THE CLEANUP CONTINUES BUT I CAN SEE THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL.

It's been quite a ride but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. For all those of you who emailed me, asking how I was progressing with the flood clean up. I have to say thank you for your concerns and caring... Things have progressed slowly but surely.

I approached the problem by prioritizing and the clean up at the farm was priority one as we needed to get the cattle back to the farm. The other farmer who shared the exhibition barn with our farm, only got their cattle back home today. Can you imagine? A flood that started on April 27th has affected that farmer so much and today we are June the 9th.

 For those who asked about High Water, the heifer calf who was born during the flood, she is doing really well. I may take her picture when I get a chance.  Life is really busy still.

The gazebo was all cleaned up by a volunteer and I  pressure washed it, but the swings will have to be painted later...

My next priority was  the perennial flowerbed and the path to the shed...   I dug up so many wheelbarrows of sand with weeds. I finally got the path to the shed cleared and I started to unearth my peonies that were buried under all that sand.  In places, I had to use the pressure hose to dig the peonies without damaging them.


Digging out the path from all the sand and weeds that came in.

This is what it looked like before I dug out the path from under all that sand and mud. You can get an idea by looking where the shovel is...

Even this flowerbed was under water but is still doing well. I need to clean out the brick border;


 I pressure washed the bricks around the flowerbeds and also the path and seeded the bare areas where the sand was. It's been hot during the day and I've watered the seeded are well but in no time it dries up.

Tjis shoes the path cleared of sand nd mu and weeds.

This is the path to he shed,  after removing the sand and mud off of it and pressure washing it and the bricks around the flowerbeds.

The daylilies flowerbed has had the topsoil replaced and so far they are doing well.

The next priority was cleaning out the garage where I had stored a lot of damaged stuff and the carport. Now my husband can park his truck in there.
My son helped me to bring a whole bunch of rusty shelves and metal scraps that could be salvaged for recycle to the farm metal heap for recycling and brought all my waste to the dump.  Now the garage and carport are all cleaned up.

Last evening, my son Vaughan tilled the back vegetable garden for me and today I planted the potatoes, onions, and peas.   I also repaired the flowerbed by the driveway that the flood removed the topsoil.

We got a frost warning tonight so I didn't plant flowers yet...  It's kind of late for frost in our area but nothing is as it was with this crazy weather but life is good and the spring flowers are still blooming as if nothing has changed. I'm getting a farmer's tan again.




In the meantime, flowers continue to bloom as if nothing happened.

There are still flood clean up to do in the farm office but that can wait until I have the time to deal with it. So far, nobody else has offered to do that cleanup.  There are still a bunch of papers in the drawers that got wet and are probably moldy by now that has got to be taken care of.  So is my life. I have to prioritize and all is as it should be.

Planting the rest of the garden is next and then the lawn that needs to be fixed.
Thanks for stopping in for a visit and leaving a little comment.  I so appreciate it.
Hugs, Julia

2018, OUR WORST FLOOD EVER

It's hard to know where to begin. It's been over a month and I've been cleaning up ever since, starting with priorities to the less important and I'm far from done and it's planting time already.

The water rose quicker than expected and caught everyone by surprise, even the flood forecasters. A combination of factors was to blame. The full Moon brought the high tide, warmer than the normal temperature causing a lot of snow to melt, lots of rain, high winds and the dam upriver. We were prepared for a big flood but this one was just bigger than expected.

The milking cows were moved to a safe barn, 6 at a time to the main road by the tractor and then taken by truck to the show cattle barn at the Exhibition ground in the city. This went on into the night.

The heifers and calves stayed at the farm and my son Vaughan and his son-in-law had to use a big tractor to go to the farm and use hip-waders to go bed and feed them. They used so much hay just to keep them out of the flood water. The bedding was getting so high that they had to strap boards in front of their pens to keep them from jumping over and drown.  This job of feeding and bedding them was almost an imposible task but they kept the calves and heifers all safe during the long duration of the flood.

There was hay floating everywhere in the barn. They really should have been moved but my husband never realized that the water would get so high. I had one calf that was born one day before the flood, one during the flood and she was called High Water, and one right after the flood. They are all doing well. High water was our first brown heifer calf and she was #600 and became a big celebrity across Canada. She was born at the exhibition barn but the vet had to euthanize her mother three days later because of a muscle injury she received during the moving and couldn't get up.

I don't have photos of the barn and the mess there. It was unbelievable anyway.

Moving the cattle by a tractor, on the road in front of my house.



My granddaughter's husband's boat on my front lawn.

Garden debris that was to be mulched last fall was still contained by the gazebo and my two swins on their side. At least, this time they didn't float across the yard.

Daffodils underwater

All my long daylily bed lost all the topsoil and the plants are bare roots.

The current was so strong that it tore up the road in front of my house.

A big tree on the road.  The water came to almost the highest spot on this rock by the lilly garden.

The path to the old shed as the water was receding.

As the water recedes we can see there is a lot of my son's topsoil in my tulip bed. He's not a keen weeder and I  inherited all his weeds and a lot of topsoil and sand as well. That is still not cleaned.



The water was over the top rocks and a lot of sand is still on the steps.



There are driftwood and debris everywhere. I can't show it all because there are too many pictures.



More sandbars on my back lawn.

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Topsoil and sand in my tulip bed and yard.



My clematis is wrapped in debris. You can see the water mark on the shed. There is a mess in there and my lawnmower was under water.  Thankfully our mechanic got it going again.




My tall lilies are in those cages but not out of the ground yet in this photo.



Debris surrounding my peonies cages.




A peek in my basement. My grow lights toppled over. I sprayed a little to show the green floor for contrast.



Stuff floated everywhere all over the basement. This is only one section.




Muck all over the floor



The new stove my husband bought last year for the basement



 My ceramic pouring room. Workbenches on their sides. The Studio Star slip reclaimer was on the shelf and it was heavy but it floated off the shelf. I wasn't using any of these since I stopped doing ceramics.



I pressure washed the floor and lots of the paint came off. We tore off the wall covering in the last flood and we decided not to refinish the basement then, a good thing. We use the basement mostly for storage (of stuff we don't need) and lots of holiday decorations.



A small portion of the stuff that was removed from the basement for disposal.



A volunteer cleaned up the debris from the gazebo. That was a big help. All it needs is a good pressure wash to make it look good again. I hope it doesn't peel the paint off the gazebo.

There are so many more photos but this gives you a bit of an idea what I'm dealing with.
It's a year of purging and I've been forced to start early. So much damage but it will all be beautiful again, one thing at a time.
It's way past my bedtime and I'll stop here.
Thanks for looking. Don't feel bad for me, for us, we had way too much stuff.
Hugs, Julia