Calm after the storm

Owning a farm has been as much about rolling with the punches as anything else. Seeing a hurricane barreling towards Southern California made all of us chuckle. How could we be getting any more rain than we already had this winter?

Our team has become stronger as we’ve seen more adversity. We all worked together to come up with a plan.. First, where the horses would go, which ones could stay out in the pastures and which ones needed to come in. We made sure horses under the cover of big branches were moved just in case a tree fell (spoiler: a couple did). Even the mini donkey came inside for the night and the next day when the bulk of the storm hit.

Next, we made sure that all of our drainage was clear in preparation for 4-7” inches in 24 hours. People in Northern California or Washington laugh when we say we get 4” of rain and it’s devastating. But it’s true… We just aren’t built for it here. Huge mudslides, flooding, etc. Southern California saw it all during this storm.

Luckily we were pretty unscathed by this storm. Our rain gear was already broken in from our exceptionally wet winter. And we got to use this weather as an opportunity to see where we could have potential issues with our drainage down the road. Moral of the story: plan B (or C, D, E, F) is always on the horizon so get ready and be flexible. And hey, we don’t have to water the polo field for a day or two!