A Good Test for the "Raised" Barn

Earlier in the spring, we had some fill dirt hauled in and Russ and I worked like pack mules to move it out to the barn.  I didn't do much planning back when we decided where to put the barn.  I ended up putting it in the lowest part of the property.  Not good.  It is always tough to slog out to the barn in rubber boots in deep mud every time it rains, which is often in south Louisiana.  The mud is so deep, sometimes you walk right out of your boots.

My plan was to raise the level of the barn after the fact.  Never too late, right?  So we used wagons to carry out 3 dump truck loads of dirt out to the barn, building up the areas all around it.  You might be wondering why we didn't just have the dump trucks deliver the dirt closer to the barn?  It was so wet this past fall, winter, and spring, that there was no way the truck could get near the barn without bogging down.

We got the dirt in place and we've had several rains on it, but the rain this last week was the test we were looking for.  We got eight inches of rain in less than 24 hours - a real gully washer. 

We even got a tornado that came through down the road.  It did some damage at our friend's home that gave us the quail eggs.  We had a lot of sticks that fell out of the trees that will take some work to pick up, but fortunately no major damage.  The garden really didn't need all this rain, but there's nothing we can do about it.  The green beans look sickly and yellow.

So it is time to check out the barn.  How did our new "raised barn" work out?  Ordinarily, the barn was in a low location, so the cows would find a high place from which to weather the storm.  Now, the barn IS the high place!  You can see the two little bulls, Aussie and Clarabull, as well as the baby goats and a few chickens seeking refuge under the new barn expansion atop the new dirt.

Here's from a different vantage point, looking out from within the barn.  Everything outside is muddy, but from here, we are high and dry!

It took a lot of dirt and a lot of work, but the cows and goats appreciate the effort.

I'd give the new raised barn a two thumbs up rating after passing the 8 inches in less than 24 hour rainfall test with flying colors.