Val's SS journal- Fair food! Yea!

[valmom]

Well, there are a few stray yellow jackets hanging around the old nest, but it seems to be dead. Maybe I just have to wait for the stragglers to die off. And the tree is still alive. I suppose we will see next spring if it is OK or not.

 

[valmom]

My SO is chief of police in a small town here in VT. Things have been a bit chaotic here since the hurricaine and flooding and it is raining inches again these past few days. We are fine, and our town is mostly unscathed, as is the town where she works. The town in between us is a mess, and many many roads are washed out (real highway type roads). Many towns are disasters, literally. I guess it just didn't really hit home until yesterday.

SO was going into the local store in town for lunch, and saw a sort of scruffy guy in the parking lot checking over his older truck. (it is also the gas station in town).. She went over to see if she could help, and met him- he introduced himself and his dog- cowering on the floor of the passenger side of the truck. She said the dog looked terrified and sort of fear growled, so she just told the dog it was OK, and went back to the guy. He said he was from Saxton's River- one of the destroyed towns. During the hurricaine he went out to gas up the truck. 7 minutes to the gas station and 7 minutes back and a few to fill up. When he got back, he wasn't allowed back to his trailer- the water from the river came up that fast. He pleaded with the fire/police there to let him through- he had 4 other dogs in his trailer, a parrot and rabbits in hutches. They wouldn't let him back in. He said he was almost crazy as he watched his trailer break loose and get washed down the Saxton's river. With his dogs and animals in it. The only one left was the one in his truck. Her sire and dam and 2 siblings were gone. It has been a week. He was just heartbroken. All he has is his dog, the truck and some Red Cross blankets.

My SO was just so upset hearing his story and came home to process it with me. So, last night I spent the night imagining those poor dogs drowning, swept away and wondering why their person didn't come for them. Our animals depend so much on us it is terrifying. I cried off and on all last night. And am again, thinking of it. It is our responsibility to give our animals a good life and a good death and to protect them. I just know if someone told me I couldn't get to my animals to rescue them I would have to be locked up. I might be one of those people who die in the process, but at least I know that ahead of time.

 

[savingdogs]

I would too, valmom, I would run through a burning building to get my dogs out, jump into a dangerous river to keep them from drowning or scale a cliff to save them......just like I would my kids....

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

heartbreaking. i dont even know what to say.

 

[TanksHill]

It is so sad to realize there are probably lots more people just like him with similar stories. The amount of loss is so trivialized by the media. It breaks my heart.

 

[valmom]

Video of Saxton's river. There are some scary videos on youtube!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tiffqhpokac
This is a video of the flooding in the town where I work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=abiXMtDMK6I

 

[snapshot]

Our pups go everywhere with us meaning one of us usually has to sit out in the vehicle with them. I know things will change when we are in a house but I cannot imagine someone stopping us from getting to them. That's just frightening to me!

 

[valmom]

We spent the weekend helping our hay guy clean hurricaine debris out of his big field at the bow of the river. There was an incredible amount of junk- RR ties, tree branches, sheet metal from someone's shed upstream- just lots and lots of junk. And literally tons of sand. We loaded our new big tractor on our hay trailer which is actually a car trailer (a whole adventure in itself!) and took it down because we have a bucket and a york rake for it. Our hay guy doesn't have a york rake and was debating renting one but wanted to see if it would work on the sand first before spending any money. He is losing the third cut off the entire field- thousands of dollars of hay not bringing in income, and costing time and money to try to rehabilitate for next year. And some of the hay is gorgeous- the alfalfa didn't seem to mind the water and sand as much as the orchard grass. As I was walking around making debris piles I was noticing that it would be ready to cut any time... Ugh. He thinks he has enough hay put up already to get our entire amount and all of another big regular (cow) customer. But there sure isn't going to be any extra for anyone who hasn't gotten theirs in yet.

And, my back hurts! Why is it whenever we do something like this *someone* gets to drive the tractor and *someone* always has the shovel or the pitchfork, or just hands to haul trash with? (well, I had gloves on). But I am tired of lifting stuff! And so is my back.

Some pictures from today- this is 2 weeks after the storm.

From mid-field looking towards the road- the water went all the way up to the knoll those hay bales are on.


Some of the metal debris


This one gave us a giggle- someone lost their sand chair!



Believe it or not there is alfalfa under that sand!


One of my little debris piles.


This little river did all the damage


I couldn't help but think this area of the hay field would make a great riding ring.


The covered bridge had a tree trunk through it, but the bridge is still standing. It had been re-built just 2 years ago. The concrete footings stayed well, but the road aproaches on both sides washed away.

 

[framing fowl]

That photo of the sand on the field is crazy. Did your hay guy have crop insurance?

 

[valmom]

I didn't ask him- I'm not sure it occurs to anyone up here to have crop insurance. No one is a huge conglomerate farmer and live pretty much on the edge. Not even the small food crop farmers have crop insurance I would be willing to bet.

The sand was just unbelievable. Luckily that end of the field that got dumped on worst is probably less than 10 acres of the field. There is sand in all the rest of the field, but not to that extent.