How does one or more than one prepare for torrential rains when you are already getting heavy rain and winds. I’m not sure but it has to be done. This is what our forecast looks like for the next 5-6 days:

Yep rain and A LOT of it. And worse a rainy mass of hurricane named Joaquin is on its way to  extend the deluge.

I hate rain. Ok not so. I dislike this type of rain. Buckets of it after having little rain all summer. Like the saying goes when it rains it pours. We are going to have some flooding. Flooding right here on our little farm. Huge thumbs down on that.

We have had a farm todo list for much of the summer -or year – we’ve gotten some things done as money permits and one thing we didn’t get to yet was having French drains installed. Of course now we are talking about getting them. But it ain’t happening before this rain takes over.  No drain means big flooding in the step down covered area of the barn.

If you look at the picture below you can see to the right where the ledge drops down- thats where we are getting water draining into that area. 
That just not good for horses feet. So it’s prep time. I haven’t figured out how to block the area where the horses can stand without worrying that what I use as a block could be dangerous to them. Large sand bags come to mind but they could still be a tripping hazard for the horses. Maybe dumping a bunch of stone dust down will slow the water enough and maybe we could create some sort blockade.

And then there’s the poultry and waterfowl. I know my ducks love love love the water and it takes a lot of rain to get them to seek shelter but I’m thinking a hurricane might lure them into the coop. So we will be laying out shavings and moving food and putting up tarps. We have to fix the auxiliary coop where my roo Clark now lives with a rotating harem of ladies (he’s quite the guy). 

So what am I doing? Writing this and procrastinating BC I don’t like to be rushed anymore. I just get overwhelmed. And I saw the hurricane is days off – and we are in the “cone of shame” no that’s wrong- its the “cone of uncertainty” according to the Weather Channel- basically nobody knows where the heck Joaquin is going-but there is all the rain before the hurricane rain that we are supposed to have. So I guess I better get to the farm store TSC and off to Ace. I am not in catastrophe mode – I don’t get that way – I just try to make the best of the situation and we do our best to prepare. Mother Nature surely has the bigger muscles – so you can’t win only try to ease the blow by being ready.

In a way this is all good. It’s early prep for winter. If we get some of the chicken coop stuff done then we will be able to get on with other winter prep. I still haven’t ordered hay. It’s on the long todo list and since it’s a mandatory thing will get moved to the top.

Over the last year I’ve wondered if I wanted to stay living here and doing the farm thing. It seems like there’s always so much to do and stuff to fix. It’s so hard to keep up, But when faced with leaving- actually thinking about leaving the place I realize I am not ready. We want to settle at the beach but lately I have wondered if it could be a small farm near the beach in stead of one of those pretty, well manicured homes in a planned neighborhood- clearly I am not ready to give up the space and the animals – and then there’s also the beauty. This place is beautiful- the views, the air at night is sweet and crisp- I love walking along the lane and hearing the birds settling for the night and the frogs in the nearby pond. I could do without the winter and the storms and stuff breaking but in the long run this is a pretty great place to be. So I will get us prepped for the rain, wind and power outages and we will get through. The floods will recede and the ground will dry. It all part of life here and I am just not quite ready to give it up.

Thanks for reading –