Clean up after the Flood

Today was clean up day. Several sections of my fences were ruined by the flood. I think my back line of my fence is ruined also but can't tell until the flood waters recedes as it is covered by water now.

Kathleen, Nancy, Janet, Jerril, Chuck, Getty, Ben and I started at 11:00 a.m. Amy joined us in early afternoon. It drizzled a little bit then quit and was overcast for the rest of the day. It actually warmed up too.

Tess, Nan and Rainey were the first set of Border Collies to *assist* us. Later, Scott, Blaze, Jack, Teddy and Clip rounded out the Border Collie gang.

Click on the pixs for a larger view.

This is my lower pasture. See how high the debris is on the trees. It is over eight feet high.

Two logs floated in and smashed my fence. They are waterlogged and heavy and we could not move them The ditch was full of weeds and debris and we hand pitch forked it all out. You can see it is still on the fence line.

My lower pasture pond. See the debris in the trees.

See the tree in the middle of the picture. See the debris on the tree. It is about eight feet high.

Another damage fence. The guys are being "Paul Bunyan" and chain sawing the logs and moving them off the fence. The rest of us are moving the weeds and debris spread all over. It has covered my back lawn. Tess is in the center, no doubt, making sure we are doing our job correctly.

See the huge spread of weeds and debris all over the lawn. It was about three inches thick and very heavy.

Moving logs so we can put up the new fence.

Jerril got a new chainsaw for Christmas. Today was Janet and Jerril's Anniversary and what a better way to spend it by using the new chainsaw. What a nice couple. I hope they went out to dinner at least tonight!!

Ben, Jerril and Getty moving the logs that took out one of the fences. Those darn logs were very heavy.

See how many logs had to be cut up or pushed aside. There were a lots and we were happy when it was all cut up and moved.

This ditch was packed with debris and weeds that had floated in. We cleaned it out with our pitchforks so it could flow again.

See how huge the pile of weeds and debris is.....that a lots of stuff!! We moved it to this sections. All the ground in front of the debris was covered with this and was several inches thick.

Ben walking towards us and Getty cleaning the fence area. It is a lot better looking than this morning.

This is to the right of the ditch. More leftovers from the flood.

A larger view of the back lawn. Now our back lawn looks like a lawn instead of a flood field!! This was a lot of work.

The fence is up and the logs cut and put to the side.

The final view!! This was a lot of chain sawing and log moving and weed/debris tossing.

Another view of the side fence that is down. We couldn't move the two huge logs so we put a temp fence up and will figure out what to do later.

This is the second island in our lower pond (main pond). It was under water.

The back lawn. You can see the flood line where it left a line of debris. It is just below the canoe and about 20-25 feet from the house.

We finished the two of the downed fences, log cutting/moving and clean up on the back lawn. Whew....now on to the lower pasture and upper pasture.

In the lower pasture the flood left a lot of weeds and we hauled wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of weeds out. Next to the barn, near the south barn door, we hauled out a lot more weeds. We have no idea where these weeds came from but we are certain they all landed on our farm.

The last pasture was the upper pasture. If you look in the prior blog, it showed stumped next to the gate and logs all over and weeds. Yes, those darn weeds. The guys cut up the stumps and use them to repair the footpath over the ditch.

We also moved a bunch of more weeds and debris and used them to repair the footpath. Part of the fence was sagging and ready to fall, so Jerril put new t-posts in and removed the other post and rebuilt part of the fence. Amy showed up to assist and Nancy had to leave.

We found a panel in this pasture. It was from the far field and had floated down over 1/3 mile and landed here. It was tied to tow t-posts and the force of the water must have ripped it off. That was an incredible current to do that. That gives you an idea of how poweful the flood was!!

The bridge had floated away but had gotten caught up on the fence so Ben pulled it off. After the water goes down, we will put it back. We tided up this pasture up and Janet called in our Chinese food. Getty went and got the food and we fed everyone, as it was the least we could do.

Getty also had Manny's Pale Al and Super Chopper beer and it is very tasty. If you want great beer go to "GeorgeTown Brewery" and it is located in Georgetown. Manny played Ultimate with Getty and brews a fine beer.

We all did quite a bit today and we all were beat as we ate our lunch. Getty and I appreciate that Kathleen , Nancy, Janet, Jerril, Chuck, Ben and Amy showed up to help us. It's really nice to have people come out and help and we appreciate their friendship and kindness.