April went into the record books as the most tornadic month down here in the past 75 years . We had a few sleepless night due to the threat of "tornadic activity" in the area. I think the season runs from late March to October. The tornado warning radio went off three separate times one night with broadcast messages.
I also noticed that even when the cable tv is off, the cable box still flashes "EAS" to notify you that the Emergency Alert System is broadcasting instructions for your area. Here's our drill when the emergency radio siren goes off: get up and mute the siren; view the screen on the radio to determine where the weather currently is and how fast it's moving; if it's more than 50 miles away and moving 25mph, go back to bed and wait for the next siren; if it's less than 50 miles away, listen to the broadcast to determine how fast it's moving so we can decide how much time we've got (most move across land about 25mph, so storm cells 25 miles away will take about 1 hour to reach us); if it's close, get Jack and get into the walk-in closet. The closet is an interior room with a door and no windows and should be sufficient for anything other than a direct hit. Most of the tornados stay in the river valley 50 miles to the south or 50 miles to the west, and they seem to cease when they reach our elevation and the broken terrain. In this most recent event there were 5 fatalities in various areas about 45 minutes south of us.
Sailing was cancelled on April 3rd due to high winds (steady 30kts and gusting over 40), which would be reason for excitement in Chicago's racing community. We decided to take that opportunity to head about 2 1/2 hours south into the river valley to hike Mt. Nebo ( http://www.arkansasstateparks.com/mountnebo/ ). We have ranked it among the top 5 most beautiful places in Arkansas, and in the top 2 best hikes. We should note though, that the "money-shot" view from Mt. Nebo State Park, is marred by a giant nuclear power plant seen in the base of the valley, where it takes water from the Arkansas River.
This is the view into the Arkansas River Valley from Mt. Nebo state park's lodge. There's camping here and I think we might try to break out the tent (and air mattress for Jacqui) in June.
Family photo time. We didn't intentionally try to be matchy-matchy, and in this photo I'm the only one wearing a camo hat. Jacqui left hers at home.
Easter went well. We took Jack to our Clabber Creek neighborhood egg hunt. He still doesn't trust the guy in the Easter Bunny suit, and he's more interested in picking up rocks than eggs, but did enjoy the moon walk. On Easter Sunday Jack searched for his easter basket and hidden eggs, and we hosted dinner after church for a few friends and had a some adult beverages.
The boy is on a sugar-high and bunny hopping all over the house.
Our garden is coming on strong. The herbs made it through the winter under a cover of plastic and now are thriving (oregano, parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, tarragon, chives, and mint), though the mint is out of control and will be removed this month and put in a pot. Jacqui planted arugula, spinach, cilantro, basil and tomatoes. We found that nobody sells Arugula in the stores down here, and it grows so well that we've been having it in salads for a few weeks. We lost the tomatoes in a late season cold snap, but have since planted a few more which were promptly hammered by a hailstorm.
We took a drive to Prairie Grove Gardens a few towns away, to pick up the new tomato plants (Arkansas Traveler, Black Stripe and Early Girl). While we were there, we met a gypsy woman who had a thick eastern european accent. She proclaimed the following about Jack: He's not going to be happy in life unless he's a doctor or a teacher, because his personality requires him to dominate and to serve others. To which I replied: "That's interesting. Can I pay for these plants now?" Now I'm wondering if there's a gypsy curse on my Tomatoes, like that episode of Gilligan's Island.
We enjoyed our road-trip to Chicago for Kentucky Derby Day at the May's, but for some bizzahhh reason I don't have a single photo from the party. We look forward to seeing y'all in a few weeks over Memorial Day weekend, and I promise to take a few then.
Possible topics for the next update: more racing on Beaver Lake, more hiking (and flooding) down in the river valley, Demolition Derby at the Springdale rodeo, photos of me in my camo waders, Old-Fort Rodeo Days in Fort Smith, U of Arkansas granduation, Memorial Day Tribe trip to St. Louis, and what ever else we run into.
