Bunch, Oklahoma rain

It's spring in Bunch, the trees are beginning to leaf out, the early flowers are blooming, both garden and wild flowers, the grass is greening, and the storms are brewing. Last night, we had a number of thunderstorms come through our area, with a possible tornado in the Rocky Mountain area. This morning, our branch (another word for intermittent stream) is running bank full. It comes from Beaver Mountain and empties into Sallisaw Creek. It isn't more than a mile long, but when the rain comes, it gets up quick and goes down quick too.

Bunch is in the Oklahoma part of the Ozark Mountains, so the land is rather rough with lots of ridges and valleys. Beaver Mountain is about 500 feet higher than our house and about 1 mile behind our house although the climb to it begins at the edge of our yard. Up there are waterfalls that only happen during the times of heavy rain. It's a wonderful little day hike to go up there on the State Game Refuge and walk below the falls. There's a fault line that causes these falls and I have noticed that every now and then, a rock will have moved into a different location. Not an earthquake, but a movement.

We had so much rain this morning that school was canceled. Unfortunately, it wasn't decided until after my wife had gone up to start cooking at the school and after I'd left on my bus route. I had to take a 15 mile detour through Stilwell as Sallisaw Creek was over the bridge below Bunch. My cell phone rang just as I was getting ready to pick up my first student, so it was only me making the extra 30 miles of riding, thankfully. I was able to play Paul Revere to 3 students along the route, letting them know that school was dismissed for the day. I thought about going up later and working in my library, but the grandkids came down and I didn't.

There's always tomorrow.