Sprinter Weather

No, I'm not talking about a runner, but the combination of spring/winter weather we've been experiencing here in Kansas. People native to this state are sick of it and it makes me laugh. For a couple of years now, we've had really mild, warm winters and record breaking hot summers and everybody's complained of our drought and how we need moisture. We finally get some, albeit in late winter/early spring months, and people are now complaining that we're not experiencing a spring season. I so disagree. We've had a wonderful spring, with just a couple of minor, minor bouts of winter thrown in. I've missed sweater weather we have not had the past couple of years. We've gone straight from mild winter to summer temps with no in between. Spring is my favorite season and I'm reveling in this one. I'm also glad that I make it a rule to not plant any flowers until the end of April/beginning of May, just in case we still get snow/freezing temps like we did yesterday and a couple of weeks ago that might ruin my plants. Yes, in KS on April 23rd, we received 0.2 inches of snow. This was a record for a measurable amount of snow this late in April. Plus, we had a record low this morning of 25 degrees. But, in true KS spring fashion, we will be in the 70s this weekend. I love it!

Dusting of snow on the deck, table, and trampoline

April 10th we had icy rain fall and here are some pics from that:

More Snow

After our last round of 14 inches of snow, about 4 days later we got another 6 point something inches bringing our total to a record breaking 21 inches of snow for any one month and it happened in one week! The old record was 20.5 inches of snow which happened in February 1913--same month and exactly 100 years ago! Pretty cool. All of the schools decided on Sunday to go ahead and cancel school for Monday when the blizzard was supposed to start. However, it was barely snowing and everybody could have gone to school--even our homeschool co-op had been canceled. But, later in the afternoon, the snow did start to pick up with the wind. It was Monday night though when we got dumped on. We woke up Tuesday morning and couldn't believe how much snow was on the ground. Roger again got caught in the driveway and couldn't make it in to work. Schools were cancelled yet again on Tuesday--that made 4 days in a row due to Thursday and Friday of the week before from the first round of snow. Then, wouldn't you know it, the temps picked back up, the sun shone brightly, and the snow started melting pretty quickly.

Beautiful scene in our front yard when we woke up Tuesday

Our poor over 6 ft tall bush weighted down by the snow

Snow inches deep on our covered deck

The tracks Roger's truck made as he tried to get out of the driveway, but got stuck

Roger starting to shovel as the neighbor's dog comes to say Hi

Woohoo! Just as Roger started shoveling, a neighbor came by and plowed our driveway

A Record Breaking Summer

Yep, Wichita did it! We officially have the hottest recorded summer. We broke the record from 1936.

Oh my goodness our lake is so low--I've never seen it like this before. The water usually reaches to the road, but now you can walk on it towards the middle. NONE of that greenery or brown dirt you see should be there--it should all be covered by water.

In the next picture, do you see the concrete in the foreground in the lower left corner? That is part of a huge pipe that runs under the road. The kids like to stand on it. The lake should reach that pipe and there should be fish jumping out of the water and the kids should be able to lay on their tummies on the pipe and touch the water. I just can't get over how low the water is.

Plants have died; or maybe I let them die because I gave up watering them, always hoping it would rain more. I'm not sure if some of them will come back, especially the little evergreen trees. I've heard they won't. One is completely brown, the other still has some green on it. They stay green even through the winter, so I guess we'll know our answer come next spring.

Some flowers I thought were dead have actually come back. It's helped me learn what are hardy and can take the heat. I took these pics around 4:00 so they are wilting under the sun, but they are not dead and I am so excited!

 In the next pic, you can see the brown stalks from the previous flowers that bloomed, and then you can see the pretty yellow flowers that are blooming--all from the same plant. I had not seen yellow flowers for a long time, so I thought this plant was dead. Glad I didn't pull it out.

 A pretty pop of pink telling us she's still surviving.

Our grass has had its ups and down with going from a green color to brown. It's currently brown, but I'm positive that when we get rain it will green back up because that's been the pattern all summer. An unbelievably hot, hot summer.