Ramblings-n-Writings

Archive for the ‘down on the farm’ Category

Warmer weather means time for the dogs to dip in the creeks to cool off. Mandy, the farm beagle, is the only one who swims in our pond. She’s already earned her swim badge for this year.

On the other hand, Spot, the giant horse puppy and onlooker in the photo, is afraid to go any deeper than 3 or 4 inches in the water. At one point he went far enough in so that the water was touching his chest. He did NOT like that!!!

Sadie, our mini collie, is a creek dog. She loves to lay in the shallow part of the creek and let the water rush around her. Of course, she’s a muddy mess when she gets out, but at least she’s cool. LOL

Honey, our Chow mix, really isn’t much of a water dog. She prefers lounging in the shade. I guess her reasoning is that with all her fur, it would take too long to dry off if she hangs out in the water.

Here’s a quick recap of what’s been going on around the farm lately…

• Spot, the giant horse puppy, is learning to play frisbee, which is better than his other pursuit of duck- and chicken-chaser.
• A farm cat had a litter of kittens about three weeks ago. We’ve searched everywhere but can’t find them. They’re somewhere up in the hills.
• My bearded irises are soooo ready to bloom…if only the sun would come out. (Why do I have a song from Annie running through my head? Bet it’s in your head now too!)
• The potato patch looks wonderful, but the potatoes need to be hilled again (hilled means more dirt added on top). However, the ground is so wet that it’s almost impossible to do.
• My in-laws’ best friends moved to the farm last week. They left the rat race of Las Vegas to live in the backwoods of West Virginia. I wonder if they’ll have culture shock?
• They arrived in time for the Great Flood of 2009. The creeks are back in their banks now, but the ground is so saturated with water that every rain drop makes us nervous. We’ve had a lot of rain drops too. According to the farm’s rain gauge,  6 inches worth in 10 days. Here’s to hoping we don’t have a drought this summer.
• We spent the last 24 hours without phone or internet access. The culprit? A huge tree that fell and snapped a telephone poll. The phone wire stayed in the road with people driving over it for about 22 hours. Sad, huh? But all is well now.
• We ate some lettuce from the garden last week. It was delicious! Personally, I prefer spring lettuce to fall lettuce. Fall lettuce tastes bitter to me. I know there’s a reason why it’s bitter but I can’t remember – something with the sunlight and temperatures?
• I’m reading a really good murder mystery book called Blood Bayou. Watch for a review later this week.
• I’m hosting a giveaway this week starting tomorrow (Tuesday). It features an amazing book that every person who works from home needs to read. Make sure you come back to check that out.
• Mandy, the farm beagle, has decided that her new perch is the hood of my car. Whoever knew a beagle could jump up on the hood of a car, let alone sit there watching the world go by? Oh, and this is the beagle that has the supposed injured knee.
• Buttons, the previously missing cat, has gained her weight back and is romping and playing with the other cats. In her 2 weeks at home, she’s only ventured outside once and managed to get drenched in a sudden downpour. I think that put a damper on her wanting to go out more. I’m still curious to know where she was for 3 weeks, but I’m grateful she’s back home.
• I got my first deep fryer last week so we’ve been eating our share of fried chicken. Next up is homemade doughnuts. I adore doughnuts and really miss not living near a real doughnut shop. (Krispy Kremes don’t count as real doughnuts to me. My tastebuds crave the old-time bakery doughnuts with lots of icing and filling.) I’ve been known to make my husband get off the interstate at a random exit because I saw a sign for a bakery/doughnut shop in the distance. I’m hoping I can make yummy doughnuts right in my own kitchen.
• And finally, if you’re new around here, I live on a farm where it’s never boring especially since lots of critters roam our farm.

Are you curious about anything that happens on our farm? If so, leave me a comment (I love comments!) and I’ll tell you all about it later this week.

Yesterday, I showed you the flood waters on our farm.

Here are a few more as well as some from the area.

The creek in front of the barn. The ducks moved to higher ground for the day.

Looking to the left up the creek in front of the barn. The foot bridge was under water. The water is normally 2+ feet below the base of the bridge.

We took a drive in the big red truck. This is the mouth of another gravel road about a mile from our house. Notice the road sign. It warns that there is a “low water crossing bridge” and not cross when flooded. Hmmm… definitely ain’t crossing it! We guessed that the water was about 9-10 feet deep instead of its usual 6-8 inches.

To give you an idea of the average creek size (when it isn’t flooding), look at the left side of the photo. See that straight piece of water? That’s the normal creek width when contained in its banks. At the narrowest point, the creek is about 5 feet, widest is 10 feet, give or take a few feet. Remember that when looking at these next photos…

When we first left in the big red truck, we turned left at the end of our gravel road. A little over a mile down the road, we encountered this. In the distance is a house on the right and a mailbox on the left. The water was almost to the bottom of the mailbox. Good thing the mail lady didn’t come!

The creek expanded from hillside to hillside. On a regular day, this is green field with a narrow creek (like the one I pointed out earlier) winding through the field.

Again, think green field, narrow creek. Hard to imagine, isn’t it?

See that line in the middle of the water? That’s the horse ring where the local riding club has its shows. About once a year, this area floods but nothing like yesterday! That line is the top rail of an approx 4-1/2 ft high fence. The actual creek is not in the photo either so the water was much deeper in other areas.

Close up of the horse ring.

So, I’ve seen enough water for a long time. Unfortunately, it’s raining this afternoon. Are we getting round two?

On an average day, this is what it looks like out our front door. (This photo is from last summer.)

This is what it looked like at 7:15 a.m. today. Flash floods hit our area again, but this year’s is by far the worst we’ve seen. When all is normal, a large culvert pipe runs under our road and comes out under the forsythia bush. Two mountain streams and ditch line typically feed into the culvert pipe. In the previous picture, the red truck is just on the other side of the culvert. The culvert couldn’t handle today’s rains.

Looking left up the road.

Looking right down the road.

Looking across the road at more streams on the farm.

Water coming around the forsythia bush. Normally it should only be coming out from underneath it.

Mandy wasn’t too thrilled about getting wet feet walking across the road.

But after the water went down, she realized that flood waters leave all sorts of fun things behind.

Not so pretty, but this about two feet worth of river rock and silt left behind.

See that bit of grass sticking out to the left of the ditch line? That’s the normal ground level, pre silt and river rock.

Stay tuned for photos of our adventure down the road (The Great Flood of 2009, part 2). I’ll probably put them up tomorrow because I’m beat – my in-laws basement flooded and we spent hours dealing with that water.

Imagine my surprise when the Farmer walked in tonight with Buttons in his arms!

Buttons had been missing for 3 weeks to the day, and we assumed she had met up with some local predators.

The Farmer was out on the front porch when he heard a cat meowing. Way across the road, coming down the hill behind the chicken coop, was a black speck that looked like a furball. It was Buttons! And, yes, she is very vocal, and yes, you can hear her meowing a mile away.

Needless to say, we’re quite excited to have one of our furbabies back. Just last week, I wrote about our two missing furbabies, Winks and Buttons.

P.S. – Buttons isn’t allowed outside for a very, very, very long time.