It seems like every time we try to do something fun in the winter, we return to weather related devastation. One time we came home to 0 degree temperatures and frozen pipes. Last winter we came home to a snowstorm which took out our pheasant netting, and they subsequently died. This weekend I guess I should have paid more attention to Saturday’s pink sunrise. Because we went on a day trip to Seattle to celebrate Tom’s birthday and came home to horrible flooding, the worst we have ever had.
Below is the hay barn with our hay likely ruined by floodwaters.
I was alone this morning when the light revealed the water levels. I moved the sheep and goats into the barn. I discovered our back culvert was blocked by gravel. I managed to shovel the gravel out to get the culvert flowing again and clear a path in case we needed to evacuate the animals. I moved Lewis the ram into the barn to meet Bambam. I moved the donkeys into a stall in the barn. I moved the cows and a llama into the donkey pen so they could be evacuated if needed. I called Tom to see if he could come back from work with the truck to help out. I then called around trying to find sand bags. Our animal barn was very close to being flooded which means evacuating all of our animals. I wanted to prevent that from happening if at all possible. A nice man from the Fire Department brought me 100 empty bags for sand. Tom then also arrived with purchased filled sand bags from the store. We sand bagged the barn and so far, so good.
Tom then did some tractor work to try to get the water to flow better. I finished looking after the critters. Below are all the sheep and goats trapped in the barn.
Here’s a video of it with the heavy rain sounds from the roof.
And here are the geese enjoying the water.
The flooding looks awful. Hope you can continue to keep the barn dry.
Thanks Mom! We hope so too. At least the rain has slowed down, but the runoff is still coming down hard.
I know this is a LOT of work & possible damage. I am so sorry to see this. It seems the only happy campers there are the geese, because I know a barn stuffed with displaced livestock brings on another set of problems, but it looks like you have it under control. At least the torrential rains have ceased and there is no more heavy rain predicted for awhile.
Thanks Kathy! We are exhausted, but the animals are crowded. We have 7 geese and 2 ducks that are happy but all the other critters here are grumpy. Hopefully the rain stays away, and we can dry out a little.
Yikes!
Yikes indeed Michelle!
Wow Donna…
This takes my breath away. I can only imagine what you have gone through getting everything confined and worrying if you need to evacuate. Will be praying the runoff abates soon and it gets no worse.
Tammy
Thanks Tammy! It has been really hard physically and emotionally. The floodwaters have receded but we have a muddy mess and damage to deal with now. But at least we did not have to evacuate.
yeeks! I hope the waters have receded some!
They have Denise. It is just a muddy mess now.