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.

Misty Morning Meadow!

The Joys of Trenching & Inertia!

I am not what you would call a "fit" woman. I am so out of shape. *sigh* Now, you would think that I would take advantage of living on a hillside out in the country to go for walks, right? Wrong!

I seem to so easily succumb to the inertia that comes with living in a space that is so small that there is really no place to move around. I am used to being up and around, walking from room to room or, as in the case of the house we used to "rent" from the bank, up and down the stairs. I really miss that. I miss being in motion. There really is no way to be in motion like that in the RV unless I do an actual workout, which is a bit tricky! So, I end up sitting an awful lot and inertia sets in. Yet, when I do go out to do something like trenching, I just keep going and going and going. I amaze myself with how much I actually get done.

We have water that drains down the hillside from the neighbors property and from ours. It pools at the far end of our meadow, creating a little "creek" running down the middle of our meadow and causing pooling right over our leach lines. Not good! So, Dave had started a trench from where the water joins at the far end of our meadow toward the creek in an attempt to divert it.

I have worked on extending the trench when I can. Yesterday afternoon, I worked hard and got it all the way to the crest above the creek bank. However, it was not deep enough for the water to flow all the way to the crest and down the bank into the creek.

Today, I dug it deeper and got the water much farther along, but got stopped just a few feet short by a very big rock. Dave had been working on the creek crossing and on the drainage of the pool over the leach lines. Then he went and got out that huge rock. He deepened the trench and the water started flowing into the creek. Woohoo! Boy, does that feel good. We will have to keep working on it to keep it clear and deep.

At the beginning of the trench, where the water pools together, I dug on one side and made a dirt "dam" on the other side to try to prevent any more water from going into our meadow. Dave built it up a little bit more. Between the dam and the trench on one end of the meadow and the trenching Dave did at the other end, I have never seen the meadow with this small of an amount of water. Of course, the real test will be when a big rain hits; but any way you look at it, it has to be better than it was.

I did take some pictures of the trenching and will get them up when I can.

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!

Beautiful Day, Butterflies & the Mail Box!

It is cold today...freezing...literally...as the thermometer reads 32 degrees. But the sun is shining. I love the sunshine! It is much harder on cold days when they are gray. But when the sun is shining...it just does not seem to be as cold. Of course, I guess it also helps that the wind is not blowing, so there is no wind chill factor.

I actually walked down to the mailbox today. I know...that probably sounds kind of silly...like, what kind of accomplishment is that? Well, I have noticed that living in a place where there is no place to walk...the tendency is to sit a lot. And it all contributes to a kind of inertia. It is hard to get going. And when the weather is icky, it becomes even harder to move around and easier to just sit. And yes, I am VERY out of shape. I won't deny it!

So, walking down the driveway to the mail IS an accomplishment...for me. But the sun was calling and it really did not feel that cold. Of course, I did have to be careful on one part of the driveway. Lately, there has been so much ice that I did not want to dare to walk down it if I did not have to. But today there was only one place I needed to be careful. It actually felt good to be outside walking around!

Oh, Spring...hurry up and come! I love winter...but what we have had is NOT winter. It is more like what the transitional weather between winter and spring is like...except that it has been like this ALL winter long! Ick!! I am tired of mud and ice! I love snow. But I do not like winter rain and ice.

I am thinking about our meadow and wondering if we will mow it or not this summer. I am so torn. When we did not mow it last summer we had so many butterflies all around that they would actually fly into you when you walked down the driveway. I like the idea of a mowed meadow...but I also like the idea of a butterfly sanctuary! *smile*

So, today is a beautiful day!

Does in the Meadow & Propane!

The blanket is in the dryer. The lockin has been cancelled and our small propane tank is empty. Soooooo...I am putting off my shower until we get the propane switched around. Our water heater is dually powered...electricity and propane. The propane kicks in when the electric cannot keep up. That extra little boost really does help to extend the hot water a little longer.

I am sitting here looking into our meadow as twilight approaches. There are two does grazing in our semi snow covered meadow. They are beautiful creatures...so graceful. I love to watch them. We don't often see them this close in the meadow...at least not while we are actually able to look out the window and see them. All is quiet and peaceful.

Whoa! I take that back. As we watched, we saw a third...then a fourth doe. There are four does that we can see in our meadow!

The bird feeder does a pretty good business, too. These are the things that make not living in town nice. I still wish we had another car, though, and the gas budget to go with it. But these moments are so special!