There can be too much rain...at one time

A tropical depression hit central Texas on Tuesday. It rained, it poured and I was so loving it until the rain started to pool in the backyard, around the coop, around my studio and my back stoop. The rain kept coming with more on the way and I panicked because water was collecting and flooding.  I had removed the chicken feeder before it rain began.  I moisture proofed their egg door so that the nests wouldn't get wet. Last time that happened Twinkie got a terrible case of bumblefoot. Now water never enters the nests, something I am rather proud of. However it does enter the rest of the coop. I have a mobile chicken coop so before the  rain started I rolled it from under the trees. I didn't want a limb falling on it.  Everything seemed ready.

I never thought of flooding, it's never flooded around our house. I looked out my window in the middle of a down pour and saw the coop standing in one foot of water. HORRORS! All I could think of was the girls drowning. So I got my Wellies and went out to move them to higher ground. It was around 7pm and they had just gone to bed. By 11pm and the whole yard was flooded except what I call the Back 40 (inches not acres).

I put the  Wellies back on and in the heavy rain, pulled the coop as best  I could to higher ground. While I was out there I noticed the water around my studio, EEK! So I tried to dig a trench as best I could to get the water away from the structure. I came in and tossed yet another nightie into the wash. I had been going in and out all evening and never thought to get into real clothing.

I didn't sleep well last night. I was tossing and turning and the rain seemed to fall non-stop and my fears were increasing. This morning I still heard rain but there was no diving off the back stoop, all the water had disappeared. I think it has passed and things are clearing. I am calling in a landscaper to level and fix things around the yard. I need a French drain and leveling.

This morning the girls had a questioning tilt to their usual noises but were otherwise fine. I saw the footprints in the mud where I had dug my heels to pull the coop.