More on Natural Disasters

I know that just about the whole country is experiencing wild weather and fires right now.  The floods that we had a couple of weeks ago are just about history.  Most of the roads are now open again, though the upper Mississippi is still over flood stage.
Here's a couple of pictures of neighbors' roads and fields-

Then we had the high winds and thunderstorms on Monday.  The power was out for a couple of days.  My parents place has about 15 trees down in the yard and garden.  We didn't get any down in our yard, but just down the road is the reason for no power-

It's hard to see, but that tree is across the power lines. Trees snapped power lines all over this area. 
Our power is up and we are back to normal.  I hope everyone on the east coast is back on grid.

Beth's Family

Our family has a reunion every two years.  This year's was a little sparse, mostly due to the flooding in our area.  It was a nice time,though, thank you Tiny!  Good conversation, good food, and a chance to relax.
I took pictures of some family members to post for my daughter who is spending this summer in Germany.  Not everyone is on facebook ya know.

Uncle Dennis in his slightly flambouyant shirt.

A "don't mess with me" pose from Uncle Doug.

Youngest cousin, Eddie, loves the camera.  He's 2 1/2 now.

Even Grandpa agreed to let me take his picture.

And Grandma...

And Mel, with a little help from Uncle Doug.

Beth-we all miss you so.

Flood of 2012

We are actually having flood conditions here.  Amazing.  We are always blessed with rain, but it's getting a bit over zealous.  Roads are closed south, east and west of us.  Basements are flooding-ours was but my man rigged up a better sump pump and now the water is gone!  We went out and took some pictures to share with you.

This is our road just north of our house.

Here is a poor picture of some guys sandbagging along the riverbank in town.  The police weren't letting anyone stop to take pictures so this was taken on the run. :)

Here's where the river is going over the highway.  Those are tree tops sticking out of the water.

One of the side roads off of the highway.

Ya think?

So there are pictures of my very first flood. 
I did go out and sandbag in Fargo a couple of years ago...now there was a massive flood.

More rain today, but sunny tomorrow.  I'm going to go and get a look at what's in my garden.  About half of it was underwater yesterday. 

Be blessed.
From Glory Farm

Check the date...

Okay, it's June 8th.  I think this is the very earliest I have ever found ripe, wild strawberries.  Yep, this afternoon I was able to pick half a handful.  Up here in Northern Minnesota strawberries are the first berries to get ripe, but not usually in early June. 
How wierd is that??
Must be all this global warming.

Update on Mystery Plant

I still haven't determined the identity of this plant:

It has ugly white and green flowers now.  I've looked through my books and on line and can't find anything that looks quite like it.  It has five basal leaves with smooth edges. The stem is hairy and hollow.  It may be a type of plantain as Brenda suggested.

This isn't a real clear picture of the flowers, but maybe it's enough to help someone identify it.  It likes water.

I'll try posting this to other sites I belong to and see if anyone can solve this mystery.