Surviving the Deluge

All week the weather forecast on the NOAA website, for our area, was red: flood warnings, wind warnings, you-name-it warnings.  The rain was so heavy that I worked from home Tuesday, yesterday and today.  The roads were flooded, blocked by fallen trees, eroded, and some had sink holes.  We have had about 9.5 inches of rain since Monday when the storm started.  We were getting about an inch, or an inch and a half every day, until yesterday.  We measure the rainfall every 24 hours, at 7am, and then I report it into a National weather database that is accessed by NOAA and the National Weather Service, among others.  From 7am until 4pm (when we did the evening chores) we had just over an inch.  As I was climbing into bed last night, and Brett was brushing his teeth, the rain started to beat on the roof and the windows.  It continued all night long.  This morning, there was 3.5 inches in the measuring tube and it didn't let up until mid-morning.  The ranch was flooded; the drains and streams weren't able to keep up with all the water coming from the skies and flowing from the neighboring hillside properties.

This stream looks more like a ditch when it is dry, than a stream.  Standing in the bottom of it, I can rest my hands on the banks.

The pond in the donkey pasture overflowed its banks, towards the hen house, and ran in an ankle deep river down the driveway.  It took big chunks of the asphalt with it, and rocks.

You can see the bottom of the driveway emerging from the water just past the well house.  Fortunately, the well house did not flood.  The railroad tie you see "floating" in the water is actually the top of the bridge that goes over a stream.

 There was way too much water for the banks to contain.  There were rogue streams everywhere.

The water was kissing the bridge over to the girl's pasture.  There are two large pipes under that bridge -- they couldn't keep up.

Fortunately, the rain did stop.  There is no more rain in the forecast... until next Wednesday.  They are predicting another large storm.  I never thought I'd say this, but I'm ready for summer.