Plugged Gutters

Remember back at the end of the dry summer when we had warnings of high winds just before the forest exploded with major wildfires? I had been working inside the bull barn with the firewood project and could hear the wind in the tree tops. As the winds strengthened, the dried out needles of the trees were sent like little projectiles into the air. I could here them peppering the roof, Gatling-gun style, rat-tat-tatting.

What I didn’t pay any attention to at the time was just how many needles were building up in the gutters of the barn. Last week, when it started to rain, I did start to pay attention because the three days of freezing weather before the rain had frozen those needles into full gutters of prickly ice cubes, clogging the gutters up completely. There was no place for the rain to go but over the gutters, the ensuing puddles grew and grew until they oozed large amounts of muddy water through the barn. The bull end of the barn was swamped, the firewood project was swamped.

Since the barn is so tall, we have to use both the tractor and the tall ladder just to reach the gutters. Since the needles were still pretty frozen, large chunks of blockage were able to be removed. The gutters and drainpipes are running again. In the spring we will have to get back up there and do a thorough cleaning, but for now at least the inside of the barn is staying dry.

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