A few thoughts on flooding
Gentle Reader,
I’m writing you a quick note and reminding you, if you are not experiencing near-record flooding, to count your dry little blessings. Although our place is as lush and green and wet as I’ve ever seen it (I am thankful that we are not in a drought) the clouds of mosquitoes are ravenous and follow me around from early morning until late evening, when I usually tire of swatting them away and feel a bit nervey about spraying myself with mosquito spray one more time, and retreat to the inside.
To make matters even more confusing and grim, a road crew, in repairing a hole in the road that the flood waters washed out, cut a telephone line (our telephone line) and so we’ve been without ‘phone service and internet for several days, and it’ll be several more days before they get a guy with a backhoe and a “splicing crew” to repair it. Bother.
I’m typing this quick note to you, Gentle Reader, because I love you and don’t want you to think that I’ve fallen off the edge of this wet and mosquitoey world.
Some photos for proof:
Here’s the weedy part of the garden that I hadn’t planted yet. *phew*
Our dog Bea takes a drink out of a puddle near the garden.
Hoop house produce: radishes, romaine lettuce, herbs, red mustard. Pretty, huh?
Rahther a lot of rain for one evening.
See?
I’m typing as quickly as I can, sitting in McDonald’s and enjoying the free wifi. Thank you, McDonald’s! But my time is up and I must go!
What’s going on at your house? Whatever it is, I hope you are hanging in there! Thank you again for reading!
*hugs*
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15 thoughts on “A few thoughts on flooding”
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There are some very interesting bog plants
Thanks Neil!
Amy – If anything, I think we’ve had even more rain down here than you’ve gotten. 27 inches since May 1, and southern Lancaster County is something like 20 inches ahead of ahead of normal for the year-to-date number. I’m still not nearly completely planted yet – maybe 50%. I still have at least a hundred heirloom tomatoes in 1 gal pots, dripping with blossoms and small fruit. Ditto with my peppers. Greenhouses flooded twice with water coming over the dam of our little farm pond. A real mess!
I see above that you have that small red mustard; isn’t it delicious?! I’m growing it for the first time, along with Wasabi Arugula, so we’re having some spicy salads.
Hang in there! It’s gotta stop sometime. Even Noah got a break after 40 days and 40 nights!
gene
Oh, Gene. I do think you’ve received more rain than we have so far this year. I’ve been wondering about your place. My hoop house is the only place that is not puddly around here, although the run-off from the field east of it has saturated the ground inside of it more than once. I hope we have a break soon, so you can get those plants in the ground!
I do love that red mustard! I actually planted a few seeds (trial) in my hoop house last fall, and a few plants came up volunteer in my tomato row. They are so beautiful, I let them stay.
I’ll keep thinking about Noah in his ark with all those messy animals, and I’ll count my blessings, Gene. It could always be worse, right?
This too shall pass, although I wish we’d get a smidge of your moisture. I live in the PNW and we are headed toward drought this year. I’ve had to water daily because we are in the high 80’s when we are usually in the low 70’s. With no rain! Going to be a bad fire season again this year. Ahh well what comes around they say. I will pray for you all to catch a break and your Internet to be fixed quickly!
Happy thoughts, how are your daughters wedding plans coming along?
Jillian, you are so sweet. Our ‘phone line (thus, our internet!) was fixed yesterday, and I’m hoping that it stays fixed. I wish I could send some of these drenching rains your way! We have a break today, and it’s sunny and only 20% chance of rain, so I hope it dries up a bit. Ah yes, wedding plan! I have lots of blog posts in my head about that, but haven’t written any yet! I’m hoping to get started on that soon–the big day is only 4 weeks from this Saturday! Stay tuned!
No Internet?? Ahhhh!! I hope they get that fixed soon. What a bummer.
The hoop house produce looks great!
I’m glad you’re alright. I expected flooding as 198″ of snow melted this spring but it melted slowly. We had snow well into April but that was a good trade off. The mosquitoes are horrible between high water and a lack of bats (white nose syndrome, haven’t seen one since spring, 2013).
Stay safe and enjoy your break from the net!
Robin,
A crew came this morning and worked hard and restored our ‘phone line. Amalia and I have agreed that we’ve learned tons from the experience of being without the internet for several days. Like, it was nice. 🙂 And it’s nice to have it back!
We’ve had a lot of rain here in NE Oklahoma. Mosquitos population is extremely high. We have a koi pond, live by a creek that wraps around the back of our property and have a pond. To make matters worse, we have a swimming pool and like to swim when it cools off in the evenings. Needless to say, mosquitos are an old, familiar enemy around here. The last several years, we have used Cutter brand yard spray with great success!!! Bonus, it lasts about 2 months. You attach it to your garden hose and spray it on your lawn, sidewalks, and outside perimeter of the house. We spray in the late evenings (after Honey Bees have gone in for the night) to give the spray time to dry and minimize the exposure to our bees. We do not spray our flower beds or garden or anywhere we’ve noticed bees gathering, such as a clover patch.
Jan,
Usually mosquitoes aren’t a big problem here, because our summer is traditionally hot and dry. But this summer is different so far. I’ve never even thought about spraying the yard, but I’m looking into it now. Anything that keeps me from being outside (like mosquitoes) is goin’ DOWN. (Sounds like your place is lovely. All the water! What fun!) Thanks so much for the recommendation!
A co-worker’s daughter lives in California near wine country – the area really hard hit by their drought. I wish we both could send them our rain. (A village 4 miles down the road got over 4 inches of rain yesterday). Dear Amy, I hope things improve for you – I have a feeling things are worse than you are letting onto. As you know, I’ve seen first hand what river flooding (not the same flooding Texas has had, thankfully) can do, and my heart goes out to everyone impacted by the latest floods all over the world. I honestly don’t know what is worse, extreme rain or extreme drought.
Since it was just a few years ago, Alana, when we had severe drought, I’d choose the extreme rain, even though it is scary and downright inconvenient. The memory of the ground cracking up and the grass dying and the decision every morning: what is most important to water today? What do I want to keep alive the most? All that is too fresh in my mind. The hard thing about this is all the damage. Roads in our area are developing giant sinkholes near bridges (I’m going to get pictures today) (that’s how our phone line got severed) and road crews can’t keep up with fixing them. Our little pond has swollen to monstrous size, and is just one good rain from going over the dam. My dad says that if that happens, the dam will wash away and our pond will be gone! So, yeah (I never thought I’d say this) I’m ready for the rain to stop.
all the rain & coolness has been great for my broccoli & Karl’s too, but my tomatoes & peppers are not happy. I gave up on the strawberries. I got most of them but last week the slugs took over. This week the inchworms found the broccoli & kale. I soaked tonight’s harvest in salt water 4 times and still blanched several. The pond is too full and my yard squishes when I walk across it. On a better note, Avons bug spray works! Mosquitos around me but not a single one landed or bit me.
Kay, it certainly is a learning experience, to figure out how to deal with so much water!! Thanks for the bug spray recommendation.