The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: Hilarysmum on January 11, 2008, 05:37:17 pm
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Its raining, the gentle bubbling stream of yesterday has become the terror flood throwing itself across the fields creeping towards the arcs with deadly insistence. The pigs are in their element, digging in the ooze. My wellingtons will never ever recover. Does anyone know where to apply to have the tap turned off for a few days?
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If I knew, I would do it. To be fair, we had some sunshine today (I was at work, but saw it through the window) but there seems to be bad flooding in Gloscestershire.
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yeah i have been in south wales for the last couple of days and it is the worst rain i have seen for ages. We travelled from scotland in blistered only to find that it never stopped rainning untill the last day and then when we came back up only to find that later in the day they got rain,sleet and snow all with in minites of each other.
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oh yes ...good ole Wales ...we get the lot here...although the sun word never gets used that much !!!! I call the land the Somme, in winter. Knee deep in mud with the consistancy of single cream . Oh the good life ?????? if you could hear my language when I am feeding the horses in howling wind and torrential rain , you wouldn't call it the good life. The other day it was very windy and rainy and as I turned, to go and get some more haylage for the horses , the wind caught my waterproof filled it with wind like a parachute ,and I nearly took off . The only thing that kept me on the ground was the mud ,top of welly boot deep. I do tend to use the word WHY a lot....plus a few others I can't type out on here..........................
cheers
Russ
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hehe lots of rain.
Linz
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mud mud glorious mud, nothing quite like it for....... getting your wellies stuck as ever growing pig beasts try to get the bucket of feed out of your grip, ending in a another pile of very muddy clothes. also much hideous language which i'm sure my neighbours can hear. i pulled something in my back this weekend trying to sort out new pig fencing, so i could move them onto slighly shallower mud. ( wrenched my arm last week trying to stop male pig wrecking fence). every time i leave a container alone for a day or two i am amazed at how much water is in it. i have to laugh when i look at my reflection, bedraggled and mud splattered, wellies, waterproofs, wooly hat and gloves all soaked through, dragging stuff about in stormy weather. for what? the sheer fun of it all, the fresh air, the exercise and the tasty rewarding meals.
please, if you know where the tap is ... give it a turn for a week or two.
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but that what you signed up for, it's in the small print !!!
:) hehe
linz
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Stream has joined up with pond. The fences are drowning, pig water container has floated off somewhere, pigs have helped by chewing the roots of an oak tree bringing it down over the fences. Postman came in very late having rounded up several of them.
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We have just spent the last five hours securing the bakery roof with ropes - re fencing in order to move Vanessa and Delboy to safety, and wheelbarrowing a ton of straw to there new quarters which was taken by the wind over and over again. Just now have been let off the hook while John is still out there now doubling up on the feed for everyone. I came in soaked to the skin, my wellies were sloshing inside and every single layer was stuck to my skin. I cannot remember feeling so cold. I peeled off at the door and have just come out of a very hot shower which was a big mistake because my face now looks like a tomatoe, my legs are red and blochy and itchy and I have pins and needles in my hands and feet. It is hell on earth here in Normandy. I really did not sign up for this!
You cannot see where the stream ends and the ponds begin. The water containers are goodness knows where - the water baths are overflowing and gushing - the pigs are piled high in a pyramid sensibly keeping out of it all and the stupid chickens instead of staying inside, are now being blown around in the wind hardly able to stand. Hopefully when they follow the food bucket John can lock them in. Even the geese are sensible to stay in their huts on the pond. The only happy ones are the ducks who are in ducky heaven and rooting around in the mud having a great time.
DOES ANYONE ON THIS FORUM HAVE ANY NICE WEATHER - YOU KNOW THAT BIG YELLOW BALL CALLED THE SUN? DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY NICE WARM BREEZES RUSHING THROUGH THEIR HAIR?
Dreqm on I suppose! Now I am off to make a nice cup of ever so sweet tea, and I don't even have sugar in my tea, but in the absence of comfort food which I still have to make, sweet tea will have to do!
Kate
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sorry to hear about all the mishaps......it has been a lovely day here today ....but loads of rain all lastnight. Rivers over the top etc etc...but apart from just being even wetter than normal, nothing terrible has happened on my land,(so far). At least you will have some fire wood from the Oak (if it is yours?). Hope you get it all sorted ok soon .Good luck !!!!
cheers
Russ
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Just read your post Kate,
blimey , sounds like you are getting it bad out there.....I really don't want to rub it in ...but yes we have nice weather here today . Gone a bit cloudy now, but it has been sunny and warm all day ......From the knees up it has been great ...from knees down it is even deeper creamier mud ... I really do hope the weather breaks for you soon out there. Here it is set for more and more rain and wind, so we may get what you are getting soon. I think it is worse over on the eastern side of the UK ,so we must just be lucky for a change. Enjoy the tea, and try to forget about the wet clothes !!! ( oh how I detest getting that wet) .
cheers
Russ
weather update.....just seen the news and there are 49 flood warnings in England and Wales. Severe weather warnings in place too. They are saying that flash floods are probable all week . Loads of places already flooded ,roads closed and people getting ready to get out. Time for another coffee I think ....Russ
weather update update.....3.30pm here now and the clouds have turned very black and the rain is just starting ...here we go again.....at least we did see the sun here....
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its been raining down here in kent all day! very grim! still the comute to work was fun splashing through all the puddles like a 5 year old!! could only see 1 tree blown over and one car smashed up on exactly the same place i almost got hit by a rubbish lorry a couple of weeks ago (through no fault of my own!!) im dreading going home incase the roofs have blown off the cat runs and chicken run again! that will be me up a ladder / clambering over the roof of the summer house with a drill and screws in the pitch black! still i dont envy those of you who have to trapse through all the thick mud! being an office worker does it seems have its benefits after all!!! ;D
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Have dug a trench from our pond to the stream which is helping to alleviate some of the flooding. The road at both ends is under water, but good news the tammies have finally decided to go back into their field and stay there. Kate I am thinking of you. HM
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John finally came in - 9 hours later! There were no words - he peeled everything off at the door and
re - appeared half an hour later in joggers and dressing gown ready for a well earned casserole. Delboy and Vanessa are now settled into their new home, and despite the problems getting it there, they are enjoying the straw, and all that could be seen at 6 o'clock were contented piggy noses peeping through.
What a day! Good luck to everyone if this weather we have had today is heading in your direction.
Steven please don't go up any ladders - be careful!
To every one out there, be snug tonight and well dressed tommorrow!
Kate
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It's rained here for a couple of days. The field is full of very large puddles. The horses have had to stay in for 2 days now (they aren't happy about that). I had a walk over the field earlier to see what the drainage dyke is like at the back of the field, it is looking quite full. I'm hoping it wont get as bad as it did in the summer, when the field was totally under water for a night. I'm having to walk through lots of mud all the time (roll on summer), at least i haven't got lots of animals to see too, just the horses, chickens and ferrets.
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It wasn't too bad here yesterday. Dry for most of the day. Forecast heavy snow tomorrow though.
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Pigs can swim. Ours are enjoying the piscine that was their field.
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Hope yesterday's extreme weather has abated for everyone and their animals who had to get through it.
This morning going through Glasgow the road was actually dry in patches and the forecast is that it will be dry today and the sun may actually make a guest appearance but back to rain tomorrow.
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hope things are improving kate and john. we have had lots of rain and more is forecast. the water table is very high and has started to bubble up behind my buildings. when i came home last night i could hear the torrent rushing down the yard and flowing into next doors paddock. water has got into most of my buildings, but nothing is harmed as i keep thing s off the ground just in case. we are 650 feet above sea level near the top of a hill but water still is a problem due to bad drainage and one neighbour sorting his own drainage out to the detriment of the rest of us.( they are poncey horse owners who moan about everything we do including kite flying, pigs, chickens and even strimming). i need to put land drains down one side for about 600 yards to send the water down the valley into the river. it also means i have not had the oppertunity to sort out my veg patch. i have postponed the idea of increasing my pig herd just now, as i cannot guarantee that any new arrivals would be secure and dry.( the lady i was buying new weaners from was telling me of her plight in having a new born lamb washed down a storm drain and having to rescue it).is this climate change? if so we will all have to adapt and get webbed feet or flippers.
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I diddnt have to clamber onto the roof last night as for possibly the first time ever some diy i have done completley on my own hasnt fallen apart!! i was well chuffed as were the scottish wild cats and chickens lol neither of which seemed to care about the rain they just wanted food!! ive been hearing that today is supposed to be ok for everyone wether wise but tomorrow is supposed to rain again and because the ground is already saturated they (met office / bbc) are worried about the threat of flodding in many areas. Good luck to all of you who will be trapsing through the mud for i imagine some time yet! :)
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Gosh Carl, you seem to have it pretty bad as well. Things have calmed here today - no wind thank goodness, but it is trying to drizzle a little. The severity of it all just takes your breath away doesn't it. I think you are right though, we do have to adapt and totally re think our layouts and make sure we have adequate drainage to cope.
Your decision to hold on re your pigs is a sensible one I think. They add to the problem of the mud totally with their digging around. There is nowhere on our smallholding that isn't deep soggy mud. Even the normal firmer ground is struggling to cope with a horrible glutenous mud on the top of it. Believe it or not though after all of this, the stream has once again stopped flowing, presumably burst its banks, so that will mean another few hours rebulding them - not today though. Tommorrow is another day!
Just spotted Stephens posting and thankful that you didn't have to go up any ladders! If you want to paratice your diy skills a little more, I can offer you full board here if you can finish me just one room to live in!!
The vision of swimming pigs HM just makes my day. Unfortunately here the luxurious pool/spa made by Delboy next to the overflow of the big pond has all but been totally destroyed. I guess he and Vannessa will get their hard hats on today and have a go at re enstating it. Well what is a boy to do after all when he is used to the 'Good Life'! His street cred in well in the pan - with no spa there is nothing to attract the 'babes' because he certainly does not have the good looks. He may be a gentle giant but he is an ugly brute!!
Have a nice day everyone and enjoy the lul!
Kate
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Well its dry here now. It was a bit drizzly earlier on when i took the kids to school. I had to take a ferret to the vets earlier and the river is looking quite high. Hopefully it wont rain for too much longer and the land can start to dry out abit.
Carl i know what you mean about the horse owners next to you. My neighbour is just the same. They moaned when the farm next door to them got pigs. You've got to expect farm animals on a farm or smallholding.
I might let my horses out for the afternoon if it is forecast to stay dry :-\ and just hope that they aren't too mental to lead over there.
I hope everyone is enjoying the break from the rain for a day.
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beautiful day here again today. Blue skies all day so far, with the birds singing it almost sounded like a spring morning.....hehehe...not yet me thinks.....very heavy rain forecast for tomorrow and Friday. Although my land is the sides of hills with the river at the bottom ,it is at about200 meters high, so very little chance of flooding .It is just the sheer amount of water that causes problems. My horses are outside all year , they were bought up like that before I got them ,so they know no different . They are very hardy and grow really thick coats to cope with the weather. The problem with some neighbours is a pain sometimes. Coming from a London suburb council estate myself, I am not having a go at all people from that sort of background, but some people who come from towns tend to think that life is the same in the country .It is not. They can tend to think that THEY can do what THEY want and bugger everyone else. There are country people like that too , but far less on the whole I think. They are used to getting on better with their neighbours . I think it is just that in towns you hardly know who lives next door to you , let alone get on with them . God forbid that you should actually look at someone on the tube too.....Been there got the t-shirt.....It is really funny now round here , you can tell who is from a town or city, when someone new moves in to a house or smallholding ....up go the new fences right up to the very edge of their bit of land . Out go all the lovely old doors and windows and in go the new plastic ones. Decking goes up all over the place with brand new never to be used bbq's . You look at what was a lovely old cottage and see instead a house that looks like it just got lifted in from suburbia....All very cynicle I know ..but it is like that sometimes. All that aside after a year or two of the rain we get round here, they sell up and go elsewhere, no doubt somewhere drier....lol
Batten down the hatches, to all that are struggling with wind and rain !!!hope it isn't as bad as they are saying it may be.
Russ
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It's been absolutely lovely here today - blue sky, sunshine, white wispy clouds - and clear skies and frosty now. I have no idea what tomorrow will bring - bbc still forecasting heavy snow, but we'll see. I'm just enjoying it while it lasts.
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russ, you have good observational skills. we bought our place as a badly done barn conversion that the previuos occupants had messed about with ala changing rooms. otherwise we could not have afforded it. slowly we are undoing the suburban style bits, as you say decking, barbeque area, koi carp pond and filter system, upvc etc and even i kid you not a swimming pool area , and a steam room.( needless to say these were all done on the cheap and have been removed and sold on) . as we can afford it we will replace most woodwork with sturdy oak or ash. some of the decking has been turned into the heaviest hen huts known to man. it is easy spot the people who have moved out from the subarbs ( i am one of them, although i was brought up in the country). once you get into sinc with the enviroment you calm down and stop woorying too much. but when neighbours divert their insecurities your way it does not help. i am unhappy about one side draining all their excess my way but am worried about it rushing through to the otherside and causing them problems, so i'll deal with it by draing it down the hill toward the water course.
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Has anyone ever designed water wings for chickens, if so I need some, they already have web feet! but much more rain and they will need the water wings. Took pig to the abbatoir in Tregaron yesterday early am, rained again the night before then froze after 6 am - interesting trip, took twice as long as normal.
Had a stream I didn't kow existed running through the chicken run the other day, possibilities of damming it and having a couple of ducks, but it will dry up if the rain ever stops!
Just think in a couple of months the sun will come out, the veg seeds will be comming up hens will be laying lots of eggs again, and we will have so much to do we won't even think about this awful weather. Remember this is Wales or England or Scotland we should be used to it by now
Tony
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But Tony I live in beautiful Brittany where the first January we spent here we wore shorts for a large percentage of it. (Froze in February had snow). Its normally dryer and warmer here. And the damned tap is still flooding.
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I think that this is about the third year that we have had lots of rain at this time. Prior to that I think we had very much spring like weather for a couple of years . We always do get lots of rain here in Wales, but this last few years has gone potty.Two or three years ago we had rain for about six weeks almost non stop . Then a very summer like spring and then a so so summer. Although we are getting huge amounts of rain at the moment , at least we are getting the odd dry sunny day here and there. One thing I have noticed over the last few years is how everything goes mouldy ,gates, fence posts and anything that stays put for a week or two. Must remember to keep moving...... ;D (How Green Was My Valley?) Very apt.........
Cheers
Russ
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24 hours plus now of continual rain, not really heavy but non stop persistant, drenching drizzle. I did the tv reporter bit today ' Russell Clarke ,in the rain, owner of 4 dogs , 3 horses, 6 acres a broken down car, several useless bits and bobs, no money , soaked to the skin, covered in thick glupey mud, P**sed off, utterly ,totally , thoroughly P**sed off ......then I fell over.....I won't print what I said, but it went on for ages ... the bleep machine would have had a fit.....Sitting here with a nice warm cup of coffee , it seems funny now ....it DID NOT at the time. And still the rain falls........OOOOOOOH THE GOOD LIFE............
cheers
Russ
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I'm sure the winters are getting wetter. It's been so mild here - 6 yesterday and warmer today. Still dry and the wind has dried things up a bit. It was lovely yesterday - sunny and still. Unfortunately, I had committments that meant I didn't get into the garden, so a bit of a guilt trip. It's OK today so I'll have an hour (?) or so outside once I've walked the dogs (also outside, of course).
Rosemary
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Well we've had quite a nice weekend. It was dry in the daytime and rained Saturday night. It is now raining again. My neighbour came round earlier today to tell me not to try and take the kids to school as the road out of the village is flooded. The fields are also holding alot af water again, so the horses are in again. I managed to get them out over the weekend ;D. They wre both very pleased. The ferrets were also happy as it ment that they could go into the stable and play.
Well i hope everyone else is fairing ok with the weather.
I suppose i'd better go and get wet and start the chores.
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Do you think there's a market for MUD ?!? :-\ Masses of it for sale here........could be rich if I could just find an outlet!!! ;)
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I think supply exceeds demand unfortunately. I was seeking a market for thistles in the summer - no joy there either.
Rosemary
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Health farm perhaps? Mud baths and thistle tea.
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Wow - what a great idea! I bet someone coudl market it. Just not me, unfortunately.
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Hmmmm.....I bet if we bottled it, added a bit of lemon zest and put a fancy label on it...........those with more money than sense would buy it!! :D Just off to squeeze a few lemons.....and empty another wine bottle !
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Ok I'll print the labels.