Animals back home as flood clean up continues for Maugerville farm, bakery
Debris is still scattered throughout the fields and across the property at Moxon's Country Pumpkin in Maugerville, New Brunswick, but the animals are all back home.
Earlier this month, flood waters wreaked havoc on the family owned bakery, farmer's market and petting zoo.
Their goats had to leave their usual shelter for the safety of a deck. The cattle and horses had to be shipped off property to the Fredericton Exhibition grounds. And the bakery was forced to close.
Then on Friday, with clean up efforts underway, strong winds whipped many of their still-damp belongings into the air.
Now, with flood waters receding, Jason Moxon, whose family owns the business, said they're just trying to make up for lost time.
The flood has put them about a month behind in their regular planning, he said.
The market usually opens by the end of June, while the bakery had just opened for the season when flooding began.
"The biggest thing is time," Moxon said.
"It's major. It sets everything back by a month. You lose a month, you can't make the time back up."
They're aiming to have the bakery reopened by the end of the week, since it didn't suffer any water damage.
"So it's just a matter of re-cleaning the stuff and firing her back up," Moxon said.
But outside of the main building, there's still a lot of work to do.
Debris needs to be picked up, and there are parts of the farm the family hasn't even been out to yet as they were focused on cleaning up the main building and repairing fences for the animals.
Then there are the greenhouses which were damaged resulting in the loss of seedlings, Moxon added.
While the farm is set up to withstand a certain amount of water with a few days of preparation, there was nothing the family could do to prepare for this year's historic flooding, Moxon said.
At their highest, flood waters completely overtook the farm, as can be seen in this video on Facebook.
"When you get to the depth of the water we had this year, you can only do so much. When it gets to a certain point, you can't get back to do anything else," Moxon said.
"So it definitely changes the game when you add the extra two feet of water."
The family was at the farm checking things over everyday, but it was impossible to assess the full impact of the flood until the water receded.
As for the animals, they're now back in their usual barns and pastures. But Moxon said the goats, at least, didn't seem to mind their temporary perch atop the family's deck.
"They were happy, they had their own little area there and could see everybody. So oh yeah, they were happy," Moxon said.
The Moxons also posted a video on Facebook of their horses happily frolicking in their pastures once again.
