The water approaches the chicken houses.

But by the 14th it did.

The river finally crested on the 15th, two feet higher than the big flood of '54. Our normally sleepy river shut down I-94, and almost every other road in the county.

There isn't supposed to be any water in this view of our farm.

Looking west - away from the river.

I climbed to the top of our 90 foot grain leg to get some pictures of the great flood of 2008. (Not that there was anything "great" about it.) Picture to right is looking west southwest.

Looking southwest

Looking south.

In the picture to the right we are looking south southeast. County highway G should be visible in this picture. It is underwater.

Looking east. This is the same oak tree as in the pictures on the 10th and 14th. Again, county highway G should be visible in this picture. It is underwater.

Looking east. The river is supposed to be behind the neighbors buildings, not in them. Looking northeast. These neighbors had two feet of sandbags and four pumps to save their house. Looking northeast

Looking north. The picture on the left is our dooryard. Kind of damp, no? You can see the steer feeder in the pasture in the upper right part of the picture. Yes, I know it is standing in water. In the picture to the right we are looking north northwest. Looking northwest. The picture below shows where the chicken house used to be. There is now about four feet of water there. Chickens can't swim. So we moved them onto our front lawn - one of the few places above water. (We do not use any lawn care products and have plenty of clover and dandelions, so the chickens were quite happy once they got used to their new home.) I put on my chest waders to get the next two pictures. The first shows the same scene as the first picture on this page, only with more water and fewer steers. The second picture is a bluebird house on top of a fence post. Your intrepid tour guide. Thank you for joining me on the '08 flood tour. Please come again. Err... but without so much water.