Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Truck Rally Anyone?

We've been getting some good rain lately, and for that I've been very thankful.  It has taken the pressure off of me to keep everything watered and the garden is looking lush and green.  Until Sunday, the rain has been just enough but not too much.  The animal yard sits in the low part of our yard and a few days of rain makes it wet and somewhat muddy, but nothing too bad.  Well, Sunday was a nightmare.  It had already been raining throughout the week, but the bottom fell out on Sunday.  I'm talking serious flash flood rain.  I was putting everyone up for the evening when it really let go, and I mentioned to Nate that I saw some standing water in the coop, which I had never seen before.  At the point where our front ditch started flooding, I asked Nate to go out and check on everyone.  He was gone for longer than I expected, so I went outside to make sure he was okay.  He had been digging a drainage hole in the coop because it had filled with water.  The worst part is he found Pearl, our handicapped chicken, up to her neck in the water.  She can't get up high on the roost like the rest of the birds, so she stays on the bottom rung.  I guess the water overwhelmed her and she couldn't even get on the bottom rung.  She was close to drowning.  We brought her inside and put her in the bathtub  with a heat lamp over her.  She was soaking wet and shivering.  I thought if she makes it through the night, she's going to have some respiratory issues, so I went ahead and put some VetRx in some water for her.  The next morning I awoke to her clucking in the bathroom.  She is one tough bird!  So far she seems to be fine; however, the animal yard isn't.  It rained again most of Monday, and yesterday was clear, but it rained again last night.  Enough already!  The animal yard is a serious mud bog right now.  We could hold a major league truck rally.  Bigfoot?  You out there?  You want to have some fun, boy?  Since the yard is pretty shady, it's going to take several days to dry out.  Until then, I'll have to sink in the mud. 

Oh, and today is the day the meat rabbits will be harvested.  Stay tuned!

Happy homesteading,

Candace     

8 comments:

  1. Poor Pearl! What a good thing Nate went out to check when he did. So glad she's all right.

    The constant rain and resulting mud aren't good for animals, I agree. We've got a huge mud pit in the entry way to the goat shed, not good for healthy hooves. I keep putting straw and dried weeds down over it, but the chickens keep scratching it all up.

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  2. Happy to hear you saved your girl, holy smokes when it rains hard like that it sure can make a mess. I hope things start to dry out for you soon, hang in there.

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    1. Thanks, I'm so glad we saved her too! She was one of our first chicks and must be part cat because she seems to have 9 lives.

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  3. Leigh: I'm glad I trusted my intuition and sent him out there. We don't normally go back to the coop after we close it up at night. Those darn chickens! I hope your mud hole dries up soon.

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  4. Whew!! Glad you saved Pearl.

    I grew up with a handicapped chicken that we babied. The other chickens didn't really like her and treated her badly. When we would come out of the house, she would come running on her stubs to be held.

    We have been needing rain here in NW Pennsylvania. I have been hand watering and it gets old fast.

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    1. Awww, that's so sweet. We love our Pearl! She is one of our first two chickens when we started this journey over 3 years ago. I wish I could have sent some of that rain your way. We got more than plenty at once.

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  5. Oh gosh! So sorry to hear you've had to battle these conditions. I tell ya, if it isn't a severe drought and gardeners are fighting to save their plants, it's conditions like you're having with gardens and animals practically washing away. I truly hope the situation has gotten a lot better in the last couple of days for you. And lucky Pearl!!

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    1. The animal yard has finally dried out, but I can tell Pearl is having some post traumatic shock. I found her trying to sleep in the nest box last night.

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