Flooding at farm

Its raining again!!!

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IOWA

My heart goes out to all of you experiencing flooding.

However, please be careful with your garden harvests. Those floodwaters likely contain all sorts of stuff that would be very bad to consume including fecal matter and chemicals. I don't think I would eat any produce that had already formed. It's just not worth the risk.

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Survivalism. It's not just for survivalists anymore.

Hey.

Sorry to hear you got hit so hard. I can see you put the RT65 thru it's paces.

We've had alot of rain here in WI also...last two years it was drought conditions...from one extreme to another.

Technically you could move the tomatoes to higher ground and probably save them.

RF

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It's not good enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required. - Winston Churchill

We're expecting severe storms tonight with large hail and tornadoes possible. However the forecast for the amount of rain has dropped some, which will help. Our prayers are with all our brothers & sisters who are dealing with this stress... I don't think there's anyone in Iowa who isn't being touched in one way or another today.

If my DH's company loses power, he will be flown out to their emergency backup site in another state; he's already been told to be prepared for little to no warning time. The highway 20 miles south of us is under water. One highway north of us is nothing but a huge lake, and the main highway we use to get to the city is getting close to being flooded out. There's one other alternative route we could take which would increase travel time significantly... but at least it still appears safe.

The ground is completely saturated and has been for a long time now. I'm getting concerned about all the huge trees that our home is built around. What was intended for protection, could end up causing us structural damage if they start falling. We've already had a lot of land sliding around our many creeks on the property.

But we are blessed that we are not near any rivers. Our home is built up high enough with good drainage around it so we haven't had to deal with water seeping in.

Praying this next round of storms decrease in intensity before they arrive, and end up not bringing near the amount of rainfall forecast.

This is getting just ridiculous!!! It is about 10:50pm and we are getting hit with another big thunderstorm. What a terrible story here in Iowa a boy scout camp got hit by a tornado tonight, at least four dead.

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IOWA

This weather is really starting to make me mad. Last night about 11:00 we heard the biggest thunder crash and lightning that I have ever heard. We knew it must of hit a tree in our yard or something. This morning I went out and sure enough one of our big trees was split at the base of tree up to about 8 or 9 feet. It is about to fall on my Royal Palm turkey building. Worst yet, at the base was an chicken tractor that I was keeping a mother duck with her 16 babies. 8 of them were dead laying on ground. The rest were up in box with their mother. Could they have been electricuted? I was just sick! To me this is worse then our house flooding.

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IOWA

Send me some rain. I'm not wanting a huricaine (I can't spell, sorry Moopups). We are getting the high temp thunder storms but little rain.

Wow, the hits just keep on coming
That must have been awfully hard to see, right on the heels of so much devastation, hard work, and sleepless nights.
I don't know what to say, other than I'm thinking about y'all.

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Our homestead-in-the-making: Palazzo Rospo
Eating the dream

I'm so sorry to hear you are going through this. I don't have TV so I am only hearing little snippets here and there on the radio about what is going on. It's an entirely different story to read someone's first hand account.

Just keep hanging in there. I wish I knew what to say.

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Anne
Give me a sweet home set among the trees,
With friends whose words are ever kind and true.
-Phoebe Carey-

LONE PINE FARM
Barnesville, PA
Boer goats, Angora goats, Eclectic mix of poultry

Wash any leaves that are showing in your garden. The fine silt chokes the respiration cycle. You won't loose as many as you think. you will have a bumper crop from replanting with the nurtreants brought in. The problem is now you will have a different soil type (More silt) and clay. Our prayers are with you.

Looking at those pics and thinking how petty it seems that I'm upset over a fourth of the lower garden being a virtual swamp as well as my intended herb garden being too wet to set up all pretty.

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~Falcon

Spreading lanolin love one fleece at a time.
It's a wooly job, but someone's got to do it.

If you wash the mud off those tomato plants right away they will be fine. If you have had a good rain since the flood that should do it, too. It will help the pasture grasses to get clean also.

So sorry things have been so hard We will be thinking of you 'and praying for you to get some relief.

We have had a couple of good rains since the flooding and for the most part everything has been washed off. It looks like about half of the tomatoes are going to make it. All 40+ pole bean plants are DEAD! Onions are questionable right now, I really can not tell. I have carrot planted in several different locations and some of them will survive. Gourds and pumpkins not sure, they don't look good but could rebound. Zuchini might make it. Some Indian corn seems to be ok. Luckily I planted potatos on higher sloping ground so they really were not under water very long. Strawberries still look good because they were in raised area. I am sure there is more but that is all I can think of right now. We just got done yesterday cleaning out basement, removing final furniture and carpet that got wet and ruined. We are going to town today to see what options we have as far as redoing concrete floor instead of putting carpet or tile down. I told my sons that all I want for fathers day is to have them help remulch, clean-up, and re-plant the garden area so that is our plan for sunday.

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IOWA

Getting things clean-up today. Rolls of carpet out of basement
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We were throwing small rollsof carpet out basement windows
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Branches from storms and wind, boys are going to have bonfire tonight.
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My sons have been a great help, these are my two youngest sons cleaning up front yard.
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IOWA

I went through our closest town here in indiana yesterday. the first I'd been in there since the flood last weekend (I was trapped in town at my brothers but only his garden was damaged). there are some areas where people are dumping the entire contents of their houses and garages plus drywall ripped out because everything was destroyed.

I know a few people who lost everything without flood insurance. they all lived in 100 year flood plains and no one in our lifetimes had seen it flood like that (my neighbor is 93 and has lived here his whole life).

out in the country here it was mostly just the roads and creeks though I've talked to some farmers in bottom lands who's crop was washed away and they won't be replanting this year. I assume they have some type of insurance for that.

there is a creek that runs beside my parents farm. a small creek though it does get high sometimes. they had just bought a john deere riding mower and didn't finish mowing their 4 acres before they were called away to a funeral. I decided to *do them a favor* and finish mowing for them (and try out the new mower). got it stuck in the mud and decided I'd better leave it there in case I tore it up trying to pull it out. they were do back the next day. that night we got 11 inches of rain and it was totally submerged the next morning. at 630am I could still see the top but by 830 am it was all under.

they don't have flood insurance because their old farm house sits on a hill that only a noahs ark flood could reach. I'm hoping this won't be a horribly expensive mistake but preparing myself for the worst!

it looks like from what they show on tv in iowa it is very widespread. here in indiana there are alot of people effected but still a fraction of what it looks like there. good luck and will be praying it dries up for awhile!

I run a paper route and found out sat morning that two bridges and a dam I crossed that morning for my route collapsed about 2.5 hrs after I was on them. glad I didn't know what was going to happen! all I kept wondering that night was why in the world was this thunderstorm following me everywhere. normally my route is so long (100 miles) that I'll eventually drive out of it.

I had to try about 4 different roads to get back into town though and then began to wonder since I had never seen any of them flood in my life before (almost 50 years). then the sheriff stopped me for a flooded state highway and said we'd had 8 inches.

unbelievable really. they are guestimating 100 million - 200 million in losses in this county alone. based on the road damage I pass on my route I'd say it was leaning towards the high end. but I commend our state highway dept, they have already got one bridge and most of the gulleys fixed that I travel. the other bridge isn't very well travelled and is probably at the bottom of their to do list. and the dam will take a while, its a private lake resort area they have to fix themselves.