July 26, 2021
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Last year, 2020 was something else. We went nearly 240 days without rain. So we hoped and pray for rain, and better year overall in 2021. God answered our prayer. But bit extreme! We said to each other. Be careful what you ask for! We weren't ready for this flood!
Never in my life I experienced flood in your own yard enough to paddle rubber boat around the house! Once in a lifetime moment for sure! Just a few days ago, we were giving tours to the famous YouTuber about our farm, and 3 days prior to the event, I sowed all of seeds for the fall and winter crops, as well as a bunch of flower seeds for the fall. Seeing our entire yard flooded, I was so devastated. All of our hard work.... No time to cry! We had to quickly access the damage in the love stock area, but we coulnd't walk across the yard because the current was so fast, plus poof dirt turned into serious mud pool that will steal your rain boots! We inflated our little rubber boat and started paddling towards the livestock area. My husband grabbed our Canoe and started paddling. People driving down the street turned around and taking pictures. We couldn't help but to laugh at that point. I said "What you're gonna do? Cry about it? I am going to have fun with this!" I paddled everywhere we could. Water level increased rapidly to about 14-18 inches. everything started to float away towards the fence. We said "We must save our livestock!" Poor chickens had nowhere else to go. Goats were crying for help. We couldn't carry them one by one across the yard with that much water, so we used our canoe to save our livestock. |
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We load up chickens, goats. their feed, alfalfa on the canoe and start moving like a Gondola in Venice. We temporary opened up our back porch to secure our goats because the area is fenced in completely. Chickens decided to flock under the tall pine tree right by our house. Oh how horribly destroyed our yard!! This is why they don't get a nice thing! Goats were loving it, because they are very close to us, and have a lot of things to climb on, and jump off of. We were battling them constantly! Chickens were working hard in their new area scratching and eating bugs!
Water was keep coming closer and closer to our house, so we started to pack all of the emergency bug out kit, and getting ready for emergency evacuation. As a family, we prayed hard to protect us from flood damage. Almost every hour, I walked outside and checked the water level. In the middle of the night, water stopped flowing into our yard, and I felt great peace and the stillness after the storm. |
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Moonlight was reflecting on water, making me feel like I was living at a lake front. It was so beautiful and peaceful. I sat down and start taking pictures.
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Next morning, I woke up early to see the damage. Flood shopped right by our house. Thank God! We didn't have to evacuate. Couldn't believe how beautiful the sky was after the storm. I normally go out to all of my gardens every morning and every evening to check on my plants as my husband feed our livestock. Since that excitement was taken away, I decided to spend more time with goats that were camping in our backyard. Some of them were still young, and they knew that we were inside the house, so they wanted our attentions constantly! They tried to break into our house, our dog was freaking out chew everything they could reach... so much drama in our little farm. We were watching our land and waiting to see how FAST the water was going to evaporate. Not fast enough!
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Night of Day 3. More rain start dumping from the sky. We all prayed that God has mercy on us, and He did! The rain only lasted for a less than one hour. But when we were outside looking at the rain, we heard the scary sound like a baby is screaming from the top of her lungs. I said to my husband " What is that sound? I've heard that before. I know it's not human, but what is it? Last time I heard this sound, we were at the Lake Mead night fishing..."
I tried to research all night trying to find out what is making that screeching sound. I thought it would be nice if that was a barn owl or something. That freaky sound lasted almost all night. Whatever that was, I heard there's one on the right side, and one of the left side of our back yard somewhere.
Night of Day 4. That freaky sound again! But this time it's everywhere! So I recorded and posted on Facebook to see if any body local can tell us what that was. First I was seriously asking Pahrumpian seeking for the real answer. Then, people got jokes! It was funny! Some people said desert toads, rabbits, bobcats, peacocks, Aliens, a child, Chupacabra, Big foot... list goes on. Few nights later, I saw a bunch of Desert Toads jumping everywhere! Then I knew the answer was Desert Toads. Thank God that was a bunch of Chupacabra! lol
July 30th, Regular Morning chores... Feeding our chickens and goats, wondering when our land is going to dry out... We were trying to brainstorm about the flood protection plan for the next flood. How we could divert the water flow, so we won't have this problem again. And I looked down, there was a desert tortoise right in front of our garage hiding under the Morning Glory! I have no idea how he ended up in front of our house, but we were excited to see a wildlife showed up in front of our doorstep like "What's up!" Come to find out that the tortoise belong to our neighbor who rescues livestock from people who are giving up on their pets because "It's too hard to take care of them" or "Got tired of them" This tortoise was one of the rescued animal from Las Vegas. Our property is a Certified Wildlife Habitat by National Wildlife Federation, and we have a perfect habitat for them, so neighbor decided to have us keep their tortoise.
Flood was such a disaster to us for sure. But we learned to adopt, improve, stay positive and move on. It's been almost 4 weeks, and some area in our property is still wet. We lost a lot of plants that were thriving before the flood. But we also gained a lot more! Because of the heavy rain and increasing humidity, I have noticed that plants that did survived during the flood are now thriving! New growth, seeds that I planted few days before the flood sprouted where I planted! I was so amazed. I have no idea how it happened. Even in the area that I did not sow, plants dropped seeds and now it's sprouting everywhere! Neighbors offered us new tree seedlings that were growing wild in her yard, quails living in our zucchini garden, desert tortoise, hawks, toads, more birds, bees, everything started to come back to life!
I've been thinking about how I was going to revive the South side of our garden. This morning, I heard the small voice says "Name that area Promise Land. You know what to do, and what that means!" Yes, I know exactly what that means and what needs to be done.
During the flood, watching our land underwater and plants just dying was such a painful site for me to see. All I could think about was the worst case scenarios, how much does it cost to fix this, maybe giving up growing all together.... all of the negative thoughts! But we kept reminding ourselves to have faith. We believe that God's plan is far more greater than what I can come up with. So I decided to let go and let God guide us! One day at a time, little by little I see God's moving to bless us in ten folds!
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)
I tried to research all night trying to find out what is making that screeching sound. I thought it would be nice if that was a barn owl or something. That freaky sound lasted almost all night. Whatever that was, I heard there's one on the right side, and one of the left side of our back yard somewhere.
Night of Day 4. That freaky sound again! But this time it's everywhere! So I recorded and posted on Facebook to see if any body local can tell us what that was. First I was seriously asking Pahrumpian seeking for the real answer. Then, people got jokes! It was funny! Some people said desert toads, rabbits, bobcats, peacocks, Aliens, a child, Chupacabra, Big foot... list goes on. Few nights later, I saw a bunch of Desert Toads jumping everywhere! Then I knew the answer was Desert Toads. Thank God that was a bunch of Chupacabra! lol
July 30th, Regular Morning chores... Feeding our chickens and goats, wondering when our land is going to dry out... We were trying to brainstorm about the flood protection plan for the next flood. How we could divert the water flow, so we won't have this problem again. And I looked down, there was a desert tortoise right in front of our garage hiding under the Morning Glory! I have no idea how he ended up in front of our house, but we were excited to see a wildlife showed up in front of our doorstep like "What's up!" Come to find out that the tortoise belong to our neighbor who rescues livestock from people who are giving up on their pets because "It's too hard to take care of them" or "Got tired of them" This tortoise was one of the rescued animal from Las Vegas. Our property is a Certified Wildlife Habitat by National Wildlife Federation, and we have a perfect habitat for them, so neighbor decided to have us keep their tortoise.
Flood was such a disaster to us for sure. But we learned to adopt, improve, stay positive and move on. It's been almost 4 weeks, and some area in our property is still wet. We lost a lot of plants that were thriving before the flood. But we also gained a lot more! Because of the heavy rain and increasing humidity, I have noticed that plants that did survived during the flood are now thriving! New growth, seeds that I planted few days before the flood sprouted where I planted! I was so amazed. I have no idea how it happened. Even in the area that I did not sow, plants dropped seeds and now it's sprouting everywhere! Neighbors offered us new tree seedlings that were growing wild in her yard, quails living in our zucchini garden, desert tortoise, hawks, toads, more birds, bees, everything started to come back to life!
I've been thinking about how I was going to revive the South side of our garden. This morning, I heard the small voice says "Name that area Promise Land. You know what to do, and what that means!" Yes, I know exactly what that means and what needs to be done.
During the flood, watching our land underwater and plants just dying was such a painful site for me to see. All I could think about was the worst case scenarios, how much does it cost to fix this, maybe giving up growing all together.... all of the negative thoughts! But we kept reminding ourselves to have faith. We believe that God's plan is far more greater than what I can come up with. So I decided to let go and let God guide us! One day at a time, little by little I see God's moving to bless us in ten folds!
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)
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The National Wildlife Federation (NWF), America's largest wildlife conservation and education organization, is pleased that Kozue Maye at Poof Dirt Farms in Pahrump, NV has successfully created a certified Wildlife Habitat through its garden for "Wildlife" movement.
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