Well – my eastern US friends – We don’t have a fun picture of snow men in colorful decorations – or lawns in beautiful pure untouched snow. Nope. What we have here in the Pacific Northwest is a good old fashioned rainy day. REALLY rainy day. RREEEEAAALLLYYYYY rainy. 4ish inches of rain yesterday. We woke up to a few inches of water and mud in the basement, checked all of the things we were supposed to do to help this not happen and they were all working – Gutters, Trenches, Culverts. But one small stream or two seamed to be coming out of the hill itself. How does one divert that? I heard from our neighbor that her mole holes were looking like mini summer sprinklers in the yard, so first thing after church we went over to check it out. Join with us on a little walk around her yard and forest.
Normally a small stream with a small burm, goes over and under the hill, but not, since I’ve known her – along the left hand side of that tree. . . . .
Again, not usually a river here. … like the mole hill water flows? We had a bon fire down there by the fence last week. We’d be standing in 8 inches of water if we tried it today.
Not usually water here – a small creek that flows into the lake – that one usually can’t see from the road. This evening the water was over the road.
This is a neighbor to the north – picture this water running through our front and into our house. Joy. Looks prettier on the SIDE of the house. I’m just sayin.
Our walk after church, up and down the hills of the forest. Again, um, usually not a river or two here – at all.
These Mole Hills were really amazing. Like God’s Plumbing to help the hill not completely get stripped away. They were all over the place. Not bad for Mole Extermination either.
A few weeks ago when the rain came down hard, I saw a flow of water here, this is an elk trail though, not the natural spring that is to the south west of it.
One of my favorite trees – those are ivy vines that have been cut running up the tree. The green might even be just a bit brighter than these untouched out of the camera photos show.
We walked across the big tree that fell in a storm 4-5 years ago. It was ok – but when ya get to the middle, and the river is raging underneath, ya get a bit dizzy. You might be a hundred feet off the ground, as this tree is across a canyon.
Seriously. That green. Maybe more so. In contrast with the barren trees, the grey skys, the fog and mist, the dark branches and trunks? This Green is Amazing. Almost worth the rain.
Straight out of the camera untouched. See the slit in the trunk on the right? That is where, 80-100 years ago, loggers made a slit for their standing board – so they could cut this down. Might be a might cedar – about 500 years old. The two trees proved too heavy to pull out of the canyon and they still lie on the east hill. One of the trees is starting to break up.
Flooding is expanding now by 2:30.
View from the deck. The dock is gone, under water, the sand box is full, we had to go down and tie off the avon from floating away. Silly us. We thought upside down in the sand box would be a good place to store it. Ha!
Water is up to the top part of the dock. Deep. Mud Filled. Dirty. Yuck.
The creek that flows into the north eastern tip of Devils Lake. Almost up to the grass of each home in this little inlet. Mud. Flowing. Loud. Crazy!
I am dreaming of a little home in Central Oregon surrounded by 10 acres of desert with a view of the 7 mountains. I’m watching the alpenglow of the sunset, while roasting a mallow over a small fire in the flour powder snow. Sigh. Nice. Dry. High. Desert. How I Miss Thee.
We had the basement cleaned out by about 3:30 today – and it was dry a few minutes ago. It think I will be sad sad sad if I wake up to another pool downstairs in the morning. Maybe We’ll crank up the heat and put on our suits. Who Knows.
How’s the rain in your neck of the woods?
+Angie Wright
