Skip to main content

Flooding

We've had a wild day. About 24 hours ago, I was mowing the lawn and The Farmer was cultivating corn. The weather experts predicted severe thunderstorms and perhaps tornados. It began about 8:00 with winds and heavy rains. We lost power by 9:00 pm, and our generator kicked on automatically. We watched for a while, checking to make sure that everything was okay, and headed for bed. 


Before we fell asleep, the power went off again--the generator had quit. We grabbed flashlights and headed out to see what was up. A hose had blown, spewing coolant fluid everywhere. The engine then overheated and quit. We struggled to repair the hose and reattach it (all by flashlight) and then ran to an outdoor faucet (the closest one) to fill the coolant system up with water, a jugful at a time.  We prayed and hit the manual start button, and were ever so happy to hear it roar to life. These all would have made great photos, but when life happens I sometimes am too busy to grab the camera.

This morning as the Farmer did chores and assessed the damage, he did not forget to grab the camera. Here are photos of our fields from the top of our grain leg. Rainfall was estimated to be at least 5" in the course of a few hours.




This afternoon we received more rain. Here's a photo of the front moving through. 


We are happy that we didn't lose anyone at Shady Side Farm. There were a couple of human fatalities to the south of us, and many people are dealing with wet basements, flooded yards and stuck cars. We will wait to see if the corn fields will dry out quickly enough for the corn to survive. Depends on the weather, I suppose. And they predict more of the same...
Labels:

Comments

  1. AnonymousJune 9, 2008 at 9:53 AM

    Hope it dries out and SOON. I read yesterday that average rainfall for June is 2-3 inches. We got that in under an hour. 8+ inches of rain in just a few days is not fun.

    Keep us posted. Our horses do not like slogging through the muck and water to get anywhere.

    ReplyDelete
  2. GinaJune 9, 2008 at 8:43 PM

    So glad you all are ok. We've had some wild weather as well. The roof of our chicken coop was blown 100 feet and we've lost several trees, not to mention a soggy basement. And it doesn't seem to be stopping any time soon. Of course, come late summer, we'll probably all be praying for rain! Too bad it can't be more even spread out!

    ReplyDelete
  3. LonaJune 10, 2008 at 9:13 AM

    Thanks, Gina. Sounds like you've had enough adventure, too. I am in full agreement with you on the need to spread out the weather a bit!

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousJune 17, 2008 at 9:04 PM

    Oh Lona... I didn't know! I switched to an RSS feeder and haven't had any updates from your blog. I thought you'd been too busy and it never occurred to me that I did something wrong when I set up the feed.

    Will be praying for the weather to improve!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bloggy Giveaway--Now Closed

**This bloggy giveaway is now closed** Thanks to all who participated and gave such great comments. Janette is the winner of the $15 gift certificate to our etsy store . I'm participating in the Bloggy Giveaways Quarterly Carnival . Click the link to go to the carnival where you can enter to win literally hundreds of things. The good news is that even if you have no time to play on the computer trying to win hundreds of things, you can still enter to win one thing right here. This week, I will be giving away a $15 gift certificate to be used toward the purchase of an item in my etsy shop . This contest is open to residents of the United States or Canada only. The winner will receive free shipping on whatever item they choose. Items in my etsy shop include handwoven rugs, wool yarns and roving from our farm, and the ever-popular cotton dishcloth! To be entered in this wonderful drawing, you must go to the etsy shop and look around a bit. Then come back here and type a comment that
132 comments
Read more

Haying 101

A few posts back, "deep end of the loom" (love that name!) asked me to tell a bit more about the haying process. If you want my version, read on. If you'd like to read the official wikipedia version, click here . Haying happens in three steps: cutting, raking and baling. This process takes several days, as the hay must be dry when baled. Moist hay molds and heats up and has even been known to spontaneously combust, burning down the barn. Gotta have dry hay. This first photo is of our haybine. The haybine not only cuts the hay, it also crimps each piece of long grass in several places, to allow for faster drying. We usually cut hay in the early afternoon, when the dew is gone. When we're done, long row of cut grass lie waiting. The hay is allowed to dry for two to three days, depending on wind and sun conditions. Obviously, the more wind and sun the days hold, the quicker the hay will dry. When we feel like the hay is nearly dry, we go out with the rake. There are diff
1 comment
Read more

This Giveaway Is Now Closed!

Today starts a giveaway at Farming in the Shade! I am happy to contribute this complete hat kit (needles not included) to someone who has a knitting obsession and a small person in their life. Here are the rules (contest open to US or Canada residents only): Giveaway ends May 1 at 9 p.m. EST. Winner will be announced by Sunday, May 3. Enter by posting a comment on this blog post. Tell me something about your knitting--who taught you to knit, your favorite yarn, the coolest thing you ever knitted. Make sure you leave contact information! Earn extra entries by: 1) Following me on twitter. (If you don't know what twitter is, don't worry. It's another way to waste your time on the computer.)  Add a comment here so I will count it as one entry. 2) Tweeting this giveaway (no more than once daily). Add a comment here so I know you did it. 3) Blog about this giveaway. Add a comment (with link) here so I can go visit your blog. 4) Follow or subscribe to this blog (or tell me if have
45 comments
Read more