Earlier in the month he purchased a new generator. This thing is massive; takes the two of us to get it out of the shed, and it has wheels! It will power pretty much the whole house, but more importantly, it will power the well pump.
Saturday was a beautiful day, I visited a friend in the morning to relieve her of some of her veggies: Arugula and assorted greens, broccoli, beets, and like that. I had gone to the grocer on Friday and did my usual shopping. The store was busy, but not a mad-house, although not a case of water to be had.
I also went to Todd's for more hay. I straightened out the stalls, he spread manure, and did all the pre-storm stuff: batten down the hatches, stow the whatever. He turned the patio tables upside down. He moved the truck and big trailer to the middle of the parking lot, away from any trees.
Sunday was mostly cloudy, rain starting around 6:00 p.m., but not a lot. Didn't want to bring them in too early, if they are going to stay inside for a long time. I delayed this as long as possible.
He worked on getting the second storm door up, in the front of the house.
This is a fabulous addition to the place. Irene likes it, too.
The breeze was picking up, gusting strongly from time to time. I closed one end of the barn, which did help. They all seemed happy to be in the barn, eating hay and listening to the radio.
We got word that the Federal Government was going to be closed Monday. The weather maps were quite impressive. Uh Oh.
It rained off and on, mostly on for most of Monday - the boys were in. I made sure the stalls were cleaned up regularly, fresh water and hay administered.
The worst was Monday night, with NOAA clocking the winds at our place at 76 mph.
I had closed only one end of the barn, keeping the little ones free. He had brought the manure spreader, the tractor and lawn tractor into the barn. The wind picked up and by nightfall the rain was now driving into Skip's stall, had soaked Lil Fred's stall and feed bin and was coming in from the hay loft. I had to close the other end or Skip would get soaked and wind-blown.
We heard a loud bang during the wind/rain storm, but couldn't figure out what it was. There were downed limbs, but none had hit the house. In the light of day we realized that the Clevis, the electrical connection to the house was pulled off, hanging literally but a thread.
The wires are hanging in the yard, you can reach them easily.
Uh Oh.
I now had closed both ends of the barn, keeping the little ones in but their stall doors opened. The wind kept shifting directions and my rain gauge was unable to keep an accurate reading. We started to take on water in the dining and living rooms. Uh Oh.
The wind howled through the night, and the water continued to trickle into the seven buckets in the dining room, and the one in the living room. The wind sounded like a small airplane trying to land in the attic, over and over and over. I did a late night check on the guys, refreshing water buckets and hay. The rain was coming across, horizontally in driving sheets.
In the end we got around 8 inches of rain, more or less.
Tuesday morning it was quiet, still sort of raining, misting, slight breeze. The Federal Government was again closed. Trees down on area roadways, METRO was closed, flooding in some low-lying areas like Old Town, power out in large local areas. But no more water hitting the buckets. Quiet.
Tuesday, mid-morning, he let Skip out into the dry paddock. Pandemonium ensued. Quickly he decided to let Skip and KC out in the big field. Both had been in almost 36 hours straight. Horses are not meant to be kept like Veal.
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