This is why I have water in the basement. Our little house looks like it is on an island.
But that is a field of corn under water. The farmer who rents this field will have to replant but for the moment no tractor can get near this muddy field. 
Meadow has decided that the grass IS greener on the other side. But it’s not.
Good morning Charlotte. Good morning, The Fellowship. Charlotte and I are wondering when is the best time to put her in pen by herself, to prepare for the birth. Her date is the 17th of June. What do you think? A week before?
The dogs get dirty during the day, especially Ton, so I have a big tub filled with water under the tree for them to jump in and out of. Farm dogs get pretty smelly.
The Coupe. The floor has arrived and is sitting in a pile on our dining area floor. I am definitely reaching the stage of feeling crowded by stuff and slightly fraught with the building but we are into the home strait now. And one man building a little house with such care and precision takes a while. However the floor men come back Monday to lay the oak floors and the timber has arrived for the trim so my cabinet maker friend has begun to make the screen doors to begin. And the covered porch has its floor already so we are getting there. And so far the cost is a little more than a year in a retirement home. So we are on track. Just desperate to get into it really.
Dear Jo, is your dress as orange as this poppy?
Neville’s Garden. I love deep borders.
Good morning. Both bee hives are doing very well now. It is possible that they are ready for more room to grow into. Today, if the weather stays fine, I shall prepare two supers then suit up and investigate. If they have covered the majority of their frames with honey and brood then I shall give them another story and pat their little furry heads (metaphorically) with delight.
Giraffe has taken over the surrogate pea egg mother chores. Because she is too old I had left her to babysit the peahen eggs for a short while until I got The Cuckoo settled in the little chook pen but The Cuckoo has not come up to standard and broke the chicken eggs I placed under her in preparation as she paced in there. So that was not a good idea. But Giraffe is still patiently sitting on her very large eggs. So we will just leave her be for a while and see how she goes. But she is in one of the laying boxes in the middle of a big chook house. The biggest problem is keeping other chickens out of her box. And what to do at hatching, the crowded chook house is no place for a little chick, they will have to be put into a wee run immediately, with Giraffe, or straight under lights. I am not sure yet. You and I are kind of playing this one by ear!
Walk time yesterday afternoon was all about keeping the dogs out of the mud.
But they both went in the bath voluntarily when we got home anyway.
I am collecting more Back Door Step pics and will show you another page on the weekend, and maybe for a few weekends after that so you are not too late if you are still thinking about sending a shot.
I hope you all have a lovely day! Looking out the window it seems that we may get little more sun today.. Excellent. Time for me to get to work.
Your friend, celi.
The Kitchen's Garden 
53 responses to “Floods in the Fields”
No matter what they chuck at you, you just seem to soldier on. Respect:)
Celi, I just dealt with the hen brooding in the nest box. I waited until dark, then removed the eggs into a dog cage that I had prepared (hay nest, water and food containers, etc). Then I placed the hen on top of the eggs. By morning she had settled, and has scarcely moved since (she’s got about another week before they hatch). The crate (actually a wire dog cage) is inside the chicken coop itself and I’ll place panels made from chicken wire around it once the eggs are hatched to give the little ones and momma their own space, but still within the coop to acclimate them to the rest of the flock. It worked well last year, and the “Momma” is doing the honors again this year.
Your plan sounds excellent. This is what i did with the Cuckoo and she had a hissy fit. I really should try again with Giraffe but I am afraid she may break the peahen eggs. I might try it after she has sat a week or so, they are pretty docile by then. But this would definitely be the ideal.. c
I’ve read that the key is to do it at night–the one time I tried it during the day I had the same result as you with the Cuckoo.If they have all night to settle in to their new digs there is less desire to return to the nest/box. And I placed my dog cage right next to the nesting boxes so the change was minimal. Good luck!
Ooh, I hope your little road is high enough out of the water so that you aren’t marooned. It’s been raining all week here in sympathy!
Do you know how long it takes for peaeggs to hatch? Vx
28 days if I remember correctly, something like that anyway.. c
Sorry about the basement, but glad for the bees. Congrats on the latter. 🙂
Gosh Celi, it’s like that in Vancouver; nothing but rain now for weeks. Robert is starting to talk of going back to England if this is the case…lol…but we won’t let him leave. 🙂 There’s one major difference and that is we’re sitting on a pile of granite so the water percolates down to the ocean almost right away. My older children are going up to the cabin to open it this weekend. I wonder if the melt water and rain water has washed out the water line to the cabin. We’ll see. It’s always an adventure, that first weekend. I’m crossing my fingers for the eggs. Hopefully it’ll all work out. Can they be put into some sort of an incubator? I don’t really know what I’m talking about. Hope you have a lovely rest of the afternoon out there on the farmy my soggy friend.
yes they can go in an incubator, but I don’t have one, so we will try it the old fashioned way and see what happens.. c
All that water…horrible! My heart breaks for the farmers in your area…seed is extremely expensive, not to mention the fuel and everything else that goes into planting. I am so so sorry.
You must be on a little knoll as you seem to have dry areas close to you…I am very thankful for that.
I was going to suggest and mini run for the hen….I use a dog kennel (a large dog kennel all wire) The door I prop over the the nest area of my hen and then place food and hay and water in the kennel. Sometimes I cover the nest area with a cloth that allows in light but doesn’t allow the ‘others’ to see her. She will get out and get a drink and snatch a bite or two of food even with the cover.
Anyway…I’m just shaking my head at the water…
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
http://deltacountyhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com
New to comment here – love your blog! We have quite a bit in common – critters and gardens – and the same milking bucket!
Morning marcia and welcome to the comments lounge i shall pop over and have a look at your place right this minute. thank you!
Meadow! So funny. Celi, I hope you wear gloves when you sweep. Last month I did plenty of sweeping and got the usual blister to prove it. I never remember to wear gloves. When the rain and lightning hit two nights ago, I was in a gym listening to a grammar school string orchestra play Scheherazade. (Had to go to the dictionary to spell it.) : )
I would have to hit google for that one too!! I wish I could remember to wear gloves, especially when gardening but I am too impulsive! c
Cinders, I don’t know anything about pigs, except they are just about the smartest things around…including smarter than alot of people I know 🙂 but I would probably confine Queen Charlotte a week before her actual due date as you suggested just to be on the safe side…You know some of us always deliver early! 🙂
Oh, I can’t believe all that water around you…ah well, the earth will get a good, healthy drink that’s for sure, just so long as you and the little farmy stay high and dry!
Your friend…C. Lea
PS. that orange poppy is the orangest thing I have ever seen and here’s to all that Bee love!!
I am really glad you provided a photo of the standing water, Celi, as I don’t think I could have imagined it! I’m quite amazed. Do you end up with mosquitos from something like this flooding? Oh I have so many questions, but I will have to bother Mr. Google, your hands are so full! 🙂 The new home addition is going to be such a place of respite. Lovely, lovely! D
I tell you what i do have and it is PILES of frogs, the frogs fill the night with their sounds the last few nights and in a few weeks we will be heaving. i have not seen a mossie yet though i am sure they are on their way! c
Incredible, Celi! Just incredible!
That’s a lot of water. Instead of the Coupe . . . maybe you should have built an Ark!
We can flip it on its head and sail off in it!! c
Gosh, it looks like the flooding of the Nile where you are. Let’s hope it brings lots of growing power. The Coupe looks as if its really joined the house. From the photo you took of that different angle, I can see that the Coupe and the house are now married. Not long now and the honeymoon can begin.
Celi, our life has been so hectic that I haven’t had much time to visit friends’ blogs of late. Catching up on your posts has been like having a little holiday, thank you. Your life is so different to ours, and you do so well finding your way through the new challenges that get thrown in your path every day. Respect, darling. xx
So much water! Do farmers have to be careful with the wet fields to keep the soil from packing down hard and squishing all the oxygen out? Will they chunk/till them up and let it dry before replanting. Soil/dirt in each region is so different.
It’s hot here – and we have a small plastic pool for Molly – growing up the dogs either had a tub or flopped in cattle troughs ( ugh – dirty and smelly).Molly drinks out of her pool, but hasn’t stepped in yet…she does like to bark at floating leaves….guess I shall have to splash in there to show her how…Blue has Ton!
Hope your afternoon is pleasant
WOW – you can send the water here in a drought right now! Beautiful Captures of the Farmy – Have a Great One:)