Tranquility after the Storm?

What a crazy week. We hope you made it through Ida okay, considering. For us and the farm, overall, it could have been worse, much worse. No tornados touched down here and there was hardly any wind at all. Power was not lost. We received 8" of rain and about 4-5" of that came down in an hour or so. Without established waterways (thanks NRCS!) the damage would have been much greater. We endured your typical flash flooding and its effects. I hate to say it, but we're kind of used to it by now. This flood was a bit higher, a bit stronger, and a bit longer in duration, but it wasn't that much different that a thunderstorm dropping 2-3" in an hour. My homemade dam got washed away and the local creek beds were scoured pretty good, but it did make for an interesting stroll on Saturday. Seen in our little creek were frogs, minnows, and many water striders. We also saw a spicebush swallowtail. Since the rain missed us the previous weekend I was pretty eager for some wetness to help our cover crops get established. Most of our fields are covered in lush crop residue (and weeds!) and fabric so those areas survived unscathed. I was most worried about our late summer and fall crop areas which have more exposed soil but even those areas had less washout than expected. Again, praise be to the waterways! I try to pitch most of our fields slightly so excess water does drain out the aisles and not punch through the beds and it mostly worked except in a few spots. I would say that the driveway and downstream of the bridge to Field 1 sustained the most damage (see below). Best of luck with your own clean up and the stress this has caused! Let's hope it's the last of the season...