This isn't directly relevant to chickens, so those sick of chicken business can breath a sigh of relief. We get torrential flooding rains here every few weeks, but most commonly in April and August. (We have had flooding rains in December and February, which is tedious, but that doesn't happen very often. There, now everyone is clear.) There is a phrase that people use here, "Michigan Basement," which is used to discuss in a rather veiled way the fact that these rains cause basements to flood. A lot. Every time I wet vac 6 inches of ice water off our basement floor I vow again to beat this problem. Last summer was supposed to be the summer of fighting floods but my appendix decided to give up the ghost instead and I lost 6 weeks of my life to morphine and Nexium. (I regret NOTHING.) So this summer truly will be the summer Jami BEATS the flooded basement. Here is Stage 1: Now when rain floods down off our roof in a force that one has to see to truly believe, it won't just wash away all my so-called "erosion prevention" plants and 2 inches of top soil, but will hit granite hewn from the very bowels of the Earth. I speckled some dirt and seeds into the rock cracks just for fun, and the straw on top is to prevent chickens (there, I did manage to bring chickens into the conversation) from eating the seeds before they sprout. So far, so good. There is another dramatic flood spot between our house and driveway, which I am going to turn to as part of Stage 2. Stage 3 involves a flood spot about 10 feet from this one, at the corner of our house (this one is tricky as there is a really nice hydrangea growing there, but the ground has sunken about 12 inches lower than all around--solving this problem is going to require some serious scheming) and Stage 4 is the entire back of our house. THAT is going to be a poser, too. More reports and events warrant.
Here are the chickens--wrecking stuff as per usual. Once this section of the gate was in place I needed to build up the ground a bit (a common theme in this yard--we obviously pound down the ground a lot around here). So I tossed down some top soil and threw some grass seed on top. Knowing that this would be very tempting to chickens (and likely wash away with the next flooding rain we get, which is expected in three days) I scattered about some straw. Minutes later, I see this:
Here are the chickens--wrecking stuff as per usual. Once this section of the gate was in place I needed to build up the ground a bit (a common theme in this yard--we obviously pound down the ground a lot around here). So I tossed down some top soil and threw some grass seed on top. Knowing that this would be very tempting to chickens (and likely wash away with the next flooding rain we get, which is expected in three days) I scattered about some straw. Minutes later, I see this: 
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