Round 1 and 2

I was awake most of the night last night. There were a few spurts of rest here and there, between loud thunder booms and the alerts beeping on my phone, warning me of tornado and storm watches.

Only 3 kids were rammed under the covers of my bed, but Devin had no room and so he crashed on the living room sofa with one ear open and listening for tornado sounds.

This is spring in the South, and unfortunately many people lost everything last night. We were spared.

I continuously imagined what the farm animals were doing through the storm. We anchored the egg mobile down, fearing high winds would blow it over, and the smallest of the bottle calves were locked up in a warm and draft free stall. The pigs had fresh hay bales to bed down under inside their shelter. Cats were secure in the garage and dogs were in the house.

The horse and cattle and sheep are all better off out in a large pasture with some tree coverage, but the pastured chickens? Oh boy! There isn't much I can do about them. They do have some shelter over half the cages but the wind is so very strong at times.

Over and over again I replay in my mind what I could have done to make the chickens more secure. Nothing. There is nothing I can do to guarantee the safety of my farm animals. This is when I remember how much of farming and agriculture is beyond a farmer's control. We can only do so much. We do our best with what resources we have and then pray that Mother Nature spares us.

This morning all of the animals were fine, with the exception of a few pasture chickens. I knew they would have the roughest night. They were all soaking wet and chilled, even with their adult feathers. The ground here is saturated and flooded in some areas.

That was round 1. Today brings round 2. Unfortunately the weather forecasters are predicting a system far worse with 2 inches of rain and tornados.

This gives me a few hours to concoct a plan for the pastured birds. I suppose bringing 90 birds into the garage is out of the question....I suppose.

Maybe another cup of coffee and some hot blueberry toast will kick start my brain. Tonight we will likely camp out in the basement so we can all get a little more sleep.

Here's hoping you are all safe today and here's to a full pot of coffee!