Last night it rained so hard we had standing water a minimum of 2 inches deep everywhere.  To make matters worse, the storm hit so hard and so fast that I did not get to put away my chickens.  I chose not to worry.  I thought,  “If it gets bad enough they will put themselves away… after all, they did it in the wind storm.”

Never trust a chicken to do the sensible thing.

Later in the evening I went out to do what I should have done earlier in spite of the downpour, because no sooner had I gone out than the sky just opened up!  Bob came out to help and running as fast as we could, without slipping in that 2 inch water,  we went to the chicken coop to lock up…

The poor little critters (remember they are chicken brained) were huddled it the wettest spot in the run IN THE RAIN!  Who’s the “chicken brain” now?  Not only were they soaked, but we were too!  Necessity being the mother of invention, we quickly turned over the biggest of the two umbrellas, and  ‘poured’ the little wet things into the umbrella thereby making two short trips out of the job.  It did not matter we were still soaked to the skin by the time we got done.  Thankfully, the good Lord held back the worst of it till we got into the house, for no sooner did we get in than the lightning portion of the storm hit.  What a show!

Needless to say I will be watching them closely over the next few days to make sure they are not coming down with some form of chicken pneumonia!  Further, I will take this as a lesson learned about good stewardship.  I will no longer put off putting away my critters based on the assumption they will take care of themselves in a storm.  They are after all just animals and cannot reason as well as… I should have.

This morning I awoke to fog and when it burned off what was left was blue skies and sunshine!  Here is a view looking out my picture window at my herb and flower bed, and as you can see, I am almost done getting this winter’s grass and spring’s weeds out of it.

The Iris float above my garden like some exotic butterflies.

I was surprised that they are none the worse for the storm.  And the chickens?  See for yourself!

Chickens are Rhode Island Reds and Barred Rocks

The Goslings in the background are my Pilgrims.  I think all this rain made them grow some more!

Things found on the ground…

A new Robin’s Nest

Can’t be all that bad. “Why?”  I can hear you asking  “How is that not bad?”

Well, because it was an unused Robin’s nest!

And finally,  a beautiful Butterfly resting on my lawn!

She opened her wings and then my camera’s battery went dead ~ pooh!