Crazy Weather

The past 24-36 hours have been crazy concerning weather. Tuesday night found us hunkered down in our basement because there was a potential tornado in the area. Of course it was nighttime and everything would be rain wrapped and impossible to see. After barely missing a tornado a few years ago, we don't take that chance any more. I think being a parent has changed our perspective.


But after the aftermath of the tornadoes (there's no talk of the one near us because there were three in Sioux Falls; the only talk was some rumblings that there was some damage in the country), there was rain and lots of it.


Yesterday morning I took my normal route out of the Sanctuary and had to deal with the gravel road being flooded. I figured the rest of my normal route might have problems too so opted for a different route. The road to the paying job had water on it but still passible. This morning, the road is closed. We received lots of rain last night. The worst part, is that Madison (30 miles north of Humboldt), received 11 inches of rain. The entire town is flooded as far as I know. Luckily my parents (and the summer pasture, which we didnt' use) are out of town and away from any creeks.


Driving was more interesting, trying to find a route that wasn't closed do to construction and a route that wasn't flooded or potentially flooded.


We ran to Canistota last night to check on the Fabulous Four we are taking in. I've been checking on them for a week every few days. There's flooding over there as well. In fact, there's a no travel advised warning issued from Humboldt west to somewhere near Chamberlain. And of course the Fabulous Four are not far from us but in the no traveled advised. I've been trying to figure out when we can get them but our schedules are so insane, it's a bit tricky. We can't just drop everything. I don't have enough vacation hours, we have childrens' activities, and now there's bad weather.


Our herd faired well through everything. The big herd is in a part of the pasture that is at the top of the hill so there's no worry about them getting into any water. I suspect our pasture will flood but so far the water isn't nearly as bad as it was this March. I'm glad we waited until September to let the herd onto this part of the pasture. It is going to make having the fence contractor look at our pasture a bit more difficult.


I think we finally have someone lined up to come out and give us an estimate on fencing. Sadly, I'm throwing in two additional projects so not sure how much that will cost. It's putting wooded fence posts in only. As much as I would LOVE to have all new fencing, the wood panels are more important. And because outside of the $5,000 we won through South Dakota Gives, all fencing will come out of our personal pocket rather than through donations to the Sanctuary. Donations to the Sanctuary will be solely to help feed and vet the horses.


My mind is running in about a million directions and I can't focus. There's too much going on and there's going to be very little going on at the Sanctuary other than day-to-day chores and trying to survive for the next few weeks until the weather calms down and hopefully our schedules slow down (hahaha, schedules slowing down when kids are in school, wishful thinking).