Of chicks, floods and too much rain!

We didn't have as uneventful Friday the 13th as I had hoped. Andy went to the basement and discovered that we had 3" of rainwater all over down there. He called me as I was on my way to visit my sister. I ended up buying a new sump pump and a new shop vac while I was in town. With all the flooding around here, I'm lucky I got them and that they weren't all sold out! I'm not sure about the damage yet, but I'm sure some of the cardboard boxes we had some things stored in means some of my packed-away treasures are ruined. We haven't had time to go thru it all yet, but thank God a lot of our precious things were stored in those plastic totes. Andy worked vacuuming up water for the majority of the afternoon. I kept asking him if I could help and he said he would do it.

We went and visited dad for a while and then had to shop for groceries for the party today (we're having Father's Day a day early and it's my nephew's 20th birthday party). I'm taking that strawberry, lettuce, walnut and bleu cheese salad I posted pix of and the recipe for on here the other day. I won't put it together until just before we eat and I got feta cheese for those who don't like bleu. (The big sissies!!) I'm anxious to find out how they like it. The lettuce and spinach will be from my own garden! I'm so pleased about that!

I have been trying to get my little chicks to be safe in the coop with the big chicks for a couple weeks now. Bigger chicks will pick on little ones so bad, sometimes they end up killing them! I will put them together and then sit there and babysit. I usually end up putting the little chicks back in their section of the coop because I can't stand to see the baby girls getting pecked and picked on. Thursday morning, I sat out there for over an hour with all the chicks together. Then I went off and did some weeding in the gardens. They seemed to be doing pretty good, so I came in the house and left them all together. I had left the "lid" off the little chicks side of the coop and didn't think a thing of that. I had the baby monitor, that we use to listen for predators at night, in the living room so I could hear if there was any commotion. That way I could run out and stop it if it got too bad. I heard what sounded like a small confrontation but then things calmed way down and I didn't hear another bad thing from the coop. Later on in the afternoon, I went out to check on them all, feeling very pleased because I had left them all together and they sounded so quiet and peaceful...I was thrilled until I got out to the coop and this is what I saw...

Here were the 8 big chicks on their side of the coop...



And here were the little chicks, on their side of the coop...



Those smart little babies had all three flown over the wire that divides them and were in their separated off area of the coop when the going got tough. I laughed so much. I didn't think they were smart enough to do that...especially all three of them! I guarantee that it was little Jacqueline who lead the way, she is the smartest of all my chicks! So my success at mixing the flocks wasn't working after all, but I was happy that no one got hurt and the babies had figured a way out of harm's way.

Friday morning, they were still divided up. Then Friday when I went out to the coop in the evening, having left the lid off the babies area all day and all night the night before, I found the babies back in with the big girls, up on the roosts with them and they all seemed to be peaceful and getting along fine! I hope it all continues. I left the coop as it was, with all the little chicks on the big girl side and the lid off the little girls side so they could escape again if need be. They may just do this better by themselves rather than having me interfere! We'll leave the divider in the coop for a week more or so, so there is an escape route for the babies...but it will come down when they seem to be doing really well and all getting along.

We watched the movie "Stand By Me" last night. I've been wanting to see that again. It's a good movie and I especially like it because it's a Stephen King story. It's poignant to see a young River Phoenix alive and well in that film. His was such a sad loss to the world. I remember when that movie first came out...there wasn't a mailbox left standing around here...all the kids must have gone out playing "mail-box baseball". (Bashing mailboxes with a baseball bat from a moving car like they did in the movie.)

There's some wicked flooding happening all around us. Cedar Rapids, Iowa...about 1.5 hours away from us... is underwater so bad that most of the town is evacuated and closed down. Interstate 80 is closed from near us all the way to Des Moines, Iowa, which is unprecedented! When I went into my sister's place today, I usually drive thru a section of East Moline called "Watertown", which seem very appropriate right now. It's part of my school bus route and a sort of mini-ghetto area. The main street I drive down in my bus was closed and I took a few photos from the edge of the water.

Looking down one of the flooded streets.







In the lower part of our village...the grass-line out in the water is where the edge of the water should be...not too bad, it's not on the roads in my town. I live up on the bluff in the upper part of the village.



The Mighty Mississippi is creeping up behind our village historic museum...



I sure can't gripe about a couple inches of rainwater in my basement. I live on a high bluff overlooking the Mississippi. We got water in the basement because of a failed sump pump and 4" of rain in 6 hours. We are out of the danger of the floods.