When It Rains

Things went well with Skittles over the weekend, and I continued with Popcorn coming in another time on Monday.  But it was just a few minutes because I was crazy busy and also trying to prepare for a round of what could be severe weather approaching. Because I had put Zora in the garage, I took my car up north and put it in the building up there.  When I got up on Tuesday morning, I noticed one of the llama food pans had hit the ground, and it was completely full of water.  I checked my rain gauge.

5.8 inches

And that is why we were still in a moderate drought and under a flood warning at the same time.  The trip to work revealed some of the flooding in the fields.

By the trees is a small creek; the rest is farm fields.

There are lots of ponds in the farm fields.

I remembered to check the drought monitor when it came out Thursday morning, and we at least moved up to abnormally dry after all that rain.  When I was at work, there was another round of rain that came through.

Then they let us out of school an hour early because the next round was potentially quite dangerous.  I went straight home.  That was when the vet came and confirmed that Zora was aborting.  As soon as he left, I drove my truck into the garage with Zora.

Zora

It was not long after he left that the storm drew closer and left me with tornado warnings on three sides of me.

I scrambled to try to get the five cats shut in the bathroom in the basement.  I only managed to get four of them in there because Herbie was already playing in the basement ceiling.

Herbie likes to jump on the duct work and make noise.

Then Sky and I went out to the soap room.

Sky looking for “snacks” from the goats.

It was not long before the rain started.  All the goats had been shut in the barnyard because of the llama/coyote situation, so they all went running for the barn.  Except Zinnia saw me watching out the milk room door and thought she should get to come in to get milked.  She might have heard me call to Antigone.  That girl is the bottom of the food chain.  She’d never make it in the barn, so she came into the milk room to wait out the storm.

Antigone (they all got to go out to pasture when I was home over the weekend–just had to wait until later in the morning)

Miraculously, all the storms died down, and I was never under a tornado warning.  Thursday evening, the news was calling for more storms overnight that might produce some hail.  So I drove my car back up north and walked back to the house.  I was really glad I had done that because when the cats woke me up at 4:30 am, I decided to check the radar.  Once again, there were tornado warnings headed my way.  I took the hanging plants off the front post and brought them back inside.  I put the truck in the garage.  I kept checking to see if the storms were going to die down again, but they didn’t.  I caught four of the cats and put them in the basement bathroom.

See–they really can get along. Herbie in front; Rocky, Salem and Tiger in back

This time, because it was Tiger trying to play with Rocky that woke me up, I put Rocky in the pet taxi and took him out to the soap room.  Then they issued a tornado warning for me. Sky and I went back out to the soap room.  This time, we did get hit by a storm, but thankfully, we just had rain and hail and winds.  There was no damage.

Rocky, Sky and I were in the soap room while the winds howled and the hail hit the building.

My heart breaks for all those who have lost so much.  We’ve had more tornadoes in Iowa this year than any other state.  We are way above what we usually see.  The round that came Friday morning was a derecho.  When I got home on Friday, I checked Zora first thing, and it was finally time for her to deliver the fetus that she lost.

Zora resting by her hay

It was not easy, and I had to have the vet come back to help again.  Between the rough delivery and anemia, she’s a pretty sick girl.  I am not sure how she’s going to do, but I’m trying.  And I am exhausted.