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Im about 35 miles south of the Arch downtown St Louis. My neighborhood dud well. About 15 miles north in Arnold, MO (roughly halfway) they got alot of damage. I'm told a tornado went through. Seen some video and there are alot of large trees down. I got enough last year , and if I had to deal with it again, I'm not sure my insurance company would keep me. Fortunately the weather today was very tolerable. I'm willing to help where needed.

You think the party people are not part of the public that has access to the gravel for recreation? A party is recreation, isn't it?

No, I can't blame the landowners that much, either. But at the same time, as a river landowner myself, I bought my land with my eyes wide open, knowing the public had a right to be on my gravel bars, and knowing that there are some obnoxious people that are included in the public. Who I DO blame is the county law enforcement. All it would take to put a stop to a lot of this behavior is spending a bit of time on regular patrols of these party spots for a few weekends. Word would get out, and the bad behavior would decrease dramatically. I can't rag too much on law enforcement in the county where I live in a house with Meramec River frontage. We've had to call the sheriff's department a couple times when our alarm system was set off while we were out of town. Our camera system showed us deputies showing up within a very short time and being thorough in making sure everything was okay...they even drove up our old logging road leading off the driveway to make sure nobody was hiding their vehicle up it out of sight. But if they are that conscientious, surely a call from a landowner at the bridge reporting a crazy party under the bridge should get the same treatment. Probably wouldn't even have to arrest anybody for anything, just show that these spots aren't immune from patrols.

Sitting at farm on generator tonite. Long path out of Van Buren did a touchdown again 1/2 mile down road. Totalled a house and went off into MDC land. Crossed and hit campground on Castor. Poplar Bluff whacked pretty good. Clearwater Lake area under curfew tonite from damage there. I had some quarter size hail, no damage on farm. Power will be off a few days.

Irish soda bread with cranberries Guinness beef stew over some Champ (mashed taters with onions) An annual tradition here

The foresters always look at marketable timber and burn scars hurt the $ value of a forest. What they didn't always realize is that the longer between burns, the more fuel is accumulated and the greater the damage. Every year burns would prevent almost all fire damage, but would have so little fuel that it would be hard to keep the fire going, three years has just about the right amount of fuel for a sustained fire with minimum damage, and that is slowly being taught to the state foresters, younger ones learn faster than the people that grew up with Smokey. I think that if we had a time machine and went back to about 1800 that we'd find very little timber across the Ozarks by comparison to today. My grandfather told me that when he was a boy, 1890s, all this local forest was savanna, and that his father told him it was almost all prairie during the Civil War. When Henry Schoolcraft explored the Ozarks 1818 he is said to have carried a packhorse load of campfire wood with him because of distance between stands of trees.

12 dead at this point from last night, but there's tonight's storms in SEMO. Clinton had maybe 20 minutes of thunderstorm that knocked a few limbs down and washed the 4Runner enough that the following winds blowing smoke and dust covered it.

Finally talked to someone with MDC that was for taking care of Wildlife. He was all for burning the Timber every 3 years. He said most of them think they have to protect the timber and think this good for Wildlife. oneshot

Jeff they catch american and hickory shad in the St Johns river system.

Didn't know they ran in FL, that would give me an excuse to make a Feb. trip down there.

I go on this website/forum every year to track shad catches from FL to CT. Fishing Log | Shad Fishing Maybe when I retire, I would like to fish for shad starting in Feb in FL and catch them all along the eastern seaboard as the spawn runs proceed northward ending up in NH or ME in June(?)

Old timers used to burn parts of the land every three years on rotation to prevent worse fires and to promote grass and wild berries. And March was usually when they burned. So if 1/3 of the Ozarks is burning, that's just about right. Huckleberries need fires and blackberries, raspberries like fires. Three years more or less fits their cycle and doesn't allow too much accumulation of fuel, fire prevention is bad for healthy forestland. Smokey Bear should be skinned and made into a rug. Try not to pick a wind storm day to burn though, as you do want to contain the burn.

For one time I'm glad it went around us. oneshot

Thinking of going to Montauk have they got it fixed back up. Are the fish of good size? Thinking of going down. oneshot

Now its ten confirmed dead in Missouri from the storms. 😕

There were gusts of heavy wind coming straight down out of the sky here. I don't think I've ever witnessed that before 🤔 Blowing up huge clouds of dust, sticks, and gravel. And the wakes coming off the lake were pretty scary, I darn sure wouldn't have wanted to be out there trying to get anywhere. Thankfully no damage to anything that can't be fixed easily 👍

I had shingles flying off the house before the storms even started. Got a big dent in a fender when the basketball goal was pushed into it. BB goal has been there for over twenty years and this is the first time it’s ever blown over. But my stuff is tiny compared to what others went through.

I fished it Thursday from Lucy Smith Hollow to the confluence with the White. Visibility was 1-1.5' with greenish color. There was some wood debris including some logs so you had to be careful. Water temps 53.5 to 56.2. I scratched out 6 shorts on a Ned. It was really tough but then I suck at fishing this lake. I enjoy it and love the lake, but it regularly humbles me. 😀

Wife made regular Milk Gravy today. I told her she could still make Hemp Milk Hemp is really good for a person and we still have bunch of seed. oneshot

Good report, nice to hear from guys fishing Bull.

I cannot blame them.

We got wind and small hail. I haven’t been out to check stuff yet.

That's crazy!

I got a call last night around 9 PM. It started with "Take shelter now", it was a St Louis alert though and why it called me is a head scratcher.

Confederate loss of the battle of Five Forks was partially blamed on General George Pickett being away on a shad bake: "When George Pickett accepted Rosser’s invitation to what would become a terribly infamous shad bake, it was regional rite of spring for tidewater Virginians. It was just after the shad run has been made and so the local tradition was in process. Pickett, probably desperate for a hot meal and a little relaxation after many stressful months, eagerly accepted the invitation. For this, it’s hard to retroactively blame the man, even with the union so close. He was an experienced commander and should have known what was coming. However, that he failed to tell anyone in his camp where he would be is slightly hard not to judge. He did not tell his second in command nor any other soldier that he’d be in Rosser’s camp, which has been hypothesized as trying not to deplete the shad. While Pickett was enjoying his shad and probably a few beverages, Warren attacked. The full assault occurred without Pickett and, since he had failed to tell anyone where he was going, nobody could find him. Also, between Rosser’s camp and Five Forks there was a thick forest that dampened the sound. So nobody in Rosser’s camp knew what was happening. By the time they (he and Pickett) were alerted, there was nothing they could do. By the time Pickett got to his men, nearly a half of them were wounded, dead, or captured. In concert with the Third Battle of Petersburg the following day, Lee was forced to abandon Petersburg, which led to the capture of Richmond and surrender of his army on April 9 at Appomattox."