The worst part about snow is after the snow.
I loved my clean dogs and horses in the snow.
Now they are almost unrecognizable...and definitely NOT photograph worthy...sigh...
And this time around, because we had such a long cold spell, the ground if frozen down many inches, and the melting snow (and yesterday's rain) has no where to go...except where we don't want it to go of course!
There's 6 inches of standing water inside the front of the barn for about the first 12 feet. My Man tried to get a ditch dug for drainage with the tractor, but the ground is too frozen to hardly make a scratch...so we wait...
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| Yesterday's mornin' feedin'...slick! |
It's been about three years since the "water fall" off the rim rock behind the barn has happened. When there's enough melting snow and rain along with the frozen ground, all the water has to go somewhere...downhill of course...
Many years ago, there was a mud slide from a similar situation, and the story we heard is that the mud made it into the house that was standing there at the time (not our house). So, to prevent that from happening again, a berm was dug on the topside of the rim rock and it directs all the water past the back of the house to a spot behind the barn.
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| The waterfall off the rim rock. |
It was getting dark yesterday afternoon when I took these photos...sorry for the blurry focus.
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| The beginning of the "creek." |
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| The flowing water heads on out behind me through the two horse pastures then into the alfalfa field. There's about two inches of water where I'm standing. |
When we had done what we could to divert water and finished feeding, the water fall was coming down twice as much as the photo.
This morning, it's but a trickle since it's almost freezing again and the rain has stopped. There's been some snow flurries this morning, but I don't think it's going to amount to too much.
I've got Colt, Pierce and Whiskey all paddocked separately, and I feel that they are safe from slipping on the ice...that's my main concern.
OK...one more photo...Rastus was bored yesterday...
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| Hmmmm...flower beds make good dog beds too it seems. |
I'm going to have to keep an eye on him when planting season comes...but he is awfully cute!
Love your little waterfall, but I'm sure you'd prefer it to drain somewhere besides you barn!
ReplyDeleteThere was a little bit of rain in the valley yesterday, but it petered out before it reached our place. But we had about an inch of snow the other night, on top of a layer of ball-bearing sleet, on top of the freeze-thaw-freeze-thaw-freeze ice in all the paddocks. Makes for treacherous chores, and, as you said, I worry about the critters.
That fall drains around the barn? Can't you re-direct the water somehow...put in a culvert. We had to do that when we lived in VA..hard and not cheap but it worked!!...:)JP
ReplyDeleteLooks slick and cold!Terrible combination! Hope you all stay layered up and warm!
ReplyDeleteOh goodness! What a MESS!
ReplyDeleteI hear ya' on muddy critters not being photo worthy, our gray mare is now pretty much brown! ;)
Eww, I want a melt but am not looking forward to ice and mud and all the work that entails.
ReplyDeleteI use lava rock in my flower boxes to keep my rattie Bonnie Sue and Daisy Mae from lying in them to cool off in hot weather,its kinda like pointy ouchy sharp mulch!Most of the time it works pretty good,dog repellent sprinkled in among the flowers will work also.
ReplyDeleteLooks very slick, be careful.
ReplyDeleteJP~In my Sunday Stills post today I clarified my flooding issue a bit better ;~)
ReplyDeleteLaverne~Yes, a great idea. Last year, I did that in a half barrel planter. Looks like I'll have to do that in this planter this year!