I was lucky here at home. I only got 3-4 inches of rain. Tree limb wiped out the rain gauge. Most of the worst rain was to the south and east of me. It changed in as little a 1/4 of a mile. Very defined boundaries at the edges of this rain. My brother lives 1/2 mile south east of me, as the crow flies. He got 8-9 inches of rain. A cousin of ours lives one mile south of my brother got 13 inches of rain. So in less than two miles the rain more than tripled. Every water gate and creek crossing was washed out or damaged. Four forty foot long water gates made out of drill rod are completely gone. My grand sons walked the creek banks for more than a mile down stream and could not find a sign of them. These gates weight more than a ton each. I hope they are not in some ones crop land. They would ruin a combine header.
We fixed/repaired/replaced fence on my farm today. Tomorrow we will go to my brother"s farm. He spent all day with his bull dozer clearing/cleaning up so we can get in with the tractors and skid steers. He has fewer water crossing so we should not be all day there.
We have a list of neighbors that are needing help so we all have planned to take all of this week to help out. It is mostly live stock related issues. One neighbor has got over twelve hundred head of brood cows, their calves, replacement heifers, and feeder cattle all mingled together. That alone will take use one or two days to straighten out. We did catch all of the bulls yesterday. So not as much fighting and open female cattle are safe.
We just got in from cleaning up and fixing fences on my farm. My three sons, four of my grand sons and I worked sixteen hours today repairing the rain damage. We started out with two tractors with loaders. Plus two tracked skid steers with grapple buckets. Took a couple hours first thing to just repair the worst of the wash outs. Some where ten feet deep. Good thing I had several old stump piles. Those olds stumps and dirt will stay in a wash out. Used ten semi loads of gravel. We worked until noon just getting the worst of the trash and old fence pushed into piles. Used every sharp chain saw chain we had, too much sand and dirt on everything. Replaced three hundred and fifty total rods of fence in three different places. Used 150 5 inch wooden fence post, over 300 7 foot steel T post, thirty rolls of barbed wire, and every loose gate any of us had. Must have been twenty for sure.
So now all of the water gates are back in. All of the line fences are repaired. Still have several internal fences to repair. I can let the brood cows and calves back out into the pasture first thing in the morning. I want it to be in the day light with some of us around. I am sure one of the knuckle heads will find a hole some where.
We where very lucky. No one has been severely hurt. So everything can be rebuilt or repaired. Some of us did lose some livestock but we think the Farm Service Office will cover 75% of the value, part of the 2008 disaster bill. At least that will keep some of these guys from bankruptcy. One fellow has lost fifty plus 1000 lbs feeder cattle, they drown in a side creek that flash flooded his whole valley with a ten plus foot wall of water. He had 170-180 in the lot. Only have found 110 so far. Found thirty drown. People seen others swiming down stream. A friend has some pictures of that. I will try to get some posted.
Night all I am bushed.
We fixed/repaired/replaced fence on my farm today. Tomorrow we will go to my brother"s farm. He spent all day with his bull dozer clearing/cleaning up so we can get in with the tractors and skid steers. He has fewer water crossing so we should not be all day there.
We have a list of neighbors that are needing help so we all have planned to take all of this week to help out. It is mostly live stock related issues. One neighbor has got over twelve hundred head of brood cows, their calves, replacement heifers, and feeder cattle all mingled together. That alone will take use one or two days to straighten out. We did catch all of the bulls yesterday. So not as much fighting and open female cattle are safe.
We just got in from cleaning up and fixing fences on my farm. My three sons, four of my grand sons and I worked sixteen hours today repairing the rain damage. We started out with two tractors with loaders. Plus two tracked skid steers with grapple buckets. Took a couple hours first thing to just repair the worst of the wash outs. Some where ten feet deep. Good thing I had several old stump piles. Those olds stumps and dirt will stay in a wash out. Used ten semi loads of gravel. We worked until noon just getting the worst of the trash and old fence pushed into piles. Used every sharp chain saw chain we had, too much sand and dirt on everything. Replaced three hundred and fifty total rods of fence in three different places. Used 150 5 inch wooden fence post, over 300 7 foot steel T post, thirty rolls of barbed wire, and every loose gate any of us had. Must have been twenty for sure.
So now all of the water gates are back in. All of the line fences are repaired. Still have several internal fences to repair. I can let the brood cows and calves back out into the pasture first thing in the morning. I want it to be in the day light with some of us around. I am sure one of the knuckle heads will find a hole some where.
We where very lucky. No one has been severely hurt. So everything can be rebuilt or repaired. Some of us did lose some livestock but we think the Farm Service Office will cover 75% of the value, part of the 2008 disaster bill. At least that will keep some of these guys from bankruptcy. One fellow has lost fifty plus 1000 lbs feeder cattle, they drown in a side creek that flash flooded his whole valley with a ten plus foot wall of water. He had 170-180 in the lot. Only have found 110 so far. Found thirty drown. People seen others swiming down stream. A friend has some pictures of that. I will try to get some posted.
Night all I am bushed.
