As I mentioned in yesterday's brief post, we were very lucky to have had no damage at all from Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene. Right up until Sunday morning, the National Weather Service had forecast from 5 to 8 inches of rain for us from the storm, and that's what we had prepared for. As it turned out, we received far less than that — maybe an inch or a bit more. We've had far worse rainstorms this year, including a freak massive hailstorm/rainstorm in May that produced a lot of local flooding. So all of us in this immediate area were very fortunate indeed; there is flooding and damage to the south and southeast of us in New Hampshire, and of course all the terrible devastation in Vermont and New York, but somehow we were spared. We never even lost power.
Because of the original projections, we had spent days preparing for the worst. In these photos I took on Monday, in the one at the top of the post you can see the drain pipes we added to the downspouts on the gutters to carry water away from the foundation of the house. We also dug out the ditches again — these had been partially filled in with dirt and debris washed down during the freak May storm:
The berm across the drive was a temporary measure to help direct water that comes down the surface to drain off to the side before it ends up at the house. It looks a bit squashed because we had since driven over it once or twice by the time I took the photos.
We had also taken in everything that could get blown away, like dog cots, and tied down and strapped down other things, like the trash dumpster. We also parked vehicles and trailers in the safest location, and used the tractor pallet forks to hold down lumber and other materials.
Last but not least, I moved the wireless weather station over to the fence and tied it down:
In Montana we had it bolted down onto heavy boards, but the weather here is generally much more gentle, so I haven't bothered. Apparently we needn't have worried this time either!
Still, even as we count our blessings, our hearts go out to the people who weren't as lucky as we were.
Rolling Dog Farm Blog 
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