But there was a lot of rain. And a lot of rain, especially if delivered in a short period of time, can do a lot of damage. For example, my road is pretty well destroyed. It was going to need redoing soon anyway, but I hadn't really planned on completely replacing it.
 |
| 3 3/4" in about an hour Sunday Week. |
 | |
| What used to be my road. Doesn't look too bad, except that's about 6 inches of water flowing from left to right across, what used to be, our black asphalt road. We're looking at the base. |
 |
| This is Monday morning. South Stockpond, the water in the grass in the foreground is flowing across the road at about 1" |
 |
| Monday Afternoon North Stockpond. Crummy shot, except I can't get any closer as the ground is a bog. That stockpond is usually dry and is 20' deep now. |
 |
| Fence is between me and my neighbor to the north. I didn't know we had a river. |
 |
| This is the entrance to our property. That's a yardstick. |
 |
| Same yardstick, about 12-15", took two front end loader loads of gravel to make it somewhat passable. Thankfully, my northern neighbor had some. |
 |
| My neighbor to the east. They had just resurfaced that road |
 |
| Pedernales River less than a mile from my house. Most of the time you can jump across it. |
 |
| Fortunately, the bridge isn't in too much danger of flooding. |
So...Been a busy week, and next week isn't looking much better, Rain forecast again tonight and off and on through Friday. Unfortunately (never thought I'd say that in Texas), the ground is saturated, so any measurable amount of rain is going to flow into the stockponds and down to the river.
And that's my excuse for not having the whiz-bang posting I had intended for today. (Well, that and a Mrs J mandated trip to Moscow on the Colorado to see MBD and SIL on Mother's day. Which was nice.) Hopefully next week.
Stay dry, my Friends. Anybody know where I can get a bunch of dirt, gravel and asphalt, cheap?
You are gonna have to buy a used Bobcat.
ReplyDeleteOr get my tractor fixed. Mrs J was on me about that last month. Never made it to the priority list. Well...until now.
DeleteOoooh. You have a tractor? And it isn't fixed? What's wrong with you?
DeleteI've always wanted a tractor... And then there's all the attachments. Does it have a pto?
I miss my John Deere, it's loader came in handy many times.
DeleteBeans, And a shredder and a box blade. No backhoe though.
DeleteScott, They are a bunch of fun. Got busy with work and kinda forgot that.
DeleteBeans, I forgot the Hay Spike also. (which is what it's most used for...moving round bales)
Also useful for lancing vans or giants or giant vans...
DeleteWell, it's mounted on the back, so it protects me from Hay bales sneaking up from 6.
DeleteTry a place called King's Landing, they're having a sale on rubble and foundation base I hear.......... :)
ReplyDeleteSince I haven't watch a single episode, it required a bit of DuckDuckGo-ing to figure that out. Well done, Sir!
DeleteI feel your pain although not on the same scale or level. My backyard serves as a natural drainage stream for all the homes south of me. It has been like a river at times and has been a running creek ever since remnants the two hurricanes went thru our area last September. The area is unmowable and returned to a overgrown wetlands. We had rain all this weekend and the creek is again flowing freely. This week promises to be dry so maybe, just maybe, if the rains hold off just a bit, I may be able to mow in July.
ReplyDeleteAin't that the truth, water never seems to arrive in just the right amount. Too much or too little. I wish it came with a rheostat instead of an on/off switch. Got to get out into the dog pen with a weed whacker now as it's too tall for the push mower.
DeleteI think you may have to appeal to the actual designer/architect of that boat to stem the tide of your drainage problems. We had a great winter for rain, not too much, but plenty spread out. That has led to massive weed infestation that need to be taken down, because now the powers that be are stating that because there's so much foliage, we're at greater risk of fires than we were during the drought. Not sure what to believe. I believe the city will fine me if I don't clear the canyon a bit though.
DeleteWell, remember what they used to say. "If a politician's lips are moving...They're lying." I'm surprised they don't just do it and then send you the bill. Easier to make payroll that way and the workers got to be doing something.
DeleteYeesh! You all had sent us some pictures the other day. These pictures remind me of what the area looked like in October! Perhaps that will mean the area won't be bone dry by July/August.
ReplyDeleteGood to hear from you! One would hope that it won't be bone dry, but, then again, it is Texas. I 'spect you've gotten a new definition of the word "Dry" by now though, right?
DeleteYay, LJW! I guess that level of water intensity over where you are would be, um, biblical to the extreme.
DeleteStay cool and safe.
HA! Yes, my front patio area knows that "bone dry" definition well already. We hit 102* the other day, and am expecting it to get hotter as the summer moves forward. Thanks Beans! Ha- flooding would potentially be around biblical extremes. We did have a bit of flooding when we moved here in November with some crazy unseasonal/ non-typical rain storms.
DeleteYou haven't really felt 102 until it's 102 and 100% humidity. Funny, with all the global warming, the last time my area saw any temps over 100 degrees was back in the late 1980's...
DeleteI've seen where it snowed some over there, also. That must have been weird.
Encountered any sandstorms yet? If so, take pictures and ghost post through juvat. Would be cool to see your perspective on flying sand.
Ummmm, It's plenty humid where she is.
DeleteDid not know that. Just so used to people from like Arizona coming here and complaining about the heat/humidity.
DeleteAnd I've experienced up to 106 and 100% here in Gainesville back in the days. That truly sucked.
No sandstorms as of yet. Which is odd since usually they've had at least one by now. Last May they had a fairly large sandstorm that turned the whole sky orange and visibility went down to inches. There have been a couple days with humidity, but mostly it just feels dry like my hometown. I have encountered raining mud since moving here though. That was thoroughly gross.
DeleteYe gads! We were planning to camp at Pedernales State Park last week. My daughter called it early due to the rain threat. My last week of vacation was spent on the honey do list. (Fiscal year ends on 31 May)...
ReplyDeleteYou really are a master woodworker. I've seen wooden boats, but that is over the top!
And you need a tractor with a box blade at the least, and a front end loader wouldn't be out of the question... 16 foot dump trailer, and a bigger truck....
Every where you have water running over the road is where you put the culverts under your new road.
Already when out there with spray paint and T-posts to mark where additional culverts are needed. The four existing culverts weren't well engineered by our contractor and I didn't know better. I am wiser (and older) now. One of the T-posts I stuck right where I took the picture of the South Pond. Painted stripes at 6" intervals so we'd have an idea of depths. And, more importantly, our guests will have an idea. Some of them seem to be a bit "cityfied".
DeleteJuvat's Dude Ranch. Heh. A new name for Casa del Piloto de Caza?
DeleteWe had a couple a couple of weeks ago that were interesting. If our guests happen to be outside when I come by the guest house, I stop and say hello, see if everything is ok etc. Just making them welcome. So this, early 30's, couple is on the porch as I'm heading up to feed the horses. I stop and they walk over to the fence. I introduce myself and go through the usual "Where you from?", "What are you planning to do over the weekend? Wineries, shopping, hiking?" so on. This couple wanted to go hiking, so I gave them some options and, since the road between us and the highway is about a mile and a half and packed with different wildlife, I told them about that. I haven't heard "Right On!" that many times since high school. Struck me as funny, but I didn't laugh. Turns out they're from Plano. So....Not from around here. So I advise him that the animals are wild and should not be approached. He looks at me a bit confused. I followed with "If you see a hog, move slowly in the other direction. You don't want him to charge you, you won't outrun him." There eyes got really big. The "right on" wasn't as right on-ish as before. But, they were still on the porch as I got back from feeding horses and waved at me. So...all is well, right?
DeleteWell, they had reserved for 3 nights. The following morning their car is gone when I got up. Ahh, so they wanted an early start to their hiking, I figured. Shortly there after, we got a call from the managment company saying they had headed home. Seems they had a bit of company in the bed. A couple of scorpions. Now, I'm not fond of scorpions and,when sighted, quickly turn them into scorpion jelly, but I'm not going to pack up and leave at 3am in the morning forfeiting a 3 day reservation either. Cityfied.
Yeesh. Kids these days.
DeleteA more appropriate reaction to the hog question would have been, "So, is it okay to shoot them and do you have a bbq?"
As to scorpions, I hear scorpions in Texas is like flying cockroaches in Florida and bedbugs in New York City. Just another thing to deal with.
What do you do for scorpions? Sticky traps or spray? Inquiring minds want to know.
As to 'nature hikes,' well, I always find it funny (in a dark, sick, schadenfreudistic way) when some granola crunchers go nature hiking and encounter 'Nature, red in tooth and claw' first hand. Like those lackwits who go playing with bears or wolves or the pretty kitty-cats we all call puma/mountain lion/cougar (not those types of cougars, though those cougars will kill you, too.) Here in North Central Florida (yes, it's a real thing) we have idiots who don't know not to mess with the water moccasins, or the bazillion plants that will hurt, or our spiders, or the hogs, or the bears, or the panthers (cats, not sportsmoneyball team) or... Heck, we can barely convince them to not walk in the road stoned or blitzed out of their gourds.
City folk. Sigh. The reason the Boy Scout were created was to get kids out of the City. Oh well.
Really, how bad are your scorpions? I remember the ones in Burnet, TX, were these weak stinging guys, nothing to be really afraid of.
Here in Wisconsin, some idiot released wild boars from Texas in the Southwest corner of the state. They have done well enough that the DNT has classified them as small game, no bag limit, please shoot them all. Odd, to go small game hunting, with a .308.
DeleteStupid kindle. It will change spellings when you hit post, even after proofreading. DNR, not DNT.
DeleteDNR? Do not resuscitate? Why would you want to resuscitate a hog? ;-)
DeleteJuvat, the answer is so you can shoot it again!
DeleteYeah, here in Florida it is open season on the little pests, as long as it's on private land. On state or fed land? There's limits, and permits, and all that garbage.
Hey, Natural Resources people. You want a species to disappear in an area? 5$ a head. Snakes, hogs, lizards, chickens, whatever. Redneck teenagers everywhere would willingly slaughter all the invasive species you want for the lack of hassling about methods or numbers. As long as it's wild stuff. Minute some enterprising delinquent starts farm-raising invasives, well, shut him/her/it down HARD.
I hear that in Miami there's a thriving underground meat market in Tegue lizards, iguana, free-range yard chickens, snakes, alligators, and just about anything else. Wouldn't put it past someone to be trading and eating various parrots and such. Hmmm... parrot stew... well, I've had some strange stuff. I've made strange stuff (poultry stew where the poultry was rabbit, other people didn't need to know that.)
Round here they're so plentiful that you run out of bullets before you run out of hogs. Some of them are so big that most normal caliber bullets don't penetrate, they just piss them off. Another reason I want a truck-mounted 20mm Vulcan with both HEI and API rounds. Kill 'em and cook 'em in one burst. Right On!
DeleteGo old school and get a hand-cranked Gat in .45-70. I see them for sale once in a while...
DeleteI know exactly how ya feel. We live on a gravel road (think dirt) at the highest end of the county. Whenever there is any sort of moderately heavy rainfall the water runs down both sides of the road (the edges) and washes it right out. About a month ago it was washed completely out across the road in 5 places, instead of the usual one on the curve by the old schoolhouse. Took the Country awhile to get out here and fill in all the washed out spots, and a while longer to let stuff dry enough so they could blade out all the ruts/bumps. We had one gully washer that went right through the side yard, flowed into our well and then into the creek. Took 3 days before the well cleaned itself out.
ReplyDeleteThere has been just a ridiculous amount of rain this year. We squish every step we take off of concrete. I am hoping that we will dry out, but then not have a drought later this summer.
Very nice woodworking project!! Love all the glossy finish work!! Must have been a LOT of sanding there. :)
Suz,
DeleteSorry about not responding earlier. Had some witty comment all written out about sawdust and Mother Nature needing a rheostat and not an on/off switch. I must have forgotten to push publish on both you and Sarge's comment below.
That pothole is on the other side of the road from our well house. Didn't even (want to) think about that possibility.
Ah, the joys of country living.
ReplyDeleteKeep your powder dry!
Sarge,
DeleteAlways another button to push, This one was the "Publish" button I missed. Sorry about that.
But, yes there are issues living in the country, but at least I don't say "Bless You" when my neighbor sneezes in his living room.
Powder Dry, Aye!
:)
DeleteBTDT.
Yep
DeleteI know it's a bit south of you, but I wonder what the crossings on the Guadalupe on FM 1340 are like? I can see that road being impassable if they got as much rain as you.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the road repairs - just what you needed, another project after your retirement!
I haven't been down that way in a while. I suspect it would be very similar. We drove to Austin yesterday and the Colorado was pretty high, so I suspect the highland lakes are up and they opened the dams a bit.
DeleteAll it takes is money, Tom, all it takes is money.
I'm thinking there is potential for a boat made from some blend of horse or cattle droppings and hydraulic concrete.
ReplyDeleteThe boat would be simultaneously "green" and (it has to be said) "crappy."
Mother Nature does not do moderation.
We are waiting on some dryer weather before we rototill the garden. The Supreme Commander of the Vegetable Garden has so ordered. (insert Ten Commandments reference, and "we are going to rototill, means I'm going to rototill)
Good post, both an eyeopener and thought provoking. Thank you.
Sigh. I have no excuse. Just forgot to grammar check and didn't add the close quote.
DeleteNo, as mentioned earlier, she could use an upgrade to rheostat from on/off switch. I think you're spot on about "green" and "crappy".
DeleteOH, NO! I have NEVER forgotten to close a quote! Well, not in this post. But "There's always a first time for everything.
DeleteOooo... I'm telling...
DeleteDo NOT arouse the OgF Kraken!
DeleteIt's your fault this time!
DeleteWhat makes you say that?
DeleteOh...Wait!
Since this is OldAFS' blog, and he invited you and us to write and talk here, wouldn't that make it HIS fault?
DeleteI can live with that.
From now on, everything that goes on here is OldAFSarge's fault...
(ducks and covers...)
Hey!
DeleteI’m N of you in OK, and the large tinhorn on my N section road washed out. One thing I know, there’s no such thing as dirt cheap, er, cheap dirt.
ReplyDeleteI suspect I'm about to find that out.
DeleteTry to have them deliver your "cheap dirt" on some other day than after a rainy day...it takes a (long) while to squeeze the water out if you had a 1.5" rainfall the night before...don't ask how I know...and, yes, dirt (or in this case "road gravel" which looked like dirt with a very few stones in it) is NOT cheap!! But, after drying out some, and being bladed and driven over by 4 wheel drive trucks (not my Impala!!), it is working ok. Bulldozers and tractors are your friend!!
DeleteOver the years I've read about communities turning some blacktop roads back into gravel because it's cheaper to maintain. It looks like you already have the gravel road... :-(
ReplyDeleteCheaper, yes...for the community. Not in the cost to the citizens. Maintaining infrastructure is, IMHO, one of the primary responsibilities of government.
DeleteAs you can see, my gravel road has/had some interesting speed impediments.
Good thing you have a truck and not a Prius or other small car.
DeleteTru Dat!
DeleteIt’s good to have neighbors who’ll pitch in, even a little.
ReplyDeleteBack when I lived on a relatively remote place I had a neighbor who just happened to be a road builder.
Repairs and maintenance were basically for cost of materials.
Yeah, we keep an eye out for each other. I've been known to turn around and follow an unknown car on our "No Outlet" county road, just in case.
DeleteYikes! I hope that things work out as well as they can. I was wondering where all of our rain had gone, now I know.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post.
Paul L. Quandt
PLQ, Wish I could send it back.
DeleteIt's pouring here at the condo. There is a team of workers "relining" the main roof drain as it had cracked over time and was undermining the North end of the building. Not good. It is always interesting to observe the tech of fifty years ago and compare how they do things today. Water can be a curse or blessing. On the brighter side, you get to play with some earth moving equipment and not be accused of just playing with it.
ReplyDeleteGood Point! However, when the replacing thing begins, I'm going to let the "professionals" handle it, but I'm going to keep a closer eye.
DeleteWe've had the same thing, kinda, here in Alachua County over the years. Years of under-performing rain, causing Payne's Prairie to dry up, and then suddenly a series of major storms and Payne's Prairie fills up and people start freaking out because the water is lapping over the edges of US441 and is threatening I-75.
ReplyDeleteSubtle hint, people. Back in the day it was called Payne's Lake and there was a steamboat on it, until the sinkhole opened up and swallowed all the water.
As long as you haven't found the wreck of a steamboat on your property, or any major boat at all, you'll be okay. House is up off the ground, right?
Yeah, on the highway into town, there's a flood plain for the river which we've seen flooded many times in the 20+ years we've been here. Smack in the middle of it is a For Sale sign. Mrs J looked it up. 75 acres $1.5M. Without a doubt, somebody with WAY more money than brains (say "sold my bungalow in Saint Francis for 2.5M, I know everything about everything", that level of MMTB) will buy the property. Then sue God or somebody when if floods.
DeleteThe State (of Florida) has been cracking down and restricting growth in low lying flood areas lately. After the 4 hurricanes of 2004 did so much damage, FEMA re-evaluated the '100 year flood maps' and declared anyone in a bad zone will basically be insuranceless next time a storm comes along and floods them. So the State stepped in and said, basically, yeah, don't build or rebuild in those places.
DeleteWe have some dry lakes around here that used to have a lot of water, then, well, dried up. But after the last couple years those lakes have been filling. And, of course, some chowderhead from up north has built his getaway home or parked his trailer in the now used-to-be-dry lakebed. Subtle clue. When you find a nice place to camp or build, and it's surrounded by these things that look like docks, well, don't build there.
One would think those would be self evident indicators of a problem.
DeleteOne would be wrong.
Well, considering that the Fed Gov just finally wised up over the fed insurance scam game that people living on beaches have been profiting from for years, well...
DeleteYour road is much like the one leading in to where our in-laws live. There's been times in recent memory where their road either washed away, or had 10' of snow on it, leaving their homestead cut off.
ReplyDeleteFortunately they keep most of the heavy equipment up there for their construction business, so at least they can (and have) dig their way out.
Well, we did stock up on at least a weeks worth of food and stuff. Do need to get the tractor running though.
DeleteGot your preps for storm season yet? Food supplies, water, 2 generators (2 is 1, 1 is none) etc?
DeleteAnd that tractor can be quite useful for pulling trees and cars and such out of the roadway, and the pto can power a generator, too!
It can be comforting, to own something Agricultural Green and Industrial Yellow!
DeleteYeah, that's high on my list. Recommended guy never called back and my memory went into retirement first.
DeleteScott. Yes, however, I've got a Mahindra. Basically an International Harvestor made in India. Ran like a top until I tried to start it last spring. Now can't get it going.
DeleteEither squirrels killed your electrical or fuel system. Bastiges love chewing on things they shouldn't chew on.
DeleteSkunks will do the same thing...
Are you going to self-diagnose or get a tech?
My wallet will do the talking. I've checked all the things I know enough about to fix.
Delete"...we did stock up on at least a weeks worth of food..." One week's worth is the bare minimum; and I hope the "...and stuff." includes potable water ( of which, more is always better ).
DeletePaul
I have pondered a Mahindra, but know nobody that has one. I take it you have been pleased with yours?
ReplyDeleteStB,
DeleteYes, although it had a rocky start (some/most due to my inexperience). And that is a good subject for a posting. So, stay tuned.
So much for globull warming... I wish I could give you some contacts, but the only ones I know are a ‘bit’ far away to be practical...
ReplyDeleteAgreed.
Delete