The Evolution of Atlas: A Breeding (and Chat) Thread

[getaclue]

I've been saying we've broken all rainfall records this year. All the ground is saturated. My front yard is normally high, and dry even after a heavy rain. The past few evenings, we've gotten over 2 inches, in less than 2 hours. This is what my front yard looked like after an hour of heavy rain yesterday evening.

Dh has a pump hooked up to drain it off into the main drainage ditch. The bucket is to keep the extension cord socket out of the water.

While there is an area that is low in our back yard, and it's where the run off is for our own, and our 2 neighbors properties, there is a 6" drain pipe running out to the creek. It drains quick, and dries up fast, so it's never been an issue. I've never seen it this full. Yes, it will be drained off in a few hours. Like I said, all the ground is saturated, so now when it drains off, it's still spongy. This is not just happening at our place, but over this entire section of Florida. It rained so much last night, several of the roads were flooded, and impassible this morning, making it difficult to get the kids to school.
For the record: My chickens are high, and dry. I had the forethought to put in a foot and a half of good clean granite sand, then another foot of fill dirt over that. My coop is NOT muddy, or spongy.

 

[speckledhen]

Eek! That's why I love living up high. No floods can really happen here at our place. Water always drained very quickly.

 

[1muttsfan]

Wow Robin that is scary! That is exactly why I unplug my Iaptop every time I use it. Bet those turkeys won't show up at your doorstep again anytime too soon.

Lisa we've been very very dry here all summer, but north of us and south of us they have had excess rain. Sounds just the same as Wisconsin. We did get rain yesterday afternoon and evening, although most of it passed us to the South. We are grateful for anything at this point. Some of the trees are already changing, and I'm sure it's due to water stress.

 

[getaclue]

This is the same area in the back yard, this morning. Like I said, it drains off really fast.

 

[robhuncor]

This is the same area in the back yard, this morning. Like I said, it drains off really fast.
View attachment 1511611

With or without water, you have a beautiful yard! I remember when you were building your coop and how you said you were building up the base for just this purpose - it's working!

 

[robhuncor]

Mary, the turkeys come every day. My husband started putting a pile of chicken scratch out for the crows - we love crows, they sound the alarm when predators are about. But along with the crows, we have a ton of squirrels and the turkeys visiting the feeding station. It's probably not the greatest idea to feed them but he loves to watch them, me too. The lightning didn't faze them, they were back a little while later.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Here in NY the rain has been brutal this summer. A LOT of thunderstorms. Twice lightning hit our electrical system last week. First time the A/C compressor was knocked out but the second one was a real doozy! I had just pulled into my driveway and was waiting for the rain to let up so I could run for the house. A flock of wild turkeys was ambling through the yard when lightning struck a big pine tree right next to the house. The turkeys exploded and scattered in all directions like they had a grenade dropped into the middle of them! I bolted for the house thinking the heck with waiting this out! My son was home and we ran around checking to see if all was ok. I couldn't find the cat so went out on the back porch to look for him and saw that the big pine tree was on fire! Flames were leaping up the trunk and it looked like in a few seconds the needles would catch on fire and it would turn into a big torch. Luckily we have a rain barrel nearby so we ran with buckets of water and got it out before we needed to call the fire department! Then we discovered a 5 inch deep trench the lightning had gauged out that zigzagged right to the corner of the house! All our computers were screwed up but everything else is ok. I was a little rattled after that but when I think what has been going on in California with all the fires, this was minor. I wish I could send CA some of this rain!

Wow. Glad you are okay.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I've been saying we've broken all rainfall records this year. All the ground is saturated. My front yard is normally high, and dry even after a heavy rain. The past few evenings, we've gotten over 2 inches, in less than 2 hours. This is what my front yard looked like after an hour of heavy rain yesterday evening.
View attachment 1511566

Dh has a pump hooked up to drain it off into the main drainage ditch. The bucket is to keep the extension cord socket out of the water.

While there is an area that is low in our back yard, and it's where the run off is for our own, and our 2 neighbors properties, there is a 6" drain pipe running out to the creek. It drains quick, and dries up fast, so it's never been an issue. I've never seen it this full. Yes, it will be drained off in a few hours. Like I said, all the ground is saturated, so now when it drains off, it's still spongy. This is not just happening at our place, but over this entire section of Florida. It rained so much last night, several of the roads were flooded, and impassible this morning, making it difficult to get the kids to school.
For the record: My chickens are high, and dry. I had the forethought to put in a foot and a half of good clean granite sand, then another foot of fill dirt over that. My coop is NOT muddy, or spongy.
View attachment 1511567

I guess I should be happy we are dry instead of too wet. That's a lot of rain.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Wow Robin that is scary! That is exactly why I unplug my Iaptop every time I use it. Bet those turkeys won't show up at your doorstep again anytime too soon.

Lisa we've been very very dry here all summer, but north of us and south of us they have had excess rain. Sounds just the same as Wisconsin. We did get rain yesterday afternoon and evening, although most of it passed us to the South. We are grateful for anything at this point. Some of the trees are already changing, and I'm sure it's due to water stress.

We both must be in some weird bubble that repels the rain. We got nothing out of yesterday's rain again. We should cut our hay, than I'm sure it will rain.

 

[getaclue]

robhuncor, I am so glad I had the foresight to insist on good quartz sand to build it up, then put a layer of fill dirt on top. I have not regretted that decision one bit. Even when the water is up, my coop is only wet when it's actually raining. It's not mushy anywhere. If this happens during the daytime, and it hasn't rained in a couple hours, even if the water is still up, my coop is dry. Dh and I also had a discussion about types of sand. I got granite sand on purpose. There is a difference. Someone wanted to sell him the yellow sand, which is significantly cheaper, but it's a much softer sand, and breaks down much more quickly. It doesn't withstand the test of time like the granite sand does. I have no regrets, and now you've seen the proof.