Afternoon Drive

With the Coronavirus there hasn't been much to do. We have been taking a drive around where we live in Carroll County Kentucky a couple of times a week just to get out of the house. We don't stop anywhere except long enough to take a photo from the car window. Last week we found these two old houses, I assume they were houses, and not something like a business or office. Both of them are identical except each is backwards to the other. One has the garage on the left and the other on the right. One has the fireplace on the right the other on the left. There was a sign on them saying not to enter as it could be dangerous. They looked as if they might fall down with a good gust of wind.

The two old houses would have had a nice view of the river. Across the river was an old barn.

Highway 71 looking west. The trucks you can see are headed east.

This quince bush was beautiful. It was huge. Made we wonder if the tiny one I have, with it's three little blooms will ever be this big. I hope who ever it belonged to as well as the other houses I took photos of with nice blooming bushes and trees won't care if I put them in this post.

You would never think of an oak tree having the dainty looking flowers that look like something out of a fairy tail fantasy.

My house as seen from out in the field behind us.

My Bradford pear tree.

We ended the day with a nice sunset.

One Year

It's been a year since we bought and moved into our house just outside of Carrollton, Kentucky. I still don't know it if was a good move or not.

We still don't have a fence around the whole yard for our dog, Ziva. She does have a small pen for when we can't walk her. But she has trained us well to take her for walks. The cats are adjusting to being house cats instead of being able to go outside.

We have had lots of wildflowers and lots of flowers that I planted.

 We fought wasps and ladybugs in the shed and sometimes even in the house.

We mowed grass frequently since it has rained so much this past year. The TV weatherman said we had 68 inches of rain this past year which made it the most rain in one year in recorded weather history for here. Way to much.

We explored the town of Carrollton.

 And watched the Ohio and Kentucky rivers try to flood out the town. It came close to the road we live on but we didn't have to leave for higher ground as so many people in northern Kentucky had too.

We learned that Carrollton is a very foggy place many mornings

And we learned to really appreciate the sunny days.

There has been some snow but not as much as I expected, or had heard there had been in some years.

 We enjoyed the few sunsets we had. And watched the leaves turn colors in the fall.

And every once in a while we would see on of the whitetail deer that live in our neighborhood. Actually all over Kentucky. We had a few birds in our yard and a few squirrels but not as many as I had hoped for considering we live at the edge of a woodland.

But I still find myself homesick and missing my home state of New Mexico.

Spring?

So on the day after the first day of spring we had a snow storm. We only got about 3 inches but other parts of Kentucky got a lot more. First photo is of our house, second one is of the road near our house. Third one is of the short tunnel we have to go through to go under the freeway to get to our house. Next photo is the tunnel as we are leaving our house. The tunnel is about a quarter of a mile from the house. 

This photo got its self in the wrong spot. Supposed to be the last one. It is of Carrollton,KY Point Part. If you look at a previous post you will see the part as it looked under water from when the Ohio River flooded. In this picture it is under snow 2 weeks after the flood. The weather is a bit strange this year. 

River Flood

Of course as soon as we moved in the Ohio and Kentucky Rivers decided to do a spring flood. Carrollton, KY is where the Kentucky River runs into the Ohio River. I had never seen where two rivers that big came together and found it quite interesting. I had asked our realitor about flooding here and was told it didn't happen very often. In fact it had been 20 years since it had last happened which was in 1997 and it was a small flood compared to the one in the 1960's which was smaller than the really big one in the 1930's. We were told with all the locks and equipment on the rivers there was very little flooding. They even checked to make sure we weren't buying a house in a flood area. Ha Ha. We had only been in our house a few days when the rains came, and were worse north of us in Ohio causing the Ohio River to get above flood stage and the rains here caused the Kentucky River to get above flood stage. The 2 rivers coming together caused a lot of flooding in all the farm land around us (and most of this part of Kentucky is farm land). Many of the roads around us were closed as there were places where the water was across part of the roads. For 4 days we watched the water come up through one of the fields about a quarter of a mile from us. We weren't that worried but were ready to leave if we had to. Thankfully we didn't, but we had seen lots of homes close to the rivers that were under water. Here are a few of the photos I too. I didn't get a lot as I was down with a cold and sinus infection and didn't get out to get good photos.

First 2 are flooded farm fields. Next is one of a forested low area.

This and the rest of the photos are of Point Park in Carrollton where the Ohio and Kentucky come together. These trees are not normally in water. This is part of the Ohio River.

They had just finished putting in new lights in the park and now they were in water. The white sign had a bench under it that we had sat one one day and watched a couple of small boats on the river

 This is the basketball court - under water.

This is a pavilion where picnics are held and sometimes bands play music - under water.

With in a few days the water was mostly gone. What an experience when you first move into a new home in a new town.