Praise the Lord... REALLY!

We are SO very greatful! The river crested more than a foot lower than it was predicted to, and two feet below what we experienced in Dec 2007. We had no water in our garage or laundry room or under our house this time. We spent Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights at the Super 8 near Olympia, and had no way of knowing what was happening at home. I drove down on both Thursday and Friday to feed our animals at their foster farm, and on Friday morning I was able to drive almost to our house before the water stopped me. I parked next to the barricade, and hopped out with my camera. Here's a picture of the road that runs past our private drive just 700' north of our property. I was standing in about 1 1/4" of water when I took the photo, and could go no further in my little slip-on barn boots. Next time, (for we now know that there will most likely be a next time), I will take my knee high Wolverines along when I leave. I'm facing west here, so the end of our road is to the left just where the road curves. The county road takes a serious dip just after this tee, so it wasn't possible to enter our road from either direction at that time. I couldn't see our property from here, not even through the trees, but when we drove in on Saturday afternoon, judging from the muddy water line on the lawn, it appeared that the water had stopped at least 6' from the foundation all around the house, and perhaps as much as 8-10'. Things could definitely have been much worse. Here's a shot of the slough that runs through the property across the street from us and under the bridge I was standing on when I took the previous picture.

We plan to keep our animals at our friend's farm for at least another week or two. We have cleanup to do in the fields and the animal sheds need to be mucked out and power washed. Also, there's a chance the warmer weather that has returned will cause further melting of the snow in the mountains, and another round of flooding. Moving the animals is not fun for them or for us, so we'd rather err on the safe side than have another traumatic morning like we had last week. By the time I remembered to take pictures at the foster farm, it was late in the day, but here are a couple of shots of the boys getting reaquainted with their friends from last winter:

Here is our Marco, on the left, greeting Sue's boy Paco, who is a half-brother to Marco's mother, Flo Jo. Their mother was the late Tiger's Princess. Paco, formerly named Rocky was sired by Fir Cove Chocolatey, as was Ricky, shown below with Sue.

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In the shot below, Coco Puff, Charles, and Marco are eyeing the hay in the next stall. As you can probably see, Charles was pretty stressed.

Puff and Marco really do have eyes, by the way! About five minutes after I took this picture, Sue and I gave all three of them haircuts, much to their (and our) combined irritation and relief.

Here is Sue with Ricky.
The lighting was poor; he is almost white, and has inherited his mom's huge and beautiful dark eyes.

Jumping In

Welcome! Does having my own blog mean I'm a grownup, or does it mean I'll probably never grow up? Hmmm...I'm afraid I already know the answer to that question. I thought this might be a good vehicle for sharing with my friends and family the day-to-day joys and sorrows of life on a wannabe alpaca farm, and perhaps even my random (though somewhat rare) thoughts of reason and sanity. So, for better or worse, and with encouragement from my son, Erik, here I go.

Before we bought our property in December 2003, we asked the former owner whether it was subject to flooding. He told us that the house is four steps up from grade level, and the property is not classified as being in a flood zone. However, there is a slough across the property that takes seasonal runoff from the nearby Black River. Sometimes the water does flow up on the next-door neighbors' property, and it may then enter the low corners of our place. Also, a few low areas of the pastures get some water pooling in them during heavy rains, but this is very temporary. During the infamous "hundred year" flood of 1996, (recently reclassified as a three hundred year flood), the water came right up to the garage doors, but it didn't get inside. He said he also had a small amount of water under the house, but that it went down quickly and readily, and there was no permanent damage. In the spring/summer of 1997, he built bermed gardens around the house to protect the foundation from future flooding, and he told us they had worked very well ever since. We opted to purchase flood insurance, "just in case." Smart move.

December 2007 began, here in the Pacific Northwest, with a big ol' flood. Rosie Borders Alpaca Ranch was covered in some areas with more than two feet of water, and the house and decks became an island from December 4th to 6th, and we ended up having quite an adventure. At some point, I'll tell the whole story of the flood days, but not today.

State Farm came through with the money (almost $9,000) to pay for needed repairs to our laundry room, garage, and crawl space, however, we had to do a lot of ripping out and cleaning up ASAP after the flood. The insulation and vapor barrier under our house were replaced last week. Later this afternoon, the contracter we have engaged to repair the damage to our house and garage will be stopping by with the project foreman to estimate the materials needed. They will begin work next Monday, and expect to complete everything by the end of that week.

Just out of curiosity, where would you put seven very expensive alpacas if flood water
came up so suddenly in the pastures that there was no way to evacuate them?

..........Video 1. Girls' Dorm: Safe But Not Happy.........................................Video 2. Bubble, Bubble, Toilet Trouble.........