And the Rains Came

Wednesday had possible storms in the forecast–both morning and evening. I was already rather grumpy because the predicted rainfall totals showed my farm getting between a quarter and a third of an inch.

However, at this point, since we are still in a moderate drought any rain is welcome. I was a bit surprised when we actually got a tenth of an inch in the morning. I was hoping this little extra might put the total for the day closer to half an inch.

I did my chores early in the afternoon, just in case we actually got some; however, the app on my phone was showing pretty much all of the rain missing me. Then the rains came. It sprinkled enough that it brought the goats up from pasture.

Daisy in the doorway; Popcorn outside (don’t worry–he went in when it got bad)

The wind and rain picked up. They built up and then began back building and we spent about two hours under a severe storm warning.

There was a tornado warning in there for a while. Actually, there were at least twelve confirmed tornadoes touching down in the state yesterday. This rotation was radar indicated, so I don’t think there was anything that touched down with this warning, thankfully.

When it was all said and done, we also ended up under a flash flood warning. Trust me, I did not flood. I live on the top of a hill. Thank heavens.

At one point there were four advisories (these and a thunderstorm warning)

The next morning, I went out to assess the damage. The garden obviously had some wind.

There was obviously some rotation here too. I don’t know how else those tomatoes would be in three different directions. I do think everything up here will recover.

I think the only real damage was the loss of my tarp hut.

Could have been a pool if the board hadn’t gone through it.

There was no way it could survive the weight of all that rain pooling in it.

Don’t worry, Freddie. I’ll fix your tarp hut

The next problem was trying to figure out how much rain we got. My food pans only hold about four inches.

I didn’t get the water tubs filled yesterday. I figured they would be easier to dump and scrub the next day if I let the goats drink them out more, but I have no idea how much it was, and the trees would impact the level as well.

I finally decided the big tub where the goats like to nap would give me my best estimate.

According to this tub, we got about 5 1/2 inches of rain in the two hours of this severe storm.

Grateful beans and pasture

This is all rain that soaked into the ground. You might have noticed that the barnyard wasn’t really muddy. It’s wet, but that rain all went into the ground. I can hardly wait to see next week’s drought monitor.

Thunder and Lightning

This has just been a crazy June kidding season.  The morning after Moira had her little Pretzel, Sidney went crazy.  I still had her in the Love Shack, and she was screaming her head off. I went out to see what was wrong with her, and she took off running from me crashing into a corner of a panel cutting herself.  I tried to give her space, but she was still constantly yelling.

Sidney

Then when the rest of the herd went out to pasture, she decided she had to escape.  That means she put her head through the panels.  The fourth time she got her head stuck in a half an hour, I put her in the pen I had made in the Love Shack for Moira and let Moira into the rest of the building and outdoor pen.  That didn’t do much to calm her down.  She yelled, she pawed, she was just a lunatic.

This went on all day.  Finally, late in the afternoon, we had some rain come through, and she settled down a little.  Sometimes, those weather fronts really mess with them when they are pregnant, so I thought maybe she wasn’t in labor and it was just weather.

She continued to settle down, and she actually looked calm and relaxed when I checked her about 6:00.  She was just resting and chewing her cud.  When I went back out around 7:00 during a thundershower, she had two kids with her.

Sidney has two little boys: Thunder and Lightning.

Lightning

Thunder

In the continuing of the drama, when I found her, she was still having contractions.  She would lie down and then not push.  I didn’t know if she had a third one that she was having a hard time having or what. I left her for a while and came back to find nothing.  She had another contraction, but there was no placenta and no new kid.  She would not let me check her because she’d been crazy all day.  So I called the vet.  Dr. Aimee came out and announced there was not another kid.  When she was pulling her hand back out, she ended up pulling out the placenta that was all wadded up right there but not coming out.  How weird, but it did explain her behavior.  So lots of drama, but everyone is doing well.

Sidney with Thunder (Lightning is curled up behind her).

I hope the last two girls are way less dramatic than the rest of these June girls (Zinnia being the exception).

The Drought Continues

I see the blue skies and puffy clouds and wish they were rain clouds.  Our drought has continued.

They said on the news that we are nearly seven inches down on rain for the year, and we were already dry going into this year.

We are also ridiculously hot for this time of year.

Dolly checking out the tall grass right before it was mowed

My hay was mowed, but it isn’t going to grow much until we get more rain.

That worries me for my soybeans.

It worries me for my pasture.

Aurora and Maybeline

I have already been watering the garden almost every day.  Ironically, the weeds are the only things that are doing well there.  The row stuff is pretty spotty, but I don’t think it would do much good to replant.

There’s a few corn plants coming up in there.

Well, the tomatoes look okay with the watering.

tomato and blossom

We really need rain, but even when we’ve had those gray clouds I haven’t gotten anything.  One afternoon, my mom got rain (a couple of miles from me) and I could see rain in the distance and hear thunder, but my farm had only a few sprinkles.

It didn’t even slow down my watering the garden.

watering a broccoli plant

Please send rain.