Wednesday, September 4, 2013

No longer in a drought :0)

In my last post I mentioned that my dd and I had been stuck at home for about a week a few weeks back due to flooding. We got more rain within a week than I think we have gotten in the past couple years all together. We had been in a pretty severe drought before this. The first day of rain brought 7 inches within about 4 hours and the ground was just too hard to absorb all the water!!!
 
This was just the beginning!!
 

These pictures don't show nearly how bad it ended up getting. Do you see the two power poles way in the distance? Yes, one of them leans over a bit:) That is the end of our driveway. It was completely underwater. And I ended up having to move the car once the water got past the bottom of the hub-caps.

While the water did get higher than we've ever seen it out here, flooding across our driveway isn't uncommon in years of normal rain as all the fields around us drain into our yard and then under the bridge across the road as it heads for the river, it just usually doesn't last very long. And this time we had water within a few feet from the front porch and it actually got into the metal shop building, but not so much to hurt anything.

Unfortunately, my hubby was at work when this all started. I called him to come home as I was pretty sure the road was under water (it was). By the time he got home, the road was partially washed out. It took him about an hour to find a way to drive the last mile to the house. All the roads to the house are dirt and 3 of the 4 ways in had roads that were washed out. So he took his little car and 4-wheeled it down the only road that was super muddy, but not under water. He ended up having to park in the road at the end of our driveway and walk up to the house as the water was knee high and flowing too fast across the driveway.

All would have been fine after that, but my hubby decided later that day to go ahead and get the car up  the house. The water had decended some, but not enough!! He sucked up a bunch of water into the air intake and shelled the engine. So guess what he got to do this past weekend? He 'got' to put another engine in the car!! :)

All-in-all, we needed the rain, and while the flooding can cause some headaches, it is nice to have the wildlife back that comes with the rain. I don't remember the last time the grass/weeds and trees were still green in August/September. We even saw fish swimming 'up-stream' across our driveway!! The bullfrogs could have deafened you, and I wish I could get a picture of the tiny toads that are EVERYWHERE!! Some of them no more than a half inch or so long. They must of come from the river as well.  My hubby said he didn't understand why anyone would live in town when you can have all this fun!!! (he can be a bit sarcastic sometimes!! LOL)

3 comments:

Rita said...

We wish we could take some of that rain off your hands...we're having another dry summer.

cucki said...

Oh dear....thinking of you all so much.
Hugs x

Unknown said...

I was just recently evacuated for 10 days due to flooding in my area, and it cause over $300,000 damage to all my family's homes. We are still in rebuild phase 3 months later. Many of the businesses around us are closed indefinitely. I sympathize completely and wish for a speedy recovery for your family and area.