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One of the benefits of living on land with a River Severn tributary 😎 And the records show it having the second highest tidal range in the world at 40 feet! Keep the waders handy if it rains much more 🤣
Tim, a word to the wise. This flooding is normal. It is quite shocking for the uninitiated how a small brook or stream can in hours turn into a raging torrent. I would suggest in the winter not to put livestock in these meadow fields. You could have easily lost many animals if they strayed into the main water course. I once tried to buy a house which had a micro stream at the bottom of the garden. This water course had about 2 inches of water in it. During that winter the water backed up from the main river and eventually found its way into this tiny stream. When the water stabilised it was 17 feet deep and the house was destroyed - luckily before we exchanged contracts! When you said "it wont reach this high" I would say, don't count on it!
We don’t graze the meadows in Winter but the ewes did have access that weekend to make the most of the grass while ground was frozen. Fortunately it’s all out of the way and no chance it can ever effect the buildings so minimal impact thankfully. 👍
Tim, a risk of living so close to the river, the upside is the land gets good fertilization from the water and hopefully it will be ready for the sheep in the spring. I cannot see how any improvements ye have done could contribute to the floods....stay safe
Wow, this almost looks like you had a mains waterpipe burst on your land🫣. It just goes to show how quickly the weather can change the layout of your fields. The look on your face at the beginning of the video says it all, completely shocked by what you are seeing. Tim was anybody else's land affected by the flooding like your land was?
No it was all around the area and worse elsewhere. We have had similar flooding before so not a shock that it happened just bizarre that it didn’t have the usual 2-3 days heavy rain before it.
Incredible footage, never seen anything like it. Have heard about the Somerset levels, think similar happens there minus the draining away. Did you gain any ducks???!!!
There's been extreme flooding all through Dorst, Somerset and the Midlands. Pleanty or roads and railway lines have been shut becuase of it. The A35 going into my town has been shut for miles and few time these past couple of weeks. We've lived here for nearly 20 years and thats never happened before. Just over a week ago my sister got trapped in Castle Cary, there was no way out. I dont think any of this is particularly normal weather.
Looks like the way it recedes, the sheep should be fine but must be a bit of a worry if you had pigs on the far side getting them off quickly enough. It does seem that if it floods like that, you would need them off when the warnings come through as once it starts, it will quickly be too late.
Yeah we certainly wouldn't have pigs down low other than in Summer. They can swim but you can't herd them like sheep. It's one of the reasons for getting the bridges in so there is the ability to cross them back over if there was ever Summer flooding. 👍
@@diyfarm Agree it’s the safest time but I’d be moving them before the water rose if a flood warning came in summer personally even if it meant putting them in the yard for a day or two. If it rose like that at night. Probably get away with it nine out of ten times and it won’t be as bad as they say but the time it does as it’s worse than expected… Worry was probably the wrong word, mindful would have been better..
If you google "environment agency river levels" you will be able to see the reported levels from the closest monitoring station. I'd imagine that a stream that size will have an EA monitoring station at some point. This is presented as a graph and you can see the rate of rise and fall. I take a screenshot when something happens like this, so that I can compare to future occurrences, to see if the height it tops out at is the same and if it rises or falls faster.
That’s what we use to get a rough idea and alerts. It’s not that local but a good guide of whether it’s rising or steady. This time it was no way near the usual height required which is why it was such a surprise. 👍
Did the new hedging we planted down towards the brook survive OK ? - they look as if they're under quite a bit of water and likely to be washed away with the current.
Hi Tim, did you get an FRA as part of you class Q application? It would be interesting to see if that had predicted this potential. If you didn’t might be worth one.
Wowsers, what a sight, i suppose you need to monitor both the high tide of the Severn and the flood warnings from the rain. Wonder if it is worth investing in a smart flood warning system, i am assuming there must be something you can stake into the ground, so when the water reaches a certain height it will ring your mobile phone? Or is that an overkill?
Yes I have thought of something similar but apart from the occasional day of grazing there is nothing down there that to worry about and no way near buildings. I guess it would help for a summer flood but it tends to rise so quick you wouldn’t really get much time if anything on other side. Better get bridge building! 😂
Leaves more than it takes, it drains away slowly so you can see the new layer of silt left each time. Guess that's why its so green even in mid summer.
I was wondering if there was a chance that you'd decide to flood the field out so you could make it into a rice paddy and have locally grown organic rice. I assume there aren't any crops that you'd get a decent return on that would be worth developing the field for. Strange idea and I don't think there's any merit to it whatsoever.... ditches around the field may be worth considering if you're changing the use to arable land but I failed my Geography O'Level....
It rarely happens and no long term impacts other than super fertile ground so we just plan to leave it alone for the wetter months. Rice would be in treating but I think ill stick with good old grass! 😂
@@diyfarm You could do a 'worm special' soon. As I recall, if you want worms to come to the surface of the earth, pouring a watering can over ground will draw them up to the surface. I think you'll have lost quite a few, swept away in the currents of the flood. I think you had some metal bread tray racks that you used in the drying of the tongue & groove in your cabin - you could build your own worm farm like this one ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-g5mMBWGSrdg.html and be a chief supplier of worms for the local landowners.....I wonder if there's a big market for worms. I can see you release them into the wild listening to 'Born Free' with the sun setting...get some more racks, eh?
