The Walden Effect: Farming, simple living, permaculture, and invention.

April flood 2017

Raindrops on oxalis

This week's flood didn't quite match our biggest one ever, but it came close. Over five inches during a week (half in the last twenty-four hours) is nothing to sneeze at.

Flooded floodplain

The floodplain is so far underwater that it feels like one huge, still lake.

Root waterfall

Mark was surprised that the smaller creek didn't roar as loudly as it usually does during flood times. After some reconnaissance, I figured out why --- the part of the creek closest to our core homstead is part of the lake. I had to walk a ways upstream to find flowing water.

Phacelia

In the process, I discovered a very heartening sight --- rocks! This small creek, for some reason, had worn itself down to bare mud Creek rocksover most of its length long before we moved in. The result is relentless erosion that keeps cutting the bottom of the creek deeper every year.

Not so any more, at least for the upper expanses. Rocks as big as my fist were carried down by the floodwaters and deposited in bends and pools. Maybe another big flood or two will fix the bottom of the downstream portion of the creek as well?

Wet robin

Anyone want to take bets on how soon the floodwaters recede sufficiently to let us bring home some fresh groceries? Good thing the freezers are still pretty full!



Anna Hess's books
Want more in-depth information? Browse through our books.

Or explore more posts by date or by subject.

About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



Want to be notified when new comments are posted on this page? Click on the RSS button after you add a comment to subscribe to the comment feed, or simply check the box beside "email replies to me" while writing your comment.






profile counter myspace



Powered by Branchable Wiki Hosting.

Required disclosures:

As an Amazon Associate, I earn a few pennies every time you buy something using one of my affiliate links. Don't worry, though --- I only recommend products I thoroughly stand behind!

Also, this site has Google ads on it. Third party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a user's prior visits to a website. Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to users based on their visit to various sites. You can opt out of personalized advertising by visiting this site.