What a Leap !

       Yesterday's Leap Day was one we won't soon forget. The day started cloudy and warm, very unlike February. By the time I had gotten to work, it had started to rain and rain it did. We had a break during the afternoon and then we really got it. Thunder, lightening and the whole nine yards. The old timers around here have a saying " Count the thunder claps in February and that is how many frosts you will have in May". I hope after yesterday, this is one time they are wrong..... I had to go through a lot of high water to get home but by the time I did, we were flooded. The whole back yard was under water. The creek that runs beside our house was roaring. Tim had all the ditches open as far as he could, it was just too much water. He had all the animals in the barn, so I waded across the field to my sisters house to check on her. She has to walk across a wooden bridge to get to her barn. The creek was over that bridge, which is about 4-5 feet above the water. She had to walk across the bottom and around to tend to her animals last night. I headed back home and went in the barn to check on our animals and I noticed the water had started to come in the door and had flooded 3 of the pens. The goats in those pens were about to have a heart attack (they hate water) So I quiickly got them out and then we were able to go outside and divert the water from the door. When I clean pens last week, I dumped the old hay outside the door and Tim hadn't moved it yet with the tractor. So all that hay didn't let the water drain down to the creek. What a mess but at least all the animals were alright. I took a head count on the chickens and it looked like they were all there, although they were a bedraggled bunch. I moved goats around so everyone was in dry pens and headed back to the house. By this time it was dark and had stopped raining. I stood in the dark and listened to the creek roar. It is amazing how quickly our little creek can change from a bubbling brook to a raging torrent. I could hear it roaring from my bed most of the night. This morning it is calming down and is back in it's banks. The song sparrows are singing loudly  "Maids, maids, maids, put on your tea kettle, ettle, ettle." They are our first birds to sing in the spring. I love to watch them sit on a fence post and just sing their hearts out. So life is calming down here on this first day of March, although a bit soggy. I had invisioned maybe putting out some onion sets soon but from the looks of the water standing in the garden , thats's probably not going to happen right away. I wonder....does the leap day count toward being the first day of March, so we can say it came in like a lion??