Sludge

Our barn is just full of it, last night it was rain water, today it is sludge. It has been years since we have seen this much rain. Indian Creek has rerouted itself into our lower pasture and is still rising. The roaring sound of the creek, that is temporarily a river, is filling this valley.

Poor Calico and kids are on the only high spot in the stall. She isn't even wading the waters to go to her hay feeder. I was awake all night, it started with a glance at the weather radar when I knew something bad was going to hit us, there was no escape.

By the time that I got the computer shut down because I was starting to hear the thunder, it was here. There was no sleep after that. The lightening, thunder, hail and wind were really scary. I was just sure that we were going to get hit by a tornado any second. My DH just kept snoring, I talked to him anyway, he even answered.

I was expecting to find things blown all over the yard this morning and trees down but nothing seems out of place but our spring creek and Indian Creek. However, it does look like a jungle out there, the grass and weeds all grew several inches over night. The horses will have plenty to eat, they will all start getting obese again.

Poor Angus was outside in all of that mess, I don't know where he was but he didn't come into the barn before I had to close up everything. I had just closed the big sliding door to the barn, locked it and gone back to bed when I heard the cat hollering to be let in. So I went back out to let him in and he had already found another way. He looked like something that the cat had drug home. There was a lot of hail so I wasn't surprised to see him looking quite confused.

Twister

As far as I know we were not even in a tornado warning area but when the storm hit this afternoon, you could just about feel it in the air. The thunder and lightening, the hard rain followed by dime sized hail, then very strong wind gusts.

When is started to calm down I called the neighbors to check on them and even though they only live a little ways up the road they didn't get the hail. They were not even aware that they had been in any danger at all. They hadn't heard the severe thunderstorm warning.

The small town on the other side of us didn't fair as well. Several homes were destroyed, several injuries but nothing life threatening. We had to drive through the area for an appointment in town. We were nearly late because of the amount of sightseeing traffic. We passed car after car full of people just driving out to see the damage.

The Police closed the roads that were hardest hit, so other than one barn with it's roof peeled back, there wasn't much to see. When we came back through the area tonight after dark, we could see a large area with flood lights and you could still see the flashing lights on the police cars.

The people who decide whether it was a real tornado or not will be here tomorrow but since someone actually got a picture of it, I would say it was.

This is only the second time that we have had one come close to us since we have lived here but I was raised in an area that had them pass through on a regular basis, so I won't let two scare me too bad. Just another sign of Spring in Indiana.

Graceful

Today just wasn't my day. Things were going along fine until I started doing my morning feeding. The sky was overcast but after the dreadful storms that we have had for the last few days I just wasn't expecting what happened.

I started feeding as usual, I had turned Cinder out to go to the barn/house to be milked and fed Angel and the other five goats outside of the shed instead of inside because it wasn't raining and I wasn't expecting it to.

I grabbed ahold of Calico to drag her over to a big dog cage that we feed her in because she gets some calf manna mixed in her feed that the other don't. As soon as she saw her feed in the cage she took off on her own and as she jerked away from me, my feet went out from under me also.

It is just so sloppy and muddy right now in that lot after all of the rain that we have had. I hit the ground with a resounding thud and kept sliding in the mud even after I hit the ground hard with my left side.

When I got back on my feet there wasn't a spot on me that wasn't covered with manure and mud. I went to the house to try to clean myself up some before I milked. But by the time I got to the house the sky erupted with a vengence, high winds, thunder, lightning and pouring rain.

I couldn't leave Calico out in that cage and I didn't want the rain to get into all of the grain that I had just put into their feeders. So I went back out there and it was raining so hard that it hurt. I didn't mind getting some of the mud and manure washed off of me but this was ridiculous.

By the time I made it back to the lot that I had just left, there was already two inches of rain in their feed pans and the grain was just ruined as far as my picky goats were concerned. I released Calico and put both of the feed pans in the shed but they wouldn't touch it with that water in it.

I made it back to the house/barn and washed up enough to milk. While I was trying to milk poor Cinder the storm just raged on and the sound of the hard rain, high winds, thunder, then large hail on the metal roof made her somewhat nervous. I was nearly finished when I noticed that the water was getting pretty deep at my feet. Our barn flooded worse this time than it has ever done before.

There are still severe storm warnings out tonight and a tornado or two touched down in some areas around us yesterday. So far we haven't had any damage and for that I am thankful.