The Floodgates Open!

This winter has truly been bizarre. It began nice and normal and we were all excited to have a white Christmas. Nothing much happened until the end of January when the snow really decided to start coming. It snowed almost every day for awhile and it turned bitter cold. Here in Idaho we get the cold temperatures but then we have an abundant supply of something called wind. Just when you think it can't get any colder, a nice gust comes along and you realize just how warm it previously was.

This is how it was until we reached mid-February. One day we were facing single digit temps and I kid you not, the very next day we hit 40 degrees and rain. Most people might rejoice with such a drastic change. I was not one of those people. This is what I faced that morning:

When you take around three feet of snow and instantly turn the oven on along with a sprinkling system, the amount of water runoff is quite astonishing. Since it was still February we were in the middle of winter with a solidly frozen ground. The water was not going down it was running down. Down, right into our barn.

We had brought in some dirt last summer to raise the level of our barn, but clearly it was not enough. The animals, throughout the winter had nicely compacted all the snowfall in the barnyard which raised the height of the ground. Needless to say, our barn was a soggy, mucky mess. Three inches of standing water in most places. What did I do? I grabbed a shovel and a bucket and I began to bail. And bail. And bail some more. Three solid hours just to haul it out of the barn and I could look outside and see the floodgates opening for another round. I did this routine several times throughout the day. I was hoping it would freeze that night. It didn't. It rained. Next morning, five hours of bailing. I was beside myself with discouragement.

I tried using sand bags but they didn't do anything. The ground was solid ice so the water would create little rivulets right under the sand bags and flow directly into our barn.

Come to the rescue my husband and brother-in-law, Alex. They organized a force of young men about twenty-five strong ranging in age from 11-18. They came with picks, axes, shovels, sump-pumps, and shop-vacs and attacked the barnyard without mercy. It was a heaven sent blessing! Manure, muck, sloshy water was flying in all directions and no one escaped without signs and smell of barnyard upon them. They were amazing! I don't have photos of this awesome scene because I was running two and fro and buying four dozen doughnuts and pouring cups of chocolate milk.

Our barn hasn't flooded since!