The Devil’s Walkingstick
Aralia spinosa, commonly known as Devil’s Walkingstick, is a woody species of plants in the genus Aralia, family Araliaceae, native to eastern North America. The various names refer to the viciously sharp, spiny stems, petioles, and even leaf midribs. It has also been known as Angelica-tree. - Wikipedia
This photo was taken on our last camping trip at Petit Jean State Park, Arkansas, on Seven Hollows Trail.
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Tags: Arkansas, camping, hiking, photography, places, plants, travel photos
On my Askimet spam page for Daily Chronicles of the American Civil War blog, the message today reads, “Akismet has caught 258,378 spam for you since you first installed it.”
That’s a lot of comment spam.
I really, really hate spam of any kind.
I really, really like Askimet. I just moderated 10 spam comment that got past it — out of 4000 since the last time I checked the comment moderation page. If I had to go through each and every one, I’d have comments turned off to that blog. There is just too many.
Tags: blogging, comment spam, give me a break!, internet ethics, spam
From the National Weather Service:
Damage that occurred in a large swath from Atkins…to Clinton…Mountain View and Highland on February 5th was the result of one tornado.
The tornado tracked from 5 miles east-southeast of Centerville in Yell County to 3.2 miles northeast of Highland in Sharp County. The track length was 123 miles…which is the longest tornado track since 1950. The tornado has been rated EF4 on the Ehanced Fujita Scale…with winds between 166 and 200 mph. The damage path reached a half mile to a mile wide at times.
Tags: weather
From the National Weather Service:
Aerial survey was completed late this morning for the tornadic storm that tracked across west central and northern Arkansas on Tuesday. The areal survey team concluded that the path of the tornado was continuous from Yell County… northeastward into Sharp County. The tornado was earlier rated an EF4. Based on preliminary information… the length of the tornado track will be at least 120 miles long.
An NWS ground survey team has also found the starting point of this tornado to be 5.6 miles east southeast of Centerville… in Yell County. An ending point… along with a more detailed path length… will be determined once the teams return later this afternoon.
Tags: weather
The storm that swept through the area south and east of Atkins, Arkansas, was initially rated as an EF3 tornado. After surveying the damage, the National Weather Service has upgraded it to EF4 and stated that a single tornado may have tracked from south of Atkins through Clinton, Mountain View and Highland. An aerial survey is planned for today to determine if it was one or several tornados.
An EF4 has winds of between 166-200 mph, with devastating damage that can level newer houses and create “missiles” such as thrown cars or telephone poles.
Unfortunately, in the aftermath of the storm, cleanup efforts have been hampered by traffic of gawkers driving through to see the damage first hand. If they don’t have a need to go through the area, they should stay away.
Tags: weather
OOPs… I posted this to the wrong blog. That’s what I get for not being careful using a blog editor instead of doing it in WordPress. I moved the original post over to where I intended for it to be.
See the full size images at Haw Creek Out n’ About
Check out our RV pages at Haw Creek.
Just a few minutes after the last post, we lost power — 7 days to the day after the last time. The good news, for us, is that we only lost it for 3 hours, much better that the 33 hours last week.
The emergency sirens went off twice, for good reason. Atkins, a town 15 miles from us, and the area around it, was apparently hit quite badly. There’s a lot of property damage with injuries and it looks like at least three fatalities, a father, a mother and a child, apparently the same family, when their home was hit by the tornado.
It sounds like the tornado was on the ground for at least 70 miles. The town of Gasville was apparently flattened as was a boat factory in Clinton. The Little Rock TV stations have been doing weather without a commercial break since the middle of the afternoon, trying to let people know what is coming there way so that they can take shelter.
Just heard that the National Guard is being activated tomorrow to help with the disaster in this county. This is the third time in a month that we’ve borne the brunt of severe weather, and this one sound like it is far worse than the earlier episodes.
image by by simondbarnes
Tags: weather
The sky is getting dark and darker. Lightning is flashing and thunder is rumbling. Off in the distance the emergency sirens are wailing for the second time.
According to the National Weather Service, portions of our county are in a tornado warning.
The good news, at least for us, is that the cell will be passing south and east of us.
It was 73°F earlier today.
The weather has been crazy this year. Today’s spring weather and storms don’t bode well for Spring when it really gets here.
Tags: weather
Image by Philgarlic
I’m not a small guy — and I guess I’m not as small as I used to be. Our oldest daughter took this picture of me going down into the after torpedo room on the USS Razorback, a submarine permanantly moored in the Arkansas River at North Little Rock. The Razorback is a WWII era diesel submarine, commissioned toward the end of the war. After its service in the U.S. Navy it was sold to Turkey for another couple of decades of service. After it was decommisioned by Turkey, it was sold to North Little Rock and is now part of a growing maritime museum. It’s named after a type of fish, not the mascot of the University of Arkansas. This was my second trip through this sub. The first was last year and was the first time I had been on a submarine since I stepped off my boat, the USS Casimir Pulaski, thirty years earlier.
This was a pretty full weekend and, with going back to work all of a sudden, I’m finding it a little difficult to squeeze things into the reduced amount of time that I now have. I’m only working 40 hours a week, with no overtime, but, with travel, that’s about 45 hours a week that I had for other stuff before last week. I’m getting up early to go to the fitness center, but the workouts are a little shorter.
However, it is just for a short term contract — 26 weeks — so it won’t be long till I’m free again, plus, we should have some of our recurring bills eliminated, so financially this should be a plus.
It’s bedtime, I’m tired, and I’m starting to babble on, so it’s time to close — I will endeaver to keep up with this blog. We’ll see.
Tags: blogging, history, now that’s cool!, places, work
- Published November 12, 2007
(Hardcover)
