Sunday, April 19, 2009

Ding Dong the Witch is Dead...

Or maybe just our scarecrow! Never thought that my first real entry would be about a minor disaster, but you never know what will or can happen next around here. We had to travel to Austin for a Texas Historical Commission Conference (for my real life museum curator job) for several days. On our way home we traveled through bouts of extreme Texas weather. As we approached our farm we could see that rain and wind had been quite plentiful. At the time, we were happy because this area needs the rain to fill our stock tanks and help our coastal grass to grow for the Brahmas.
We arrived at our entrance and noticed that the normally brightly lit barn and art studio were completely plunged into darkness. My heirloom kitchen garden was under water and our scarecrow was leaning sideways as if he was performing extreme yoga. We checked the water gauge and low and behold, two and a half inches of rain had fallen in a few short hours.
Now for the bad news: As we made our way to the barn area, we noticed that electrical lines were down all over the pasture. I was quite frightened, the only light we had was the lightning that would flash eerily on occasion. During one of the flashes we saw a terrible sight. Our large main barn that was housing my three miniature donkeys, one bottle fed calf & our newly acquired Zebu miniature bull was ripped open like a sardine tin can and the electrical wires were all dangling around the entrance.
I immediately began to cry and feared the worst. We could hear Beauregard (the Zebu) bellowing and all three donkeys (Dusty, Frank & Billy) were braying and standing near the gate. My biggest concern was for ZZ Topinha (the bottle fed Brahma calf). I have raised her from day three of her birth when her momma could no longer nurse her.
In the midst of all the chaos, there she was - sticking her head through the gate mooing excitedly thinking only of her two bottles that I normally bring out with me.
Next stop, the art studio which for now is serving as a brooder area for our thirteen little chicks. They were all alive and well but getting chilled so we would have to "hatch" a new plan for their upkeep.

3 comments:

  1. sorry to hear about all the destruction, but so glad everyone made it ok - the whole electricity thing was the scariest when I read...everything else can be rebuilt.

    Looking forward to more vicarious blogs, especially with better news!!!

    Beijos!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks - I feel like I am going to the school of "farm hard knocks" this month

    ReplyDelete

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