Flooding...

I guess I don't have to worry about the water tanks anymore.  Now I get to worry about the sheep.  We have had an extraordinary amount of rain today (even for a rainforest)  and both my horse stall and sheep shelter are flooded.  Actually, the horses have a 6X20 cement with rubber mats area they can stand on, or they can go find high ground under thick trees, but the sheep stall was 2 or 3 inches under water.

I was in the middle of making cinnamon raisin bread, chocolate peanut butter stuffed cookies, and roasted garbanzo beans, when I decided I should go out and feed.  It was quite dark at 5 pm because of the thick rain clouds.  The rain has been pounding down all afternoon.  As soon as the sheep heard the garage door, they started baa-ing for help.  It was definitely a different sound than the "I am hungry, feed me now!" sound.

In the gloom of this thick rainy weather, I could make out that the sheep were standing in enough water for their feed buckets to be floating.  I ran back inside for help, but my husband's suggestion of letting them into the small pen wouldn't work - that was flooded, too. With my 11 year old's help, I quickly put all my feed, tack, shovels and other implements outside, behind barriers, up high - out of reach.  I spread feed bags on the floor and lured the sheep in with a rattling bucket of feed.  Everyone ate, but promptly went outside.

I hope they have the sense to go back into the tack room.  My husband did shovel most of the water, all that he could and made a channel from the shelter into the runoff pond near the barn, but the rain is not abating, and it is just damp and icky in there.

I hope Dodie doesn't lamb tonight!