Water. Roads Closed. And Stuff.

When I moved here in 1996, I realized that this was a place of steep hills and valleys and little streams that twisted through the landscape.

Our place is in somewhat of a 'hollow'. It isn't on the ridge, it is about 100 feet or so below the ridge. Travel another 250 feet down and you can be at our creek.

A lot of bad weather seems to like to stay on the ridge and the flooding occurs in the bottoms so we have hopefully achieved a happy medium. Well, we thought so in 2007 when we had historic rains and then heavy winds.

We had 19" of rain in three days and then the winds blew. We lost hundreds of trees. In this photo I counted 43 trees blown over or damaged.
Again. We were lucky and our animals were fine as well as our house.

The line attached to the tree is my clothesline on the same tree still.

Well that is neither here nor there.

Monday morning I awoke with a start as I hear a huge boom that shook the house. Well, that isn't even right, I awoke and then it ... the sound made me stand up right out of a deep sleep. Lightening was flashing. I figured there was a strike close by.
So I fumbled around and unplugged everything. Sort of like shutting the barn door after the horses have left. The storm raged on. I got up for a while and checked the radar and weather.

In the morning when I stepped out to let Charlie do his business, I felt something was amiss.
So I tossed my boots on and walked to the shed.

One of the old honey locust trees must have gotten struck by lightening.
A huge branch and come down and crushed two corral panels. I think I muttered a few cuss words quietly and reached down to pet Charlie.
Charlie looked up at me with that goofy face of his and I smiled.

Well.
My Electric braid fence was down in more than one spot. As miracles seem to happen all of the time on our farm, not one animal was injured or missing.

Splinters, shards, or perhaps even Tree Shrapnel was spread in a 360 degree area. Far and wide it was....

Tree shreds were stuck into the ground up to the depth of 6 inches. I even found a piece that had electric line embedded in it. The line was not damaged.

So after accounting for the animals, checking to make sure the fencers were not blown, and making sure that the power in the shed was still on, I started to gather tools and get to work.

I am not the master of electric fences, I will admit that. I will make mistakes and go back over things until I have it right. I felt it was a cruel joke on me that I'd finally gotten the fence to exactly where I wanted it, when this storm came.

Now I had a new challenge. Fix and restructure the fence. I took the opportunity to redo some fencing. The cattle wouldn't be on this section of land anymore so why not just do it?

I'm also somewhat of a believer in reusing what I can. So I made the fence 'hot' again to the rest of the farm after checking on the mules and Dexters. Next was the riddle of WHY would the fence not read 'hot' around the tree? It took me a long while and I probably even fixed things that did not need fixing.

Eventually it dawned on me. Lightening.
Strike.
Electricity.
Wires.
Lines.
Lightening...strike...electric...wires...wires...wires...power...wires.

I stopped and had a PB&J. My grandson Dennis came out to see what I was doing. I finally figured it out.

The electric braid rope wire had been attached to the tree by insulators. The lightening exited the tree in more than one place. I peered closely at the braid enduro soft braids. I felt them. All the internal wires had been 'blasted' outward. The electric braid rope fence felt like a porcupine.

Yep, I felt like Einstein for a moment. Then I realized how darned hot and humid it was and how much work I had to do yet. I showed Dennis the rope and let him feel it gently.

I took down some other fencing and used that to replace the ruined wire.

When all was done, I had mostly working fencing. So I let the mules back into the area to clean up the locust leaves.

The mules did the cleaning and I smiled. It had been hot and horrid.

The grand kids went home with their mom and I dropped into bed after doing some timed exposures of the night sky.
Another storm was brewing and it was supposed to go North of us.

Rains. Lightening, rain, thunder...I got up and checked on Charlie and the house. The rain was pounding, my cell phone blinked with a weather warning alert.
Flash flooding.

Oh here we go again, I thought. I stepped out onto the porch and decided it to try and go back to sleep.

I was startled awake.
I had no idea why.

I peered outside while warming up a cup of coffee.
The sky looked like it would produce an incredible sunrise.
So Charlie and I grabbed the camera bag an headed out.

I stopped.
There it was again.
The something IS wrong.

Ahhh.
The exploding tree had lost another section.
Oh.

And again. No animal had been harmed.
I tied Charlie up and went to check on my other creatures.

The sky was amazing.

And the mules were just fine.
I touched everyone and said good morning to them.

And then I set to work and it wasn't even 6:30 AM.

I got the fence re adjusted and back in service within 30 minutes.

I read the Sheriff's report and discovered that nearly 43 roads had been closed in our county due to mud slides or water over the road.

After running an errand to town [I stayed on the roads that keep to the ridges], I got home to watch another 4" come down in 3 hours.

I checked the animals and all were accounted for when the rains let up a bit. I walked to the creek and before I got around the last bend, I could hear it roaring.

The chairs I'd left down on the bottom were gone. Swept away by flood waters.
As I hiked back up the hill the rain came down in unbelievable amounts.
The pasture became a stream of its own.

And in the distance, you can see the mules coming to check on me.

I assured them I was just fine and they escorted me back home.

At 6pm we had 50 roads closed in our county.

Ever hear the saying?

You can't get there from here?

I think it applies tonight as another round of steady rain pours down.

Big Rain and Lots of Fun

I looked at the weather on the radar, we were supposed to have a chance of rain and then it would move on.

Oh boy was the weather service wrong! After the first inch of downpour, I checked the weather again. NOAA had said that a line of thunderstorms had developed and stalled.

The expected rainfall could be anywhere from 2 inches to 4 before it moved on.

I stepped out on the porch and watched the rain come down in sheets. After that first downpour water started running across the yard and through my garden.

The water ran across the edge of the yard and right into the garden.

The damage was minimal after the waters receded. I went out to look at the garden and water still trickled through. 
Our ground is super saturated.

Just after the rain stopped I checked the radar and put on my chore boots. It was time to go see how the waters were running.

It came down from our neighbor's cattle pasture and had rushed to the spot where our little creek begins.

And from there the volume increased.

I stayed up on the bank for the most part because the water was still flowing too hard and too fast even though it had subsided from flash flood stage.

After the waters subsided a bit more, I did use this deer trail to get down into the creek and take some shots near the big rock.

Yep, worth the mud on the hands and the seat of my pants. However, climbing back out was interesting. Walking along the stream was not an option.

I went down to the last dry run we have before the creek goes into the neighbor's land.

The water had subsided, but the run off was still very impressive.

I decided to end my exploration there and not continue downstream.
The water would only be faster, deeper, and wider there. It could wait a day for me to go check it out.

I guess I am just a freak for mud, water, and fun in the rain.

I'm going to go search for my rain duster and check it out again today or tomorrow.

Really. I am not crazy. 
Perhaps I can find some cool fungi and mushrooms!

After the Storm

Friday, when I headed to work the deluge opened.  I wasn't sure how hard the winds were blowing, but I could feel them pushing the Jeep around as I drove.
Though, to be sure, I wasn't sure if it was the wind or was it the water on the road.
Evidently after I left, trees fell onto the garage.  
Uprooted because the ground is so saturated.

Saturday a neighbor stopped by.  He was checking township roads and helping the road crew.

 

We got the tops of the trees off the garage and he left.

I took the dogs and decided to take a walk in our creek and down the valley.
The dogs had a great time.
Teslin kept thinking that the chipmunks and squirrels were calling to her, goofy dog.

I had to get after her.  She didn't want to stay close.  Morris never went far except the one time he followed her off and neither one of them came when I called at first.
I told Tes she was going to get 'grounded'.  
She spent time on a leash.  
I couldn't bear having something happen to her, silly city dog.

We found many beautiful things in the creek, and the flash flood from the day before was easily about 4ft high across most of the valley bottom.  That translates to a high volume of water.

 

Okay, here was the 'shot' of the day and one of my favorites.  Yes, I stood in the creek and used a tripod.  This was about a foot or more high.

 

Last night another huge front moved in at about 6pm.

 

 

 
And that is that.
2.5" more inches of water.
Flash flooding again.
Rivers and creeks flooding.
Makes about 7" of rain in a couple of days.