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.

Major Storm & Driveway Washout

I have so many thoughts in my head to share. Our trip was pretty much a whirlwind one. We are still trying to readjust to the time zone difference.

Right before we left there was a good sized storm. It made our driveway a little bit rough, but we held up fairly well over all.

Right after we got back, though, we had another major storm. It was a downpour for hours. We could barely see across our little meadow because of all the water in the air. We had a gully at the end of our meadow to try and divert the water from the hillside to the creek, but we ended up with a mini river going through our meadow of about 4-6 feet across.

We thought the storm before we left dropped more rain than we had seen in our time here, but this second one was even more rain. Or at least, more in a such a short period of time.

Unfortunately, the neighbors' hillside also drains into our meadow, along with our hillside. This was SO much water, though, that it appears that their creek crossing might have plugged up. Most creek crossings are built lower so that, if it plugs up, the water runs over the top. Theirs is built level to the ground. So, if theirs plugs up it does not just go over the top, it goes to the side, too, onto the property. After it goes across theirs, it can go onto ours. We heard them working with a terramite, so hopefully, they are working on diverting the water back into the creek so it won't come across to our side.

There was a storm not long after their crossing was built where the water ran over like that. Some of it went back down into the creek just on the other side of the crossing and some of it went across their property and onto ours. We really need to dig a deeper trench in the end of the meadow to try and divert the water from the hillsides, plus any other water coming in, back into the creek. But that takes either a lot of man hours and labor...or a small backhoe. We are short on time, energy and money. There is only so much a couple in their fifties and an eleven year old boy can do.

The river of water running through our meadow really messed up our driveway. The water was running with such force that it washed away the gravel and left the bigger rocks beneath exposed at all kinds of angles. There are two sections that are not driveable right now. Plus, there are other sections where we got gullies that need to be filled in.

The water going through the creek was so hard that it washed a large concrete block, plus some bigger rocks cemented together, into the trench Dave had dug in the creek. He and Elias managed to get the concrete and the rocks back out using leverage.

I have pictures, but we left our camera cable back in California. Dave's mom mailed it back to us yesterday. I will get all kinds of pics up once we get it back.

Some of the gravel from one washed out area is still in our driveway. But the gravel from the other is washed away down the creek. These two areas of washout are areas that were packed solid and hard. There was almost no loose gravel on them at all before the storm. The driveway is so bad that, if we had been able to cross the creek and park on this side, we would not be able to drive back out. Not without risking some damage to the van. *sigh*

It is very discouraging when, every time we make any kind of progress, something happens - usually weather related - that sets us back again. My advice to anyone who wants to tackle this lifestyle...make sure you have enough money to get yourself set up to at least a certain minimum.

We did not really have much choice about whether to live this way. However, we have learned SO much in the process. I would still like to semi-pioneer some day. BUT, I want to start off with a small cabin and finished driveway! We bought supplies for a workshop when we moved onto the land, but the weather never let us build it. Now, we are not even sure how good any of the supplies are. They have been out in the weather for almost two years. We protected them as best as we could, given the weather here.

God is leading us on a journey. I am sitting here smiling. Go figure! He knows what we need and where we need to be refined. Even though the lessons learned here have been hard, we would not trade them away.

We are looking at what we can do to better our situation. It could mean a move off the land. We are not sure. Living this way temporarily is one thing...but at this point...it appears to be permanent. Dave has not had a raise since the major layoff. Gas prices are going up. We are still in our little RV with no room off the side. The laundry room is unfinished because other things keep happening to divert us from it, including the weather and driveway.

It will be interesting to see what God does...and how He does it. Some things I know...Yahweh/God is in control. He loves us. He cares about details we don't even see...in addition to the mountains we do see looming over us. We can trust Him. He will never leave us or forsake us. He has a purpose in allowing us to go through all of this and He will use it for good. These are all things I know are true!

From our little RV on the hillside to you in your home...I hope that you, too, are trusting Him to lead and guide you. He is the only One who knows the future...the only One who holds it in His hands. He helped me to survive things I never could have survived without Him. He is trustworthy. He has a plan.

Creek Crossing Survival!

What a rain storm! It appears that we had more rain in this storm than we have ever had in our creek before.


This is what it looked like yesterday afternoon! It is difficult to see, but if you click on the picture you will see two red circles. The one on the left is the opening to the pipe. The one on the right is the pipe just beyond where the concrete runs across it.

This is what it looked like this morning.







This morning we found this! The pipe had been partially blocked by a board Dave had put in place when he poured some concrete. The rest of the opening was plugged by debris.

Lord Willing & the Creek Don't Rise!

Phew! I don't know that I ever thought that phrase would become so real to me. However, since moving onto our land, there are several times when "the creek don't rise" portion has been very real.

I think it was only 3 times last winter that we could not get across the creek. I remember one time Dave could not get home, so he went back to work and spent the night there. Another time I tried, unsuccessfully, to throw his mudders across the creek to him. The first one went downstream and I held onto the second one!

What we did get across the creek was a stick with a rope attached. Dave tied it on one side and I tied it on the other. Then he pulled himself across the creek, getting soaked in icy water in the process. Wet shoes and socks! Wet pants! In fact, the mudders would not have kept him dry...they would have simply allowed him to take off his shoes and keep them dry by carrying them. The force of the water went way up his legs.

At some point, Dave decided to look for a creekside tree to fell so that it would lay across the creek. Admittedly, it is not the best way to get over the creek, but we figured, "hey...in a pinch!" So, off he went with a friend to find one. After felling it, they tied a rope above it so that we had something to hold onto while we crossed. It is not a very wide tree, but it is plenty strong enough. We tried crossing on it. One has to be VERY careful using it to cross, even with the rope.

If the creek is high enough to need to use it, there is still all the water flowing into our meadow from the neighbor's property and the hillside gully to get across, too. It is a bit tricky, but we figured we could do if we really had to. It beats trying to walk through swiftly flowing water that might contain a branch that could slam into us.

This winter, we have been pretty blessed. In spite of the rains, we have been able to get across the creek...until last week. My son and I are going to a home school co-op one day a week. Last week it was raining hard so Dave parked across the creek, just in case it got too high to drive across.

We have cement blocks and pile of rocks to use to walk across onwhen the creek. When it rains really hard, though, the blocks and rocks get buried enough to make it so that we cannot walk across, even when we can still drive across. Well, last week there was no way we could walk it and it is good thing he parked on the other side because he could not have driven it, either.

So, we slogged on over to the new neighbors property. Someone bought the property next to ours and is in the process of putting in a double wide. Part of that package was to build a crossing over the creek. So, we carefully picked our way across the wet meadow over to their property to walk across to the road and back over to the van. That was not too bad, other than the water running into our meadow.

This week, however, it was really bad again. We had our mudders on this time, though. We were prepared! And it is a good thing. We noticed that the water in our meadow was more than usual. As we approached the neighbors property we could see why. His creek crossing was dammed up. You could see the tree limbs sticking up above the road. The water was level with the driveway on one side and barely coming through on the other.

Usually, creek crossings are made a little bit lower than the driveway height so that any overflow just flows evenly across. This was built even with the driveway. So, instead of flowing smoothly over, it was being diverted onto his property at one end of the crossing and flooding it. As it went down the other side it was eating away at the crossing and causing a whole torrent of water to flow along the creek and over to the meadow with some of it going back into the creek on the other side of the crossing. If we had not had our mudders on, we would not have made it through the flooding water to get to the crossing and the road.

So, two weeks in a row, we had our exercise before we even got into the van! But we made it! Thankfully, in spite of some continued heavy rains later in the day, the water was able to do down at our driveway which allowed us to actually drive across. Typically, when the water runs that heavily through the creek, we have some undercutting on one side of our crossing and there is some repair that needs to be done before Dave can drive across. But, thank Yahweh, we were able to drive right across!

We truly believe this is an answer to prayer. We had faithful friends praying with us that we would be able to get home. Not only did we get home...we were able to drive right across! Woohoo!