Soggy Cow Breakfast

Last night at 8 pm the snow came. I was happy.

I expected to wake up to a winter wonderland.

I did not.

At some point in the night it all turned to rain and lots of it.

The cellar and garage are flooded.  The garage has never flooded before.

All attempts to direct the water away from the building has failed.

The roads have 3 inches of water on them and it has nowhere to go.

Worse yet was that the cows were not happy this morning either.

Wanda was giving me the "hairy eyeball" look as I moved towards the hay rack, showing me her displeasure with my lateness with her favorite meal.

Thankfully, all our hay made on this farm was wrapped this summer since we did not have a barn to store it in. So the hay is dry, tasty and very nutritious.  Wanda approves.

It makes me happy to see the cows munching on hay that is as fresh as it was on the day it was made, wrapped up and stacked.  It smells sweet and warm, exactly like it did in July.

By the time I finished watering the cows and cutting the plastic and twine off the "breakfast bale" I was soaking wet. Even though I had dressed warm and worn my heavy duty raincoat.

Sitting on a slushy, wet, freezing tractor seat really chills the bones.

And soaks the bottoms of my carhart pants.

The cows don't seem too bothered with all the rain.

They are more bothered with the fact that I spent too much time trying to redirect the flood waters away from the house.

Cows wear watches and they always know when its feeding time.  They insist on punctuality.

If you are tardy, they will let you know.

Wanda is my time keeper cow.

I imagine many people are experiencing flooding and water issues today.

I am very thankful that all this rain didn't turn to ice as it was predicted to.  That would of been disastrous and.......the cows would of had to wait even longer for "meals on wheels" since it would of taken me longer to slide down the road to feed them. There would of been a mutiny

It is such a miserable day that the streets in the village are empty.  That is very unusual.

Hope you and your livestock are all staying dry. 

I am going to need my kayak to get to the cows tomorrow if this rain doesn't stop.

~

Hurricane Cows

The rain arrived quietly at 1 am this morning.

At 9 am it came down harder.

I went down to the herd just as the wind started.  It was just a hard breeze. Not a damaging wind--yet...

The herd are now on the highest and driest part of the farm.  Lots of grass to eat and some protection from the wind.

The first thing I saw as I drove up to them was that Guy,Y-1, was on the wrong side of the fence.

Don't know how he got out and I wasn't going to dismantle the fence to get him back in, so there he stays till he figures out how to go back to his mom.  He has lots to eat on "his side' of the fence.

The herd was calm in the rain.

But they were defiinately wanting some treats.

So, because there was a Hurricane coming, and because I had a 12 year old guest who had never fed cows before and because I just happened to have 2 full boxes of cinnamon covered nabisco graham crackers--the cows had an Irene feast.

My camera got soaked as we opened and fed 6 packages of snacks.

As we were feeding the cow, the wind started getting stronger and the rain came down harder.

I know the cows will be OK.     The raging stream is now 1/8th of a mile away from them.

I will go back later to check on them again.

Parts of Vermont are flooding, especially in the southern part of the state.  8 emergency shelters have opened and some evacuations are taking place.

Many roads are already closed because of flooding and Irene isn't even here yet.

The electricity has already gone out a few times this morning....

Hope you and your animals are high and dry.