Into Each Life, Some Rain Must Fall....

Or, maybe a lot of rain.

On October 30th, it started raining here about 10:00 p.m.

Softly at first.  Then it began to POUR.

And, it poured and it poured.

By 4:30 a.m., it began to let up.

By then, we had over a FOOT of rain here.

Remember my boast about my new bed?

How it had worked with a three inch rain?

Two of those inches in a hour.

Well...after two inches an hour, for SIX hours,

it wasn't so pretty.

The water came pouring over the brick edging.  It rolled up the cardboard

and the newspaper we'd laid under the mulch.

It washed out gravel and picked up stepping stones, 

and stacked one on top of another.

It sheared off weeds and grass, from under the newspaper and mulch.

It washed debris against our not-so-sturdy new fenced area.

It washed stones from the Rio.

And, crushed granite, .....

....into the Rio.

It built up debris against the house and the fences.

3:00 a.m., Thursday, October 31, 2013

It rushed like this, through the circular drive, for many hours.

And, deposited about 4" of rain IN the garage.

We worked hard to keep it out of the house, 

sweeping it off the front porch as fast as we could.

That worked.

By morning's light, the waters had receded a bit.

But, it had done some damage.

It washed away some of the cart path.

But, the creek had gone down enough to be inside its banks.

Large trees, and a smoker from down the street, deposited on the 10th tee box.

These trees, slammed against a low water crossing bridge, must have contributed

to the water backing up.

We were SO lucky.  The water is out of the garage, with no real damage.

We can restore the mulch and the plants.

But, many of our neighbors had water rushing 

THROUGH THEIR HOUSES!

Carpets are ripped up, and laying in driveways.

Not sure how much wall and furniture damage there is.

But, as far as I know, nobody was hurt.

In other areas of this flood, that wasn't the case.

9:00 a.m. October 31.

People were being smart, and not trying to cross Cypress Creek here.

This was way higher than we had seen before.

So, today I'm grateful we are all OK.

We're looking into flood insurance.

And, we're buying some sand bags.

We had about 20" of rain at Patchwork Garden, in October.

That's plenty, thanks.

Did I mention, we have rain forecast for today?

Happy Gardening...

~~Linda~~

Some People Feel the Rain....

Others just get wet.

                                    ~~Bob Dylan

Well folks, we've been doing a little of both.

We had a little slow, steady rain, yesterday.

Then, last night, we had a lot of rain and some wind...and, a lot of noise.

The creek is flowing, for the first time in over a year.

You can hear the roar of the waterfall from the house.

It's hard to get a picture that does it justice.  Lots of wet, slippery rocks.  That big rock you see in the center, is probably six feet across.  It's at the bottom of the falls...about 25 feet down.

I could maybe get a better shot from across the creek.  

But, I'd have to wade through this to get there.

That's just not going to happen.

This pond is where the creek turns.  That wall on the left used to go all the way across.

They had to open it up a few years back.  It was holding the creek back too much, 

and water was getting way up in people's yards.  We weren't here then.  

I think I  might have panicked.

From this point, if I look right, I can see up the creek.

To the left, you see it flowing down to the falls.

It's moving along pretty fast.

It moved fast down the Rio, too.  And, this gunk stopped it up.

Grass clippings from the golf course, dirt....what a mess.

That makes this part of the Rio back up into the driveway.

And, that sometimes lets water get into the garage.

I got to sweep water out, this morning....how fun.

But, I won't complain too much.  The wind got high, but no damage.

We've had worse water in the garage.  Not sure what we're going to do to stop that.

To the east a short way, there was real flooding.

So, we were lucky here.

And, having almost three inches of rain, after none for so long, is 

wonderful!

I'm glad I got the weeds out of the veggie garden in time.

Hope you got some lucky rain.

Happy Gardening...

~~Linda~~

Twice is Nice.....

It rained....again!

Two days in a row!

This time it rained hard.  Enough to run into the stone drain....

And down the Rio.  That IS what it's for....to manage the water flow.

It won't be a drought breaker.  Only .63 inches. 

But...we'll take whatever we can get.

Guess we won't be sitting in the swing tonight.

That's ok.  We'll take the rain, instead.

Stay cool.

Happy Gardening...

~~Linda~~

Rain...Rain...

Is this a case of 'Be careful what you wish for'?  After all...this time last year, we were suffering through record heat, and the second year of sever drought.

Things were looking pretty sad.  Grass was brown and crispy.  The critters, were all looking for hand-outs. 

We kept the birdbaths, and some other water containers, full.

 

But, this year has been different.  We put in The Rio last fall, to take care of some of the run-off.

Sometimes, it's just not enough.

This morning, I awoke to the sound of rain....heavy rain.  I got up, and looked out.  Water was rushing through the driveway....coming close to the top of the porch.  The back yard, was rushing water.  The side yard, was rushing water.

In the scheme of things, we didn't get all that much.  Just a lot, all at once.

I didn't get pictures of all that rushing water.  It was, after all, barely light outside.  And, I didn't want to run around in pouring rain, in ankle deep water, and in my pajamas.

But, several hours later, it's still running off.  This comes off the driveway, runs down the side....

...and, into the Rock Garden.

You see the debris left behind.

It drains off quickly, and runs into the creek.  This part of the creek was dry, just a few weeks ago.

I have no room to whine, though.  The people along the Rio Grande, are being flooded out of their homes.

Next time I wish for rain, though, I think I'll be more specific.  I'll wish for a 'little rain'.

Candy Lily, Pardancanda norisssii

The good part....the flowers seem happy.

While we were away.....

...it rained a little.  The rain gauge...we have one of those remote things....said 1.5 inches.  I don't think it read right.  It had to be more than that.  And, it had to be hard and fast.  It washed down the yard...over the side of the drain.

It washed the sand from under the stepping stones, outside the gate. 

Made a nice pile of dirt and sand, don't you think?

Grass clippings and leaves, piled up against the fence and gate.  The dammed up water then flowed between the fence post and gate, washing out the decomposed granite....

...right down to the liner.

It washed grass clippings...probably from the golf course, across the street....up against the fence in the bed.  It made a nice mulch for the freeze damaged Inland Sea Oats.

And, piles of leaves, grass and mulch, piled up against the back gate and fence.

So, I spent our first day home taking out rocks, shoveling sand and dirt and granite, back where it belongs.   Then, putting the rocks back....ugh.   All that time and energy could have been spent on digging the beds I want, inside and outside the fenced yard. 

Of course, it could've all been worse....

It came up on the garage door.  The bottom seal kept it out on this side.  Not so lucky on the other side...it was deeper there.  But, it didn't get that inch higher that would've brought it onto the front porch, and then, maybe, into the house.  So, we were lucky, after all.

Now, if we can figure out how to keep stuff from damming up the Rio, and making it back up into the driveway.  Or maybe, nothing would've stopped it that time.  It must have really poured.   Our neighbor said it rained 'pretty hard'.  I think so.......