Sunday, July 18, 2021

Flooding

 I didn't get to weed last week because we had the family reunion on Saturday, and on Sunday, it just poured all day long. The thunderstorms moved in, and there always seemed to be another storm behind that. The weather pattern continued all week long with just one cloudy day where it wasn't raining. With the long work days, I don't have time to take on any big projects. I can barely keep up with the routine tasks. 

Finally it was Friday night, and as I walked out of work, it was not raining, after some pretty heavy rains all day long. We were headed to camp, and to the garden. Our reasoning was that it couldn't rain all the time. I could duck in and do a bit of weeding when it stopped. 

Famous last words. 

It rained heavily all night long. We woke up Saturday morning to yet another thunderstorm. The storms rolled in one right after another. 

I did manage to get out to the greenhouse and repot 6 avocado trees from one big pot to the six new pots I got for them. This might be the part where they gracefully begin dying. That's what happened last time, and that will irk me if it happens again. The tallest one is up to my chin now and I'd hate to see anything happen to that. 

We had no sooner finished the green house last spring than hornets began to build a nest on the side of it. I'm kind of a live and let live person, I don't know what role they play in our world, but I assume they have one, and they weren't bothering anything, so I let them be. I did notice that the nest had tripled in size since I'd last taken note of it. I wondered if it was due to all the rain.  I grabbed the bucket we keep tucked under the eave to catch rain water for the drip irrigation system inside. I immediately got stung. I forgot how badly those stings hurt. We cannot have this happening with small children around. I took it as a declaration of war and counter attacked. After a brief battle with a spray can and a shovel (wielded gently) I claimed victory.

The hard rains continued and the thunderstorms rolled in, one after another. We finally gave up and came home. There is lots of flooding. The river and creeks are all high. There is a landslide where the saturated ground has just fallen off the side of the mountain. Roads are closed. 

Tim worked at one of the rentals with the tenant right at his side. Debris was 'hung up' and causing even more flooding. He came home soaked. He said the river had risen six inches while they worked, coming right over the tops of his muck boots. 

We decided to stay home and keep an eye on the creek. It was supposed to crest at 2AM.  We are lucky that we are on the 'right' side of the creek. The other bank is much lower and the flooding happens there first. We use that to gauge whether or not we have a problem. It didn't appear that we did, but the rain was still coming down. 

It is Sunday morning now. The sun is shining, the river has crested and all is well. Today, I will try to get two weeks of weeding done in one afternoon! 

Titusville is about about 20 minutes from the retirement property. They were hard hit. 

5 comments:

  1. And we desperately need rain. There are about fifty forest fires burning in the province right now but only five are out of control. It's smokey here though.

    The flloding in Titusville looks awful, as does the flooding in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. Mother Nature seems unhappy with us. Can't really blame her.

    Good luck with the weeding.

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  2. Wild weather everywhere. At least we've been a tad cooler than normal this year. No days of triple digits yet, though that blasted "heat index" gets there often, thanks to our high humidity.

    I'm waiting to see if your avocados ever produce fruit. (That's where the tricky part comes in, from what I understand.) If they do, then maybe I'll quick turning under the trees sprouting in my compost pile.

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  3. Oh OUCH! That hornet sting sounds awful. Thank goodness you were safe from the flooding. That sounds so scary.

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  4. We started a mango tree from seed and it is much taller than the house and produces every year. This year it has been a race to beat the squirrls and birds to get them. They just eat a few bites and than move to a new one. I just finished a good green salad with mango diced up in it. I have three trees that produce.. One in the front yard will have nice fruit on it one night and all gone the next. Someone steals them every year.. I would give them to the people if they ask. We have had good rains and the hurricane dropped evven more.

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  5. I live on the top of the river valley. I know driving into the valley tomorrow will not be a pretty sight.

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