Because of construction projects and other clutter in my life (sounds like someone needs to revisit their priorities) Joyce wrote this week’s column for me. Steve Gilliland

Over the years, Steve and I have attended several Storm Spotter meetings in McPherson. Ever since I can remember I’ve had a fascination for storms. I think it began when I was about eight or nine and visiting my sister in Hillsboro, when all of a sudden my brother-in-law rushed my sister and myself out of the house. There was a storm brewing and possibly a tornado. I didn’t know what all that meant, but we were in the car trying to see it. I don’t recall that we ever did set eyes on that tornado, but it was exciting and fostered my fascination with storms (read on and you’ll see that is what NOT to do.)
 
Years passed and as a teenager I moved to northwestern North Dakota. As a rule, there are not many tornados up there, but one year while I lived there a tornado hit and overturned several trailer houses, one where one of my friends lived with her six siblings. Thankfully none of the children were at home when the tornado struck. I remembering looking at the devastation and wondering how that could happen and how it only hit that small area and the rest of the town was spared. It was then I learned that trailer houses are not the safest places to be during high winds of any sort. That was long before the weather men and women were able to identify potential areas where tornados might develop. But alas, I did not get to see that tornado either. When I moved from North Dakota to Denver it never occurred to me that tornados would ever hit a city of that size. But again to my amazement there were tornados in Colorado, but they were few and far between, so my interested in tornados waned. When I moved back to Kansas I felt I was uninformed and did not recognize the danger and potential for damage and death due to those unpredictable high winds, so I set out to educate myself in order to be safe and protect my family and property.
 
The potential for damage and/or loss of life from a tornado is high and the chance of a tornado in Kansas is high. Those are two reasons it is good to be educated on what NOT to do when in a tornado warning or tornado watch area.
1.    DO NOT get in your car and go riding. You may not think that would be dangerous, but you are focused mainly in front of you when in a car looking for the storm. A tornado could come from above, either side, or from behind and you would not have a chance to escape.
2.    DO NOT ignore the warnings. There are reasons we have meteorologists watching the radar and reporting the weather (interrupting your TV show). They want to save lives.
 
Now, what you SHOULD KNOW and DO to be prepared for a pending tornado/storm.
1.    Identify your safest place before the crisis such as a small room in the basement, or if you have no basement a closet or a bathroom without windows. You can use your unused luggage to store your supplies during tornado season. It is easy to move from one room to another.
2.   Have an emergency kit ready in your safe area. In this kit, you should have a 3-day supply of nonperishable food, a manual can opener, 3-day supply of water per person, portable radio or TV with batteries, a cell phone charger, flashlight, batteries, first aid kit and manual, hand sanitizer, matches in a waterproof container, a whistle, extra clothing and blankets, photocopies of identification and credit cards, cash and coins, prescriptions, eye glasses, and specialized supplies for your family along with a pair of shoes for each family member.
3.   Use blankets, sleeping bags, etc. to cover yourselves during the storm. When tornados hit they carry lots of debris and that can be very dangerous. Keep your eyes and vital organs protected.
4.   Keep your cell phone close, as they can be very helpful. Make sure your phone is charged and ready for use. This can help locate help.
5.    Monitor the storm by portable radio or TV while in your safe area.
 
I finally saw my first tornado in 1991 when one destroyed several homes in the Hutchinson community of Willowbrook. As my cousin and I stood in the garage watching the ever blackening sky, it was so wide and so close I couldn’t even tell it was a tornado. At the time, I had no idea how dangerous that could have been, but I do now. I think, as a rule, women are more willing to take shelter, but men… well behind every man is a woman yelling “get in the basement now!”
 
Take heed and continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors…. from a safe distance.

The London Blitz involved nine months of German bomber-induced devastation that drove people who lived in that city into a state of constant awareness regarding the location of the nearest bomb shelter. While the banks of Big Creek won’t echo with the drone of mechanical motors and sound of carpet bombs exploding one right after another, one locale faces a dive bombing hawk intent on scoring a fresh chicken dinner.

With its military-like forays, this bird of prey forced my six hens and one rooster into a life of focused attention unlike anything they’ve experienced before. Typically, these contented free-range fowl wander only as chickens can over acres of grassland searching out crunchy grasshoppers and other insects that go in the beaks as bugs and emerge from the other end as rich, yellow-yolked eggs.

Every since my flock came to this particularly relentless hawk’s attention, my once free- spirited hens now cower and creep about in the shadows of lilac bushes or tree rows around the property. When they hear the red tail’s distinctive high pitched “scree” or see its shadow, their contented clucks and cackles turn to strident squawks as they run for cover.

Even without stress, chickens don’t run gracefully—think miniature feathered and beaked dinosaurs lumbering frantically for safety. Awkward is the only way to describe their agitated movements. I must give the rooster some credit. After sounding his unique alarm, he stands back like a good commander to make sure his graceless harem reaches the safety of their hen house or protective shrubs.

The other morning our camouflage Jack Russell terrier and I took advantage of the cool temperatures to water flowerbeds. Intent on soaking plants, I barely noticed when Buster, our feisty watch dog, leapt up barking as he raced toward alarmed and noisy chickens about twelve feet away. Jumping to the wrong conclusion, I thought he was chasing a chicken. I scolded and called him back until I saw the red tail swoop down in an attempt to snag with its outstretched talons a young Rhode Island red.

Buster knew his duty. Ignoring his inattentive mistress, he yipped and leapt heroically after the invader’s signature tail. Inspired by his bravery and wanting to keep dog and chickens safe, I turned the hose into a water cannon and began spraying the whole noisy group. Under the veil of water, the little hen dashed desperately toward the lilacs while Buster sounded like Patton giving the Germans heck. At last, the raptor acknowledged defeat and turned to ride a thermal in the blue Kansas sky.

The war wasn’t over. I shooed the hawk away every day when he buzz bombed the yard. The chickens lived restricted lives as a form of self-preservation, and Buster, the watchdog, scanned the heavens like an air raid warden waiting for the next assault. Just as London survived the German Blitzkrieg, our hilltop also did due to the aid of a yappy terrier and garden hose artillery.

Native Kansan Karen Madorin is a local writer and retired teacher who loves sharing stories about places, people, critters, plants, food, and history of the High Plains.