More Pictures of Cedar Rapids

Cedar Rapids Flooding

I saw something today in an email that brought tears to my eyes. I am going to share the pictures here even though I do not know who, if anyone, claims the copyright. If the one who owns the copyright sees this and wants me to take it down or give credit, etc. please contact me at the above email address.

These are from Cedar Rapids, Iowa; however, the scenario is repeated in so many places. Half of the counties of our own state have been declared disaster areas. Thankfully, I don't live in one of those counties. But I could be in this situation. I don't live all that far from a major river myself.

PLEASE...pray for these people and all the ones like it across the flooded parts of our nation! Thank God for what you have! If you don't know Him...turn to Him now. This world is winding down. The most important relationship you can have is with Him. That is the ONLY one that will last throughout eternity.

Bird Nest in the Tarp Shed!

We have a thrown together temporary tarp shed. It was supposed to just store some stuff for a bit until we could build something permanent. Well...it is still standing.

Inside on the back wall I have some winter gear...gloves, hats, etc. hanging in grocery bags from a nail in the "wall". Here is a pic of the bags.


Here is the nest. It is very deep. You cannot see the eggs from this angle.


Here is the mama bird peeking out. Getting a picture of her that was not blurry has been very difficult; but I finally got one!


Here is a picture of the eggs.

Less to Store/Pack & a Bug Feast!

Gosh, it seems like it has been forever since I had the time to just sit here and write my thoughts and catch everyone up on what is happening here on the land!

One thing that is happening is that I am a feast for the bugs! I must have somewhere between 8 and 10 bug bites right now. Most of them, we think, came from outside yesterday as we went through all the boxes that were under the tarps outside our door.

Dave estimates that about 98% of what was under there is destroyed. Between water and mildew, it was bad! I did wipe off some things with Lysol and managed to save some curriculum and a special bible. But we lost hundreds of dollars of books and things, probably even over a thousand.

The slides I had of when my older boys were growing up appear to be ruined. I have set them aside for the moment and not looked at them. I am so glad that I was able to rescue our wedding pics, for the most part, before last winter.

The good news is...there is very little left to pack, sell or give away!! *smile* Gotta look at the upside of things! There is still much to do, but we did make a dent in things. I think most of the bites came from working with all that stuff in the boxes and moving wood, etc.

We have also had a lot of bugs inside, so we set a fogger off inside the RV while we were at church today. Although we remembered to turn off the propane and electricity, we forgot to turn off the propane ignition switch to the water heater. Since we also have 12 volt, it was trying to ignite while we were gone. We always refer to the foggers as bug "bombs". Well, thankfully, the igniter did not ignite the fog and blow the RV up...really making it into a "bomb"!

By the way...Vicks Vaporub works pretty well on bug bite itches...if you apply it well periodically. So does the Aloe Vera gel with the analgesic in it. Someone today told us of something called "After Bite". I am hoping to try it. She says she puts it on two or three times after a bite and it goes away. Hmmm...sounds good to me!

I hope to get pictures up tomorrow of the nest a little bird made inside of our tarp storage shed.

Well...this is a bit rushed, I know. I hope I made some sense here!

From our little RV on the Hillside, I hope that your days go well and that your nights are restful!

Incredible Harmonica Man!

I just had to share this with all of you when I saw it on a friend's blog. Wow! I have always known that Buddy Greene is talented...but wow! You have to hear it to believe it.







It can also be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfLhnkme2mE

Wedding Pics!

There are wedding pics online. If you want to see them, just email me and I will send you the links!

It is so much fun looking at the pictures and remembering what a good time we had! Woohoo!

Cardboard Testimonies!

I saw this today and just had to share it. It really touched me a lot.

Seeking Answers & Making Decisions

There is a wild beauty about this land...a beauty that draws us. Most everywhere we look, we see greenery or wildlife of some kind. Whether it is the bugs and mice that like to come inside the RV (we really need to bomb the inside)...or the butterflies, birds and wild critters that live outside.

We have been praying for some time about how to handle our living situation. We don't have the resources to do the things that would really make it more livable. Neither can we afford to rent some place. Rising gas prices are making things even tighter.

Dave wants to be able to have some time to just have fun with our son without having all the things that need to be done hanging over his head. We would like to be able to take the time to socialize with others...that is, if we can afford the gas to get there!

Life seldom seems to turn out the way we think it will. We are facing the loss of some dreams. We cannot really afford to stay here on the land, if staying means improving our living situation. Neither can we really afford to leave. We are in the perfect position for a miracle.

Dave is actually looking for work elsewhere...focusing on going back to California where we have family and friends. We are setting up a savings account to use for just trying to save what we would need to move back there. However, with rising gas prices and our income, it will take a miracle.

Nonetheless, as they talked about in the movie "Facing the Giants", we are "preparing for rain". What that means is that we are preparing for God to do a miracle. We are trying to get rid of absolutely everything we can. Sell what is saleable, throwing away what is ruined, giving away the rest. We have no idea what God will do. We are trusting that, if He gives Dave a job elsewhere, He will somehow enable us to relocate, even if it means we bring very little with us.

Or, if for some reason He wants us to stay here, then He will enable to continue to live with very little. Either way, we need to get rid of just about everything we have. Such is life.

The Love Birds!

Well, the love birds were scheduled to fly back home yesterday. I can't wait to hear how their cruise honeymoon went. I imagine they had all sorts of adventures in Alaska!

The lottery for the nursing program is this week. I hope that she gets in. I believe that she would be a good nurse. She really has the heart for it.

Blessing in the Storms!

Dave has been looking at our creek crossing. It looks like we may have at least one blessing in all of this. He was having to put gravel and rock in the wheelbarrow and haul it over to the crossing. As you can see from these before and after pictures, the storm water washed the gravel and rock to the crossing.

Before



After

Upper Driveway & Edge of the RV Pad!

This is the upper driveway looking toward the upper pad. This is after storm number 2.






This is the upper driveway after storm number 3. The water was still draining down the hillside.








This is the driveway side of the lower pad where the RV is.






All the gravel on the right, which is going over the side of the hill, was on the driveway. It got washed over to the side by the water running across the pad onto the driveway.

Lower Driveway Damage!

I was going to show the progression of damage between storms. However, I decided to just show the end result. Yesterday, we had storm cell number four. The following pictures show the end result of the lower driveway damage. Bear in mind...this driveway used to be packed pretty hard and solid...even after regular rain storms. This is what is left.

This is looking toward the creek.












This is looking up the driveway from the creek. There is a particularly deep hole towards the lower middle of the picture on the left. A closeup of the hole is on the right.










This part of the driveway had a few gullies, but nothing unmanageable. This is what it looks like now.

Water Moves Concrete Blocks!

Storm number two washed the concrete block into the trench Dave dug in the creek crossing. He had also used concrete to attach some good sized rocks to another concrete block. That, too, washed into the trench.








Dave and Elias built some dams to block the water so that he could drain the trench and put a culvert pipe in it.


Now, the concrete blocks and rocks that he and Elias worked so hard to get out of the trench are either buried or washed down the creek. The trench is no more.

This is the "trench".

This is where the blocks of concrete used to be. It took Dave an hour this morning to find enough large rocks to make this makeshift crossing for us to be able to walk across the creek. Needless to say, he was a bit late for work!

The Creek!

Looking across the creek.

You can see the "hump" of the pipe in the water. The pipe actually did hold, through all four storms.



Looking up stream.


Looking downstream.

Lower Driveway Flooding!

Standing in the lower driveway and looking at where the meadow water is running into it.










Looking toward the creek.


Amazingly, our wheel barrow did not get washed away! Yay!




This is where the lower driveway goes down into the creek!

Meadow Water Meets Driveway!

I am standing part way up our driveway and looking at where the meadow, on the left, meets the driveway. You can see the channels going down the driveway. I will have more pics of that later.


We have a channel dug to keep the water from the meadow off the driveway, but there is too much water.





This is one of the channels of water running through the meadow toward the driveway, which you can see in the background.



This is the lower driveway right before it goes down into the creek. The strip of brown you see in the background above the other side of the driveway at the bend is the creek.

Water in the Meadow!

We typically have water running through our meadow during heavy or long rains. That is not bad. We have done some trenching and it drains off fairly fast and runs along the side of the driveway. Until these latest storms!

During a normal rain the water is about 4 feet or so wide. The second storm it was about 6 feet wide. The third storm I have these pictures from. It is difficult to see how wide the swath of water is, but think on terms of about 15 to 20 feet. The first two pictures are from our RV window.

If you look closely, you will see water clear over in front of the bird cage. There is NEVER typically water running there even during a heavy rain.

I tried to get a picture of the creek from the RV, but the brush is too thick to see it. The creek bank goes down quite a bit, yet I could see the top of the water rushing through the creek. It has to be almost over its banks for me to see that.

This is a picture of the flattened grass, which was standing about 3 feet or so high. I am halfway across our meadow and facing the neighbors property and home. Part of the water you see is runoff from his hillside.


Here, I am looking back toward our driveway and our other neighbor, whose home you cannot see.