Was over at a friend’s this weekend geeking out on her new french drain run through a turnout and how awesome it’s already working, discussing her new extended dry lot and remedying some issues since the install.
Gate latch types, how gates were hung, and the new fence that just went in (4 board and coated wire) and so many other things farm management. Total geeking out. You know.
That’s when you know you’re a farm girl. 
I love it!!! Especially the French drain in the paddock. Inquiring minds want more details. I’m hoping to install gutters on my barn this winter and I’ll need some sort of drain I think.
We spent our Sunday about melting in the heat and humidity doing assorted farm projects. It was a good day.
We don’t have gutters on the barn, thinking ice sliding off would remove them. Husband dug a ditch alongside of barn, put drain tube with sock on it down, then covered tube with gravel. It has worked pretty well for us over the years. Snow pIles just keep melting and draining away. Heavy rains are gone fast, never wet inside the barn.
Paddock fence is away from barn wall about 6ft, so dropping snow misses falling on fence and I can get in there to mow with the trimmer. Makes a good Asparagus bed along the wall!
Gutters are definitely climate specific, but I spent the $$ to have gutters rolled onsite and installed on my 40x60 pole barn and the overhang. We laid underground pipe from the downspouts to drain the water away from the paddocks to the pasture behind the barn. They’ve stood up to 15 years of PNW rain, Gorge wind, snow and ice. Now, horses? Yeah, the overhang section did not survive a direct hit from a rearing horse, but we got it back up (a bit dented and slightly bent, but still functional!). We also encased the one downspout/drain pipe the horses access in a 2x6 ‘box’ that keeps them from rubbing on the metal pipe part.
Of course, gravel or sand deliveries make me giddy, as does the summer project list that included rebuilding our manure bin (made of power poles I got free from the county when they were replacing them on our road…asking is always a good thing when you see workers!). It looks so good now and is so much more functional! I’ve told so many of my horse friends how we did it-- lots of good ideas back and forth. That’s farm girl talk right there-- poop management!
I can see how in a climate with winter how gutters might not be useful!
Fortunately barn pad is well built up from ground level so it doesn’t get water inside. But the roof run off keeps pounding the edges of the pad. We keep pushing it up and feathering it out but with the amt of rainfall we get we need gutters.
I can see your point, tired of replacing dirt. Our barn is also built up on a dirt pad, was 6ft, then let dirt sit uncovered a year to settle, so now about 4ft. Our roof edges drip on the gravel over drain pipe, does not wash away anything. We are getting some heavier, longer rains in the last few years, than we did in the past. Probably nothing like the NW though.
I learn so many things from all the folks contributing ideas on here! We have put many of them to work for us. I finally have gutters on the house along with my new roof last year! They do make a difference in water drainage.
Seamless gutters are very nice!
We get a good amt of rain here, and it’s usually the violent deluge variety not the soft soaking rain type.
Boxing around the down spouts is a good idea!
I’ve also collected some used telephone poles from local utility upgrades and some old rail road ties and rough cut oak from an old cow barn we tore down to be repurposed as manure pile bins!
The drain pipe parallel with the drip edge is a good feature. I think I need similar plus gutters and then another French drain type thingy to direct the run off out across the paddock.
Luckily the land drains well and in a clear pattern that is convenient to work with to move water away from barn etc.
My keeping our drainage ditches clean is our best water removal feature for deluge or continuous rainfall times. The taper is from a foot to about 4ft deep ditch feeding into the underground cement pipe. An interesting thing we learned is that drain pipes with that much water going in, need venting! Without air they do not drain so fast, we get flooding. We luckily had steel covers over joints where 18in cement pipe changed direction. So we are able to lift the heavy cover for air, prop it open on pieces of firewood and no more flooding! Water usually leaves very fast, even in large quantities, since our ditch is fed from along the road and fields across the road thru the 30 inch tube under the road, all downhill to us, then off to the river further downhill.
With cover closed causing flooding, the flow is EXTREMELY strong, even if only 3 to 4 inches deep. Any deeper is dangerous to try getting thru. I leave the one cover open all winter and spring for surprise rainfall, prevent any flooding. We also vented drain tile we put in across the fields and they do seem to help with faster field runoff.
Venting is something to consider if you plan new drainage. Who would have thought it?! Need for venting was interesting to learn for us! This is why manholes have holes in them. Not always enough of vent for air supply though, since one joint cover here is an actual manhole we salvaged. We do keep the second cover open for that reason, to get more air in with the water flow.
How about an “I know you’re NOT country when…”
The look on a customer’s face when I told him that any animal suspected to have rabies would need to be euthanized/shot. No, the wildlife center will not “rehab it.” I was waiting for “Just because it’s sick!?” to come out his mouth. 
Yeah, sir, you didn’t have to tell me you were born in the city.
I was driving to the barn and thought to myself, almost out loud, “That corn looks good” as I drove past a field.
You can take the girl out of Indiana, but not the Indiana out of the girl.
Picture this. You can barely tell the excavator was in the ground at all. A trench dug barely wider than needed and covered up as such it’s barely detectable. They dug down 18", laid a pipe with holes in it, covered in stone (and maybe landscape fabric under it all?) and then filled in with top soil and topped w grass seed and straw. Owner said that field was a swamp after hard rains and now draining like magic. No more ankle breaking clay holes that don’t fill in. Only farm girls can appreciate such beauty. 
That sounds so dreamy! I love it!
Lol! That’s perfect!
Oh jeez. Definitely not a farm girl
You get wierdly excited about a good hose? How about a good hose reel? My DH
surprised me with this beauty and let me tell you and it is smooth and easy. Pulls out easy and easy crank back in. High quality. If anyone wants the brand I’ll get that.
Well in response to not country…
Someone asked me
“Why do they put blindfolds on horses?”
yessirreee, them are FLY masks!!!
A less glamorous response but – you know you’re a farm girl when you feel a spider on your neck while stacking hay and instead of killing it, you put it somewhere it can eat the flies! No such thing as a free ride on this farm, everyone’s got to do work! 
Happened to me just now doing chores. I don’t know if SO was impressed.
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