Rocking like a Hurricane

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It takes a lot of balls to have two tented shows up through the remnants of two hurricanes, two tornados, an earthquake and two floods all in the same ten days over labor day weekend.

My cows were in Fonda since I had health papers for New York but not Vermont (where Paris, Katya the Leopardess and the rest of the crew took the rest of the museum show for the Essex Junction Champlain Valley Expo). The smaller cows were hauled to Rick Cressy's farm. We sure enjoyed their company. He sure saved our asses by saving our cows with his 30' horse trailer since our horse trailer and semi went to Vermont. Rick is an outstanding member of the fair board.

That left the giant steer ass deep in floodwater when we returned to get him. When I say ass deep, I'm referring to the steer's ass, who is 8ft tall at the head. The cattle barn was the first to flood when the adjacent Mohawk river broke its banks and flooded the fair 5' deep. We had only 17 minutes to escape. This is one timid piece of beef that hated being in the water and hated being moved out of the floodwater. Only the tops of the tents were visible in the height of the flooding from Irene.

Meanwhile, Paris and Katya were babysitting a 25x50 push pole tent that had center polls five feet too short. How it got through Irene nobody knows. Well, they didn't cheat on stakes, but the tent was awfully saggy by the time Lee came through the next Monday. Yep, they tore it down in the rain, drove all the next day and slept over in Fonda only to wake up to rising floodwaters.

The museum was on its way to Hebron just as the floodwaters started to overflow the banks of the Mohawk River in Fonda. And yet again, my truck konked out. We got the house trailer out towing through a foot of water.

I forgot to mention the two tornados within two miles of the fairgrounds. I don't remember much of them either except that I was ducking for cover. Not a lot you can do on a fairgrounds when a tornado strikes.

Nonetheless, I'm rocking like a hurricane waiting for Bloomsburg to get cleaned up. Only 15 feet of water there. Only six weeks of torrential rains. If we had seals, we would be set.

John Strong