We have extra grand kids here tonight. I said they could come but no tv, computer, or video games. No electronic entertainment. They came anyway. Two hours was spent in the backyard building a fort using the swing set and tarps. Then they came in and played Battleship.
Meanwhile, I went out to feed the chickens and ducks. The barn is flooded as we have had 5 1/2 inches of rain since last Friday. There isn't much standing water but the soil is saturated. We rocked a path through the garden to the barn door and into the barn where the chicken feed is stored. That path was soggy but I didn't sink in. When I walked from the feed containers to the interior pen I sunk to above my ankles in mud. I was inside the barn! The pen itself is dry but there wasn't a pathway to get there without sinking.
Some of the young fruit trees are in standing water. I went out and shoveled water out and threw some sand down. I also put a handful of fertilizer around each tree.
Actually I'm pretty pleased that there aren't many problems due to the rain. 5 1/2 inches is half of our normal annual rainfall and we've gotten it in five days. The ground around the house is draining well and away from the house. The area with the septic tank is draining very well. There isn't any standing water near it at all. The trailer has a leak in the roof. I put plastic over it and will figure out exactly what happened after the rain stops.
At the dinner table we had a discussion about What If? What if the power goes out when we are sitting here eating dinner? Do we start screaming? Do we knock things over to get matches and light them? No, the kids all responded together. We get a flashlight. Who gets the flashlight? They all said that they would. I said no. An adult would. You would sit patiently and wait. Would you start waiving your hands and knock things over? No, we would wait patiently. What if there wasn't an adult around? The oldest person sitting there would get the flashlight. Would you all light matches? No. There are flashlights.
What about if you are in your rooms? Nothing. We'd use the flashlights in our bedrooms. We'd go to bed. What if you have to go to the bathroom? Can you do that without tripping over things? You should be able to get from your bed to the bathroom with your eyes closed and without tripping over things. You need to make sure your rooms are picked up. We need to be safe.
Do we expect the electricity to go off? No. But we plan for it and we practice. Remember there are some rules about being prepared. Believe in God and plan and practice. You won't have to worry, things will be fine.
The bug-out place...that's another story.
The dirt road is down cutting on both sides and pretty soon there will be a big gully where the road is supposed to be. I told the renter to deal with it as well as possible. We really can't do much about the road until spring. All we can do is try to divert the water. Male renter spends lots of time with a shovel in hand. At least they didn't have their vehicle parked at home when the creek rose. Their vehicle is parked on the correct side of the creek and they have to walk the mile in. Female renter has some medical issues and probably won't leave the property until spring and after the road is fixed. I made sure they had enough supplies stored to hold them over for a couple of months in case they didn't want to walk the mile out.
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