THE DAY AFTER !! CHALLENGING AND UPLIFTING!!!

Up at daybreak,didn't sleep much last night just imagining what we would find this morning.
Yes it is bad,as we dawned our hip waders and pitchforks I wasn't looking forward to a busy morning. As we walked down our driveway to the pasture gate we got our first glimpse of how much water ran through our yard.Our driveway looks really bad. As we walked across the pasture that dark curtain looking thing in the back ground is the fence on the upper side of our property.This is an up close view,at least it is still standing,just bent over under a heavy load of corn stalks,old hay and dead uprooted and cut weeds and grass,along with a plastic bucket,a plastic trash can,a big piece of plastic and some large pieces of wood and limbs. After a little while this was the finished product. We'll have to burn the piles or move them with the trackhoe to higher ground when they dry out. From there it was on to the next project,as we walked along the creek still running very high I was thanking Jesus for being able to work like we were doing,maybe that's what keeps us healthy! I'll take yoga and exercise tapes in the living room floor anyday, but maybe that's not the way it is supposed to be! A whole flock of mallards were enjoying the flood waters still left in the bottom pasture. The colors on the males are so striking, he looked so proud escorting his mate on the water,I counted 6 pairs of mallards frolicking in the warm sunshine.It's amazing if we will just look around how God always puts something to brighten an otherwise trying morning.When I snapped this photo my mood instantly improved just looking at this beautiful bird. I couldn't help but laugh at Annie,who at times acted like this was a hot summer day and she needed the water to cool off,running,jumping and splashing all the time we were working.Here she is as she paused for me to take a picture of her,unfortunately that mound in the background is our road fence. This was the hardest job,we didn't know if we were going to be able to lift some of the larger limbs and logs off the wire,but surprisingly we finally got the wire free,stood the metal post back up and put rocks against the bottoms to hold them until the ground dries out.We had to roll a couple of the large pieces back into our pasture to be picked up with the tractor later. Hubbie walked back to the house to get some wire and fence staples to repair some broken places and while he was gone I took some more pictures. I discovered that the water had left very noticeable water lines on all the trees.It almost looks like they have veils wrapped around them.Looks like the water here was about 4 1/2 feet deep. This small ditch runs from our farm pond to the creek and usually has no water in it at all,today was different and I don't think this will be a small ditch anymore! The flooding last night was the worst since hurricanes Francis and Ivan hit this area within a week of each other in 2004. That was when the fences that we repaired today were put up,because in that flood our fences were actually gone,so it can get a lot worse than it was today.I think it's just that the older I get these tasks seem a lot more daunting. I thought this picture was kind of special with the sun's reflection creating all these little pillow shaped sparkles. I didn't have to look to far to find things to make me smile this morning. God provided His special touches and I found them. He also must have provided some help for aging farmers who share a special love for this land. I was very surprised when I downloaded my pictures to see what appears to be someone working along side hubbie and me this morning. If you'll go back up and enlarge the picture where we have all the little piles of brush,you'll see hubbie bent over one of the piles,I promise you I was holding the camera taking the picture,if you look along the fence line in the back ground you can see our helper! A figure slightly bending toward the fence helping to straighten the wires! This is hubbie's jacket hung on a fence post that seems to have taken on the form of an unknown helper, and even our son who was planning to bring his machine down to clean off the road fence it looked so bad was surprised that we got all this done by ourselves and did it before lunch.Just maybe we were not alone?????? This is a rare picture of Annie and Sadie calmly side by side,usually if they are together they are wrestling around and playing,maybe they saw something we didn't and it captured their attention. They were really good to stay really close by me today,instead of going off chasing whatever moved.
The rest of our day was pretty normal,hubbie scraped the ruts out of the driveway with the tractor,it's amazing now there are not many signs of just how bad the flooding was. The vehicle that ran in the water was towed early this morning.
G-son spent the afternoon here while his dad worked on his dump truck and his pawpaw did some painting this afternoon when he got back from the dentist. Daughter fixed us some chicken chili for supper tonight,it was delicious. She left for volleyball practice,I'm blogging early tonight,as my muscles are telling me just how hard I worked today,so I'm looking forward to a hot bath and an early,uneventful bedtime tonight.
As this day started out with the dread of damaged scenes dancing before my doubting eyes,it ends with a renewed faith in God and the humbling knowledge that He is always beside us in good and bad ,happy and sad times,if we only take the time to look for Him!!!!!!!!!!
Good Night and God Bless.