Chapter 145...Checking The Land After High Winds And Heavy Rain

Wow...we have had some really crazy weather this year.  Saturday Mike and I went to a wedding for a beautiful couple and they were very lucky.  Although the sun wasn't shining for them it didn't rain.

Yesterday the rain came in and all through the night it was very heavy and very windy.  Mike and I woke up this morning and decided to check for any damage.  We were mostly concerned about the walls we started on the store(that will be in another chapter).

The first thing we saw this morning was a "new" path of water coming down our side hill.  We could see this from our patio:

And now for the ride down our driveway.  When this area gets this much rain at one time there are many washouts and flooding.  This is why it is very bad when people cut the timber off their land.  There is nothing to stop the fast rushing water when it pours down the mountains and this can cause immense damage and road washouts.


Looking down the left side of our driveway.  Most of the water made it into the ditch.

Looking down the right side where Mike and I rocked the ditches.  Since the driveway doesn't have any damage I would say our curbs and rocked ditches did a great job.

Our top culvert is doing well:

Looking back up:

The water from the big side field coming into the rock area.

 Flowing down and going towards the pond:

Almost all of the "higher" water goes into the pond and then out and under the driveway and out the creek:

We did have some water go over the top of the pond wall.  I'm pretty sure that wouldn't have happened if the cows hadn't stomped the side dirt around the pond making it fall into the pond.  And on a good note...the wall is still holding:)

Flowing out the back side of the pond:

Then it runs under the driveway into a culvert and out to the creek that leaves our property:

Mike checking the gravel part of our drive:

The creek that leaves our property:

And that was the ride down our driveway:)



Our big culvert that we had the county put in:

It's doing it's job:

And out the other side:

From there Mike and I took a ride over to the store property.  Whew!!!  the walls are still standing and there is no flooding..yay.  Then we took a ride around the neighborhood.  A few trees are down and there is a lot of flooding in the low fields.

We drove by our grader's house and he lost about 40 feet of his carport due to high winds.  He is not happy about that.

Then off to the Farm Supply to check on them.  They told us they lost power for a short time last night, Mike and I wouldn't know about that:), but they had no damage.  The local kids also had off from school today.  Some of the area has washed out roads, bad flooding and trees down.

All and all the people are fine.  Mike and I are extremely relieved that all of our hard work at the house has paid off....oh and we got lucky on the store walls since they are not all up and the ones that were up were only braced.  I love not having to fix things:)...again!!!


Just another day dealing with Mother Nature.


We do have some apple trees starting to bloom:)

That's all for today.  If the rain stops for any length of time we will be outside building.

Have a great week and I will write again soon:)

Chapter 117...Getting Ready For Paving...Another Culvert Installed

Off Grid... Chapter 117 Hello everyone. Whew...we are finally getting some cooler weather Mike wore a sweatshirt this morning We are getting ready for our third portion of paving so we need to make sure the driveway is ready. 7-20 We got a call first thing this morning. Brian is ready to work with the backhoe. We have 4 culverts across the way. Mike wants Brian to take one of those 20 foot culverts out and bring it back here to install across our driveway. Mike meets Brian and they get to work. Unfortunately the culvert was too long for our trailer so Mike ended up dragging it back tot he property Once they get back here, I go down to see if I can help. Brian is ready with the culvert. Brian starts digging and what do you know, we hit another spring. Another view. Mike in the ditch checking it out. Time to lift the culvert. And put it in. Once we get it in, we realize it isn't quite long enough to make it across the driveway Mike asked me to go and measure the culvert we have leftover in the barn to see if we can attach it to this one. While I do that, Brian starts to cover the culvert. I get back with the measurement. We have a winner. Both culverts are the same diameter so we can use it. Mike and I walk down to the barn and take out another culvert which is 8 feet. Brian follows us and picks it up with the backhoe. Back to the ditch. Brain puts the culvert into the ditch. Mike and I get the two culverts connected and Brian covers them up. The culvert is in and Brian finishes covering them. While Brian was working the backhoe, Mike and I were getting rocks together. We need to add rocks to the front and bottom end of the new culvert. This will keep the mud out. This is the bottom side of the culvert. Mike and I threw rocks into it not thinking about the spring. Now we have to get this rock out and then place it. We pick up more rock for the ends of the pipe. Mike working on the sides to make it nice. We will leave the middle bottom open for now and let it clean out. The road is almost back to normal. We are done for today. Here are a couple of pictures of my garden. I think I planted too much this year and 7-21 Today we got the paving estimate. We are on for next week Mike calls Eric, the cow people's son to ask for help with a temp fence. The cows cannot go on the fresh pavement. Mike also can't drive his tractor on it for the rest of the year They will be here over the weekend 7-22 Mike has been working on cutting up some shingles to make a kind of ridge cap for the back of our house. He doesn't like the metal. 7-23 The cow family shows up and we all put up the new temp electric fence. This should keep the cows off The only thing I hate is now I have to open and close 4 gates to get in and out of the property Just call me the gate lady 7-24 Mike took the metal off the back of the house and starts to put on the shingle caps. Nailing them on. All of his cut shingles. And cleaning up after he is done. Other than that we did the usual. Cleaning and running around. We looked at a neighbor's property. We also went to check out a cabin from a local builder. They had a cabin that was about 16x28 and they wanted $30,000. for it Mike and I could build that for so much less. That's all for this week. Next week it's time for paving. Lisa