado.  

This must have been over plowed and unplanted cropland for it to spin up so much dust.  

As we watched, it was fascinating to see it change shapes and it whirled around and around.

The tornado was moving in a north east direction and we were happy that it was far enough away we could enjoy snapping pictures safely.  Otherwise we would have been down in our basement and missed all these lovely shots.

Can you see that thin little line of tornado going way up in the clouds?  Amazing!  

We were glad to see it moving away from us as we needed to be on the road traveling to Garden City to teach our institute class there.  After class when we returned to Scott City,  These were the unusual clouds that were left after the tornado went on its way.

We learned that Dodge City had four tornadoes touch down in their area. All three sets of Dodge missionaries happened to be at President Glover's house for dinner (member of the stake presidency) so they were excited to get some great pictures but also to have a safe basement to be in when it got too close.  There were 2 injuries from this tornado but no deaths.

On our way to teach our class in Dodge on Thursday night, we saw the evidence of one of the tornadoes right close to the highway. 

The power poles had snapped off like matchsticks and the power company had several trucks there trying to get new poles up and power restored.  Don't think it will help this family very much though.

This is the pivot irrigation system that they all use here that is connected to a water source and turns in a huge circle to water the crops.  The wheels you see in the air are generally on the ground.  This one has been really twisted by the 'twister' that came whirling by.  You can see a section of fence knocked out and several trees that have been uprooted and are laying on the ground. 

On Saturday we had occasion to drive out to Leoti to the west of us and were able to see some of the damage our tornado had done.  This is what is left of an old wooden barn that had been leaning for decades.  We had commented often that we ought to take a picture of this leaning barn but we missed our chance as the tornado just collapsed the whole thing.

I am sure the farmer who owns this wheat crop was not too happy to see what the tornado did to his wheat which was almost ready to harvest.  

Can you see the big circle of flattened wheat?  I guess the bottom of the tornado was this big as it passed through this field.

There are several feed lots out this way with thousands of head of cattle in them.  I can't imagine what it would do to all of them but I wouldn't want to be there when it was happening.

We feel blessed that we were able to experience a Kansas tornado from a distance but hope that we can finish our mission here in Kansas without getting any closer to one.  We will be glad to return to Arizona where about all we have in the way of weather is just lots of sunshine!

The Taylors and Spring come to Kansas!

Even though it is the middle of May, I haven't posted about our visit from our eldest daughter, Treisa and her husband, Ed Taylor who came in March.  So I am putting my Spring pictures I took while they were here in with their visit pictures.

It was so wonderful to have family come visit us here in this out-of-the-way place in Southwestern Kansas.  Luckily it was on the Taylor's way to Nebraska to visit Ed's folks there over their Spring Break.

This is a photo op which shows a bit of Garden City's history as to how it got it's name.  It was begun in 1878 by two brothers by the name of Fulton and everyone supposed that the town would be names Fulton.  But one day a man who had visited the small hotel asked what the name of the town was.  Mrs. Fulton told him that folks assumed it was Fulton to which he replied, "Why, I would name it Garden City after your lovely garden here".  So that is how Garden City got its lovely name!

 These beautiful pink blossomed trees are in all the parks and look so Springy!



Couldn't resist a picture of these beautiful people in front of a tree downtown that looked like "Popcorn popping on the Apricot Tree".


The Taylors came on Saturday night and had to leave on Monday morning so we only got to enjoy them for a short time.  Monday morning we headed north to see the sights as they connected with the interstate and headed for Nebraska.

 These are called Monument Rocks and they are what is left of an inland sea that was here 80 million years ago. They are limestone and are the remains of tiny ocean creatures. ( I think I have posted about these before but this time it is with the Taylors!
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With this Buffalo Bill statue, our Big Ed had met his match!   This sits along the highway going up to Colby where we teach a class so we go by it every week.  It is pretty awesome!

  It commemorates a contest between William Cody and William Comstock, (who both shot buffalo to supply the railroad)  as to who  could shoot the most buffalo in one day.  William Cody won and earned the right to the name Buffalo Bill.  This sculpture is twice life size!

That is quite a barrel to look up in to!

 It is supposed to bring you good luck to kiss the buffalo's nose.  Sure glad he wasn't real!  What a nose!

After Bill Cody retired from hunting Buffalo he put together a Wild West Show in 1883 with which he toured throughout the United States and Europe.

Annie Oakley was part of Buffalo Bill's Wild West as a sharp shooter and trick rider.  The Buffalo Bill statue is right outside Oakley, Kansas.







We enjoyed the sweet short visit of Treisa and Ed and bid them farewell about noon as they headed up to Nebraska to visit the Taylors there.

Now I want to share some  pictures of Spring coming to my house. 

 It is so fun to find little flower surprises popping up in the yard!

I don't  know what these are but it was so fun to see them popping their tiny little heads up through the old grass and hardened soil.











We have lots of tall  green leaves that look like they should turn into daffodils but they never produced a single bloom so I had to take a picture of these in a neighbor's yard up the street.

But out by our back gate we had these gorgeous iris blooming.  Aren't they lovely?  They always will remind me of my mom as she always had iris bulbs blooming in the Spring.











And after watching this bunch of greens and buds for quite some time, we finally were rewarded with a whole bunch of pink peonies!  I have never had these in my yard.  What a treat!

So now I have fresh flowers on my dining room table every day!  

HOORAY FOR SPRING IN KANSAS!

Farmlands all around us

Even though we live inside the city limits of Scott City, just one half block puts us walking among the cornfields and maize.

The maize ripens to a beautiful reddish brown color and there are miles and miles of fields of it.

The corn fields line the other side of the road as we take our walk a mile down the road to the cemetery.  Notice the track alongside  the corn field.

These pivots are the  way they water these huge fields and the reason the fields are round.  They are a series of connected sections which starts at a pump and the sprinklers spray the crops as the whole pivot turns slowly in a circle with the wheels going on the track. 

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Above is an example of the track the pivot moves on through the corn field.

And then in the middle of a field you see an oil pump pulling black gold out of the farmland. I was very surprised to see these  all over western Kansas.

Because the wind never stops blowing in Kansas, they have these Wind Farms to harness that power and turn it in to electricity.  Some fields we pass have hundreds of these giant windmills always turning.  What a great natural resource!

These are my favorite fields.  We passed sunflower fields on both sides of the road as we drove north to Colby every week.  

The  sunflower is the state flower of Kansas and the wild ones line the roadsides and highways.  There are sunflowers  on the welcome sign, on hotel signs, banners on the light poles in town, painted on sides of buildings, on t-shirts and sweatshirts (gotta get one of those), everywhere!

And I LOVE SUNFLOWERS  so all these sunflowers make me happy! ! ! 

Interesting sights in Western Kansas

Well, I am so far behind in my postings I guess I will just start with sharing some of the places around Western Kansas that we have enjoyed and shared with others.

This was the last p-day with Elder Jacob Hughes before he left for Bountiful and home.  We took him and his companion, Elder Denson north of us to an area where the last Indian battle in Kansas was fought in September 27, 1878.

The monument in the first picture overlooks the cave, canyon, and the bluffs where the Northern Cheyenne hid waiting to ambush the U.S. Cavalry and a fierce battle ensued. 

 Quartelejo means barracks or dwelling place.  This is the remains of a Pueblo Indian dwelling as explained above. 

We spotted this flock of wild turkey trying to escape our cameras.

These are what is called "The Monuments".  They are 80 million years old and are made of layers of limestone laid down when this area was a salt sea.  They find amazing fossils all around this area.

These very strange shapes have shells and fossils embedded in them from so long ago.

The Museum in Oakley, just up the road, has an amazing collection of fossils found around here including this 7' fish from long ago.

And this head of a fish with some pretty nasty teeth.

With all the miles we travel, we have learned that there is more to Western Kansas than just flat prarie, corn fields, and wheat farms.  We are enjoying our time here and wish you could come visit but I guess you will have to be content with enjoying it through our pictures.

Settled in Scott City

After enjoying a month in our Garden City duplex, our house was ready in Scott City.  So we made the move on the first week of September from Garden City to Scott City about 50 miles away.   This is the view of our house from the front.  We are going to be glad we have a garage when the snow starts blowing, and we hear that is what it does here. It doesn't fall, it blows sideways!

Moving day with our hard-working, service-oriented Scott City elders,  Elders Hughes and Denson, helping us unload.

This was our moving van, a horse trailer!  First time for that, but it worked out great.

This is Tom Yager who owns the horse trailer and had been working on improving the house for a month to get it ready for us. He updated a lot of this for us to make it nice.  The house was built by his father in the 40's and has the most amazing use of space for storage that I have ever seen.

My favorite feature of this new house is all the trees in our huge yard.  They are very old and very tall trees and I love them!

Just below you see the side yard with more trees. As I sit in our study room I can see little squirrels scampering around in the back yard.  Would you believe we even have an albino squirrel?  He is almost pure white!  Haven't managed to get a picture of him yet though, too fast!

We have this interesting landmark just off our back fence. It is a water tower (every town has at least three of them), but this is the only blue one we have seen.  Doesn't it look like some strange alien wearing a crown?  If people are looking for our house, we just tell them we live in front of the blue water tower.

Here's a look at our new kitchen.  Since we have an arrangement as companions, I do the cooking and my companion does the cleaning up.  This guy is very happy that he has a dishwasher to help him do it.  Did you notice all those lovely cupboards and loooong counter?  At least twice what we had in the duplex.

I had to take pictures of our cupboards after we did a Sam's club stocking up.  Don't know yet how these winters will go so thought we should have plenty of food on hand just in case we can't get to the store.

And this is just a few of our cupboards.  I haven't yet been able to fill them all up.  

(I get so annoyed with this blogging when I can't get the pictures and the typing I do to line up.  Need some lessons, I guess.  But you will just have to jump around a bit to get it all cause I can't get it to do what I want it to.)

 This organ was left in the house because the former occupant (Tom's daughter) didn't have room to take it to her new house in Colby.  I am delighted and thought I would have fun practicing on it but I don't find many spare minutes to do so.  Pretty cool to have though.

Elder Riggs enjoys having a yard to get out and work in occasionally when he needs a break from studying and lesson preparation.  He pretty much has this all cleaned up now and I imagine come Spring, he will be out there planting some flowers.

We are very happy here in our 'home' in Scott City.  It feels so much homier than a duplex and within two minutes, we can be walking on a country road with milo on one side and corn on the other.  One morning I was out walking on that road by myself when it started to pour down rain. I turned around and started back the mile that I had already walked when an old farmer in a white pickup pulled up and offered me a ride.  I hopped right in and he asked me if I wasn't afraid to get in with a stranger.  I told him I had only been here a month but had learned enough to know I could trust these Kansas farmers.

  We love our little ward and the good, down-to-earth Kansas folks here. We are grateful the Lord has called us to serve in this part of His vineyard and hope that we can make a difference by our being here.