Saturday, October 12, 2013

RAIN !!!!!

Wow, did we get hammered the past 2 days. Once I realized I had my own ' rain gauge' to measure and didn't have to rely on the small 2" sized one, I was amazed to find that our farm had gotten 5.5" of wonderful rain. It was a decent sort of rain too. Unlike the later season thunderstorms that hit, dump a lot of rain and then leave in an hour or so, this rain was steady but never a torrential downpour. Therefore, the hillside had a chance to drain/ run off properly.

Sometimes in the past, when we have gotten less rain, it had arrived so fast, hit hard and left but this rain didn't do that. Yeah- there was one helluva lot of it, but it didn't cause much trouble here. Other areas were deluged with flooding, over flowing creeks and damage. These are the times when I truly believe this land was blessed long ago. No seepage from the outside walls into any stalls, no puddles where the rain could have easily blown in the aisleway of our barn, and the horses all enjoyed being out in it immensely .

The equines here have ways of letting me know when they've had enough and want to come into their stalls, and no one was complaining but the 'ancients'.  Alli & Chance wanted to come in a little earlier on Thursday afternoon, so I brought all of the day time horses in at the same time. My drafters & Holly remained in all night as it was just to miserable to put them out for the whole night. Boy, were they glad to go out last night though !

Oh, did I have some true WET HENS . Have you ever seen one ? They look like well- wet hens. Soaking wet feathers do not look nearly as pretty as when dry. These chickens apparently do not mind the rains and even though there is a nice dry stall for them to huddle in our row barn behind the big barn, they don't stay in there. Noooooo- they're out pecking thru the manure mountain, or scratching for bugs in the grass. The only time they want to be 'in' is at dinner time. Of course food is more tempting, so they all come running when they hear " the chicken song'' from me. Ever watched chickens run ?  They remind me of little old people with their hands in their pockets, running like mad. RC will hop along in order to keep up sometimes. He is SO heavy and tall that the little gals can easily outrun him .

All in all, it was a nice rain here at WoodFinn, and all is well, once again, thanks to a bright and sunny Saturday.

Below is a photo of  'our creek' Last Fall. Until this rain hit, it was so low that one could easily count all of the slate / rocks on the bottom and was all but dry. Now ? Happy flooded little creek- full of clay colored water rushing down to the river.  I bet the wood ducks and mallards and herons are pleased.








2 comments:

roysfarm said...

Especially ducks and mallards become very pleased while it's rain.

WoodFinn Farm said...

Agreed ! One time when it poured like this- we had mallard ducks taking baths in our ring - it was fun to see them.