Enough Rain Already

Yesterday started out to be a promising day. I was able to get some mulch I badly needed from my usual source-- a truck load. Yay!!! Then the day got warm so I rested with the mulch in the back of the truck. The plan was to plant all remaining plants in the vegetable garden when the day got cooler again and move the mulch this morning when Adam came.

A couple of hours later it looked like it might rain but I thought it would probably miss us. Well it didn't. We had a thunderstorm, a delouge of rain, driving hail, wind and then HEAVY rain again. When the lightening part had passed I went to see how the animals and the barn had faired. The chickens were under their coop enjoying the rain and staying dry. From a distance, I could see that the temporary water diverter that Adam and I rigged to take water from the barn roof away from the barn was still in place so I was hopeful as I approached the barn BUT I knew it was still going to be wet.

And wet it was!!! The barn was like a marsh with tidal pools, that I wished smelled salty. The sheep were out so I began digging small trenches to carry the water out. The new bedding of a few days previous was completely saturated and the layer under that was now squishy and ready to be removed as well. The rain had stopped enough to bring the little tractor with the trailer over to haul it all away. I spent the next hour forking the mess into the trailer.

The sheep were enjoying the distant side of the pasture and Beau went to join them after checking out what I was up to, but the chickens (who have now discovered the barn) hung out and kept me amused while I worked. Since I had the wheel barrow up at the barn, I decided to load it with stuff from one area instead of raking it all the way out to the trailer. As I was wheeling it out of the barn the tire suddenly went completely flat. I think that is when it started to rain again or maybe that was just enough and it rained shortly after that. Anyway I left it all for another day. At least it was out of the barn.

I went to put some tools away in the shed and found it curious that there was somewhere that was still dry. I had previously put towels down in the house to soak up rain that had been driven through windows up just a bit. The mulch in back of the truck that was so fluffy did not get covered and... lets just say it is no longer fluffy. It will take a few days to dry if it stops raining.

Wish I had pictures to show but John had the camera at work. Just as well to put it all behind. Today Adam and I hauled everything to the compost pile and fixed the tire. If it doesn't rain today, I will put down new bedding. Two days without rain would be WONDERFUL.