Sunday, December 27, 2015

Sunday Reading - Dealing With Run Off





It's been a pretty nasty couple of days this weekend. Rain, rain and more rain and now the temps are dropping pretty fast and the wind has picked up. They are not forecasting any snow or ice for our location yet but the radar map shows it might be a real possibility here in a couple of hours.

This has been one extremely odd late Fall/early Winter so far I hafta say but it looks like from the forecast we are going to finally get a taste of some cold temps over the next couple of days.

Now that I have a few more areas cleaned out I am beginning to get a handle on the runoff issues around here. I have dealt with some of them but others had me a bit perplexed as to exactly why they were causing the water problems they were. I think I have the basement flood issue taken care of which resulted because of a water line we had put in a few years back down to the barn. The settling of the ditch created a small berm that was actually backing up the flow of run off water that used to go down the driveway. It would fill up and then settle along the old foundation and eventually find it's way into the basement. I cut a small ditch in the berm and I hope the water is flowing where it should now.

The barn seems to be a combination of issues. Over the years the ground on the front side has built up until it is higher than the barn entrance. This caused a lot of run off to go right under the door and directly into the barn. I scraped and dug out a lot of the old gravel and managed to get most of the run off flowing properly but now I have discovered that the ground along the concrete footing is low enough in a spot that the water is collecting there like a small pond. It then seeps under the footing and bubbles up inside the barn itself. I guess I now need to dig out along the rest of the concrete footing to allow the water to flow along it rather than pool beside it.

Always something ain't it?

It's these Winter months that really separate the dedicated from the blue bird homesteader types. You have to really believe in what you are doing to go out and fight the elements on a  daily basis, trampling through the cold mud and wind to take care of the animals that are huddled down in the barn. Those picturesque scenes of green, well trimmed pastures and a dry barn lot are gone now. Which is just as well I guess since the temps and wind don't make standing around and looking at stuff all that appealing anyway.

At some point this afternoon I need to venture out and clean the wood furnace then restock the firewood racks by the house. I really should split another truck load of wood as well but I won't mess with that if it is raining.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!


18 comments:

  1. Truth in that there is always something PP, not a sign of Winter here yet with buckets of rain and much to high temps for the time of year.

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    1. John - Well we were that way until this weekend. Even yesterday it was still pretty warm but the temps have been falling today and this week is suppose to be about normal temps for a change.

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  2. We are getting sun now but the ground is goo most places. It won't be long until spring, that is what I am saying anyway. I can't get the truck down to where some small trees are down so I might try the wheelbarrow and bring the wood to the truck. I am lined up to get a small trailer to pull behind the fergie but I think it is too muddy even for that, no point in tearing the hell out of the road.

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    1. Sf - I don't think I could get the tractors out in this stuff. We got like 8 inches so far and the ground is totally saturated. Several roads around here are closed due to flooding now.

      Seems like it's either no rain or all of it at once these days.

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  3. We have had a run of really good weather. We are now waiting for our turn of bad weather. It will most surely come sooner or later. Hope you get your barn sorted out. As you say, there is always something to be done when you are a smallholder!

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    1. Vera - So far this has been a pretty mild Winter but the last couple of weeks have really dumped the rain on us for it. Too much rain since most that we are getting now will just run off and feed the rivers.

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  4. Our winter appears to be back. Fortunately little enough to do until the soil warms up.

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    1. TB - I have been watching all the snow on the radar down your way. YIKES!!!

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  5. Same here, odd winter even for us very warm. Though as of yesterday a front came in, tornadoes dropping around like flies sadly did some pretty serious damage in some places and some people died. We came out ok luckily whew.. its rained till its unreal. I may need to dig out my snorkel and flippers soon!

    Ok new word to me "Agenda 21", whats your take on that? I had never heard that term before today. I have googled it but I must admit its some deep reading.

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    1. Texan - Well that agenda 21 stuff is an old UN thing were they believe they need to get all the populations to move into cities leaving the land for the world government to control. It has many different scales from local to international that have been put into effect or they tried anyway.

      I could do 100's of posts on it and not cover all of it.

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    2. I have tried to research it some, its a bit of a muddy mess from my research. geesh...

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  6. As with you, this has been a pretty odd winter here in the UP. No snow and nice temps. I feel for you dude.

    Carl in the UP

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    1. Carl - I can't complain about the temps but all this rain at once is just too much. Mother Nature needs to start pacing herself better :)

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  7. Slopping and flow are a big issue. We have several farms around our area that as soon as harvest was down crews were putting miles of drain tile. May that all you need is to backhoe a trench and lay some gravel down and tile. Our next big storm is getting Northern TX hard, your between them and us. Maybe you need an ARK??? LOL. Did you see kymbeers last post??

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    1. Rob - I could try some drain pipe but I am hoping just a bit of landscaping will do the job.It ain't much of a run. Radar shows this storm kinda skirting South of you and heading NE to Maine but who knows with this stuff.

      Haven't seen her post yet. Guess she hasn't seen this one either :)

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  8. this type of weather is probably going to continue, the way i read the Bible. tons of rain, then drought, then rain, et cetera.
    maybe build a bunch of tiny dams to catch where it would be good to have water and drain them to water the garden during drought? being careful of disease vectors that love water.

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  9. I am assuming a bluebird homesteader is a hobbyist type? Or are they the urban types who like to buy a weekend retreat and call it a farm?

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  10. Hang on PP, Here it comes. A lovely Monday morn.
    Winter is coming.
    DennisinIowa

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