The Great Flood

So far this has been a hard winter and it's only just the beginning of January. We have a lot of snow and we have had a long spell of some of the coldest weather that I can remember. Several mornings recently of -20 degrees. Yesterday's high was only 17 degrees. Then today, the temperature shoots up to near 40 and it poured rain all day. 

When I got ready to go out and feed this morning, I looked out the window to see the driveway was glare ice. GREAT! I put on my barn shoes, slip my ice cleats and head out. Once past the driveway and heading across the front paddock, I find the previous solid ice, is now slush with lots of water under it and I'm punching though and getting very wet feet. When I reach the barn, I forget all about the wet feet as I suddenly see that is the least of my problems. I could only stop and stare as I see that the front stall of my barn is completely flooded! Water is pouring in the side door on the east side. AGH! I go back to the house to get boots. I grabbed Fred's boots as his are the tallest. I head back out to the barn, I step into the stall which is well over ankle deep and quickly discover that Fred's boot are NOT waterproof! I find they have holes in them! Again, I retreat back to the house to get my wellies and back to the barn once again. I wade though the front stall and go into the barn to find the front of the main aisle is flooded also as well as Marie's stall. My poor mare is standing in water well over her pasterns! There is also water coming into my feed room. Luke's stall and part of the main aisle are the only dry spots. I leaned against a gate and just had a good cry. Luke couldn't figure out what the problem was, he wanted his breakfast. Marie was wondering why Luke was living on a dry island while she was standing in a lake. 

After a good cry, I pulled it together as I knew what had to be done. I fed Luke and then I let Marie out into the aisle and fed her there and let her hang out munching hay in relative dryness. The water was coming in to the barn due to ice build up against the barn on the east side plugging up the drainage channel for the water. I got a shovel and ice pick and headed out to clear the snow and slush away from the barn. It was pouring outside and where I was working was right under the overhang of the roof, so I was getting drenched from that also. My rain coat quickly gave out and I just took it off. Once the snow and slush was cleared, I then had to chop through the ice to clear a drainage channel. Once that was done, it was time to begin bailing. It took me several hours to bail the stalls out as well as the front section of the main aisle. Once the water was out, then I had to strip down both the stalls which of course I had just filled with new shavings. For this I put Marie outside as it had stopped raining for the moment and I had to put Luke on the cross ties as the path to the manure pile is through his stall. I have not been using the wheelbarrow lately, just muck buckets and sledding them out to the manure pile. Very easy with just two equines in the barn. But, that was not going to work with so much soaked bedding to move. So, I had to shovel the wet sloppy path to the manure pile. Then I find my wheelbarrow tire is slack so I take it up to Fred's workshop to blow up the tire, then back to the barn and the shoveling begins. After standing quietly on the cross ties for about an hour, Luke started to protest his situation. I apologized to him and then told him to deal with it and continued to move wet soaked shavings out of the barn. 

When that less then fun task was done and I had Marie's stall quite dry, I put in new bedding and got her back into her stall. I put wood pellet bedding in her stall as that would work well with any residual dampness. I could not bring myself to put any water on them though after spending so much time taking water OUT of her stall. I then got Luke settled back into his stall much to his relief and gave both plenty of hay. I'm just so glad that Buckshot is over at Upper Pond Stables right now. Marie and Luke's stalls both have stall mats. The front stall that is Buckshot's is just dirt so though I removed the water, it is muddy and I can't put any bedding back in right now. Once the barn was all set, I went back out and worked on the drainage channel once more to make sure it was all draining well. 

Then, into the house for a HOT shower! You'd think I'd have enough water but the hot shower was good. Then some time to relax with a hot cup of coffee. I'm exhausted and will go to bed early tonight for sure. Right now though I have to suite up and head out for evening feeding. Praying to find my barn dry when I get there!