Flood Aftermath Part 1: Fences and Pump House

The morning after the flood, Foxfire and I looked at how badly our fence was damaged and decided that it was going to take far more than a day to fix it. Since we couldn't leave the horses in their stalls, and the donkeys and goats in the very small goat pen for that long, the first thing we needed to do was create a larger paddock for everyone. Because of the way our barn, backyard and pasture are laid out, the quickest easiest thing to do was to build a fence between the corner of our backyard and the corner of the barn closing off the corner of the pasture that was the least flooded. In order to get it done in one day, we knew we would need help. I called our trusty hay guy and Foxfire called his sister, Auddie. Our hay guy couldn't come himself, but he sent one of his assistants JT to help us. And Auddie showed up as well.

Since this was the third time in four years that our pasture had flooded and part of our fence went down, we decided that having a permanent paddock in the least likely to flood area was a good idea. It would also make it easier to keep the equines and goats that weren't being worked with out of the way when we were using the rest of the pasture to ride and/or train in. So while Foxfire and JT salvaged some of the least damaged panels and t-posts from the wreckage, Auddie and I ran to a local feed store and bought a 12' gate to put in the new fence. With all of us helping we managed to get the fence up and working by about 1pm. It wasn't truly finished. The gate wasn't properly mounted, just wired into place between two t-posts. But it functioned well enough to safely contain all our critters while we rebuilt the rest of the pasture fence.

The quick and dirty fence closing off the paddock area by the barn. The silver post on the far left is the corner post for our backyard area.

A muddy horse and donkeys walking the new fence line.

Ziggy looking over the new gate, wondering why we won't let him get to the round bale.

Shadowfax looking over the new fence at the remains of the flood.

With the critters taken care of, I ran around taking pictures of the damage the flooding caused. As I mentioned before most of our fences were either knocked flat or completely washed away.

The remains of the fence on the East side of our property.

The complete absence of a fence on the West side of our property.

From where our gate used to be looking North.

From where our gate used to be looking South.

Our gate ended up buried under a bunch of fence panels and t-posts about 2/3 of the way down the Southern side of our property.

The fence panels that we use are made of thick stiff wire about the diameter of a pencil. They are not designed to bend, much less to wrap around a tree.

T-posts are even less bendable.

I also took some pictures of the high water marks on and in our pump house.

You can see a piece of broken t-post as well as the high water mark on the wall.

If the water had gotten much higher it would have flooded our pump house breaker box and we would have been without water until we could get it fixed.

I'll continue describing the aftermath of the flood in my next post. Meanwhile if you want to see more pictures, check out my photobucket album "Flood Sept 2010".

Schlitterbahn Birthday

For the third year in a row, I invited people to go to Schlitterbahn with me to celebrate my birthday. This year in addition to my husband and DA who had come with me the previous two years, our friend FuzzyPony, my sister-in-law Auddie and her fiance Mac also came with us. Sadly, SH, who had come the previous two years was unable to come this year. DA also suggested that instead of buying park food for lunch that we should bring our own. Schlitterbahn, unlike most amusement parks, actually encourages you to bring your own picnic lunch (as long as there is no glass of any kind).

Everyone arrived at our house bright and early Sunday morning. We loaded everyone and everything into to two cars and drove down to New Braunfels. It was an absolutely lovely day. It wasn't too hot or too cold. The park was not crowded at all. There were almost no lines for most rides and even the lines for the really popular rides weren't that bad.

Just after noon, while the rest of us were riding our last ride before lunch, FuzzyPony went back to the table where we had left our food and set everything up very prettily with a batik tablecloth. DA brought out her home made gourmet quality chicken salad and everyone made themselves sandwiches. The chicken salad was absolutely delicious with pecans and dried cherries mixed in. FuzzyPony had brought enough fresh fruit to feed a small army, Auddie and Mac had provided water and soft drinks, and Foxfire and I had brought several kinds of chips. It was so much better than eating park food. Many thanks to DA for suggesting such a lovely picnic.

After lunch, we took the shuttle to the other areas of the park and rode more rides. We had just enough time to hit all of my favorite rides before they closed the park. We were all pretty tired, but not sunburned thanks to judicious application of sunscreen. We left the park and headed to dinner.

DA, who is the most food oriented of us, had looked up local restaurants online and suggested we all go to Friesenhaus German Restaurant. Everyone's food was good and they had a very nice wine (and tea) list. I had the Von Hovel Balduin Riesling which I liked very much. It had a moderately complex flavor and was neither too dry, nor too sweet. Very refreshing with my Reibekuchen (potato pancakes).

We drove back home and DA gave me a very pretty gift bag. Inside was a copy of Finding My Distance, an autobiography written by a three day eventer. She also gave me a copy of Princess Alyss of Wonderland which I am really looking forward to reading since Alice in Wonderland is one of my favorite books. DA knows me very well.

Foxfire told me that his birthday present to me wouldn't arrive until Tuesday. Jennifer Crusie, one of my favorite authors, has a new book, Maybe This Time, that is being released August 31, and he had pre-ordered a copy for me. Yay!!! It is her first solo book in several years (she's been co-authoring books) and I am thrilled to get a chance to read it as soon as it comes out.

All in all, I had a fabulous day. I enjoyed sharing Schlitterbahn with my friends and loved having the chance to just chat with everyone in a relaxed setting. Foxfire tells me that he is already looking forward to doing it again next year. I am so lucky to have such good friends and family.