Not even kidding...

I know most of you who read my blog read some of this stuff and think, "She can't be serious," but tonight is a perfect example of what happens here on the farm...
It's been raining...pouring all day long...
When P and I got down to the coop after work to check on the girls and collect eggs, she mentioned to me from outside the coop that there was water everywhere...
I was in the coop gathering eggs and I noticed the floor was wet. Now for a second I saw the puddle outside of the chicken door, and I thought the little darlings were bringing the water in on their feet... We just cleaned the coop and put new shavings in it yesterday, and after further detective work, I noticed I was walking on a sponge...the whole F@&$#!* coop floor was soaked! I tried moving around the shavings to see where the water was coming in...and even looked up at the ceiling to make sure it wasn't leaking. I could hear P stomping around outside cursing to the Gods...(One day the sky is going to open up and someone with a crown of lightning bolts is going to lean down and pop her on the nose!!!) I saw along the bottom of the outside wall was soaked....the water was coming through the wall... :(
So I ran outside, and sure enough, there was a huge puddle...probably about 6 feet around...residing at the corner of the coop. In some places it is up to 3 inches deep! We both looked around at the sky, the roof of the coop, around at the landscape, and could not figure out for the life of us where the water was coming from. Then Patty noticed movement in the water, and we both bent over to look. "Did we hit a water line?" she asked. Well, I know enough that there is no water line where we were looking, and I've been in Washington long enought to recognize an underground spring when I see one. Sure enough....water was bubbling up out of the bank, and wasn't slowing down. Patty stabbed at it with a shovel, and the hole she made quickly filled with water. ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?! OUT OF ALL PLACES FOR A SPRING ONE ERUPTS OUTSIDE OF THE DAMN COOP?!!! I AM TRYING TO BE FREAKING GREEN BY INSTALLING RAIN BARRELS TO CONSERVE WATER, AND OLD FAITHFUL MOVES IN NEXT TO THE FREAKIN COOP?! REALLY?!?!?! Knowing we couldn't do anything, and because I had an egg delivery to make to town, we walked to the car. I couldn't help but look up to look for a crown of lightning bolts.
I made my egg delivery, and couldn't help but call my mom, to see if Super Steve was home. I honestly don't know what I expected to hear..... Perhaps, "Hey Beck! Oh sure, they sell natural spring plugs on aisle 7 at Ace!" Well, Steevareeno wasn't home, so I told my mom what was going on. Besides agreeing that I should get some sand bags at Ace, you know what she told me? "YOU ARE A FARM GIRL!!! YOU CAN HANDLE THIS!!!" (Thanks for the vote of confidence mom! :D So I ran to Ace, and without even thinking, bought 10 sixty pound bags of sand, and had them loaded into the back of Patty's subaru. Yep...600 pounds in the back of her car. The back left tire complained...and I knew it wouldn't make it. So I ran over to the 76 station to fill it up. Well in the wonderful world of debit, I had no change. I was about to go charge a dollar on my card, when the kid came out and said he would turn it on for me....(THANKS 76 STATION KID!) I filled the tire, and headed the 15 minutes home, realizing that I had both sets of keys with me, and if I had a blow out, I wouldn't have a phone signal and would have to walk. I hoped the crown of lightning bolts realized it was always P who cursed him, and I was just guilty by association...
I called P, (yes while I was driving) to tell her of my plan. She protested it was dark, and there was nothing we could do...but I knew if I didn't do SOMETHING, I wouldn't be able to focus at work tomorrow...I couldn't just let the coop flood and do nothing.
I fortunately made it home, and slowed at the house long enough to pick up my farm girl in crime...
We drove down, and I plugged our super duper work light in. We checked our spring and sure enough...it was still flowing. So what did the love of my life do? She started to dig at it...pulling rocks and weeds up. I told her, "I swear if that erupts into a geyser, you are in so much trouble!!!" She then put her finger in it and said she felt the hole....So technically she was plugging the dyke. Hehehe...
ANYWAY, we started grabbing sand bags, now in the dark...and piling them against the barn. P cut open two of them, and spread the sand in front of the chicken door to control some of the damage. I know we didn't stop it, but I really think we slowed it down...
We headed back to the car looking forward to the bean and hamhock soup we had in the crockpot...only to get up to the house and find that the new crockpot didn't work so great...no soup....and it's only Monday...