Farm Flood Update
Here are more photos of the flood that covered our farm and land yesterday.
These photographs were taken about mid morning.
The water began to surround the house and foldyard inching closer and closer. By early afternoon a couple of inches of water was lapping at our back doorstep and the water was approaching our house from the lane. The village was flooded and the water was running down the lane towards our house, so although we had managed to stem the flow of the water from the beck behind our back field the water was now approaching from another direction.
Our farmhouse has been built in a dip and if the water from the lane joined the water from the garden our house and foldyard would be flooded. We built a flood bank up the lane to try to divert the water from the lane to another field but the farmer who owned the field was not happy that his sugar beet field was beginning to fill up. He wanted the floodbank taking away so that we could all share the flood! With the floodbank removed the threat of flooding in the house grew ever closer and as the skies threatened more rain we became anxious that the house and livestock would flood.
Then water began to appear from the drains in the farmyard which threatened the cattle in the foldyard. We prepared to move the cattle but where to was a problem as the other farm was already underwater.
By 7pm the water level in the farmyard near the foldyard had marginally receded and the flow of water from the village was beginning to slow down. The threat to the house and livestock had passed thankfully.
The full extent of the damage is yet to be assessed.
Flooding Weather
How scary Sara. I do hope that you all are OK when it rains again over the next few days.
Comment by Cottage Smallholder — June 28, 2007 @ 1:00 pm
Hi Fiona,
Thank you so much for your kind words. Yes I do hope that we don’t get anymore heavy rainfall as the water levels have yet to go down in the farmyard and garden.
Sara @ farmingfriends
Comment by Sara @ Farming Friends — June 28, 2007 @ 1:19 pm
Glad to here that you are surviving the Floods Sara, perhaps you will have a lot of damage after the floods have receded, lets hope that it is kept to a minimum
Good Luck
John
PS
I think your server has been down for the last half day or so, because I couldn’t get through to your Website until now
Comment by John Stott — June 28, 2007 @ 1:47 pm
Hi John,
Yes the server has been down - I’m not sure why yet.
Thanks for your kind thoughts - we are so pleased to have survived the flood without any heartache.
The full extent of the damage is not yet know. We have grain standing in water as well as wheat, barley and potato crops. Lots of machinery is also flooded but it will be a few days yet before the water clears.
Sara @ farmingfriends
Comment by Sara @ Farming Friends — June 28, 2007 @ 2:32 pm
Eep! I do feel for you and I’d imagine it’ll take some time to recover from this.
best wishes
Adrian
Comment by Adrian — June 29, 2007 @ 10:09 am
Hi Adrian,
Thank you so much for your comment and sympathy.
Yes the clean up has started but some of our farm is still knee high in water. Today the calves got out of the field and waded through the wheat and barley that is also still sitting in alot of water. I will post about the extent of the flood damage when we know it’s true extent. Thanks again
Sara @ farmingfriends
Comment by Sara @ Farming Friends — June 29, 2007 @ 10:22 am