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

Fall flood adventure

Rainy day on the farmMark's out saving the world this weekend, so I thought my Mom might like to come over for the day and keep me company.  She drove up from town and arrived as the rain started to pick up.

After a drenching ride to the trailer in the golf cart, we settled in for girl time --- hot chocolate and board games.  The rain kept drumming on the trailer roof, but I didn't pay much heed.

"Will the creek flood?" Mom asked worriedly.

Three inches of rain."Naw," I reassured her.  "Unless we get three inches in a day, we'll be fine."

We glanced out the window.  Was the rain gauge really full nearly all the way to the top?!  That looks a lot like three inches!

"Um, I just made that three inch figure up..." I said as we scurried around collecting wet clothes and produce.  Down we rolled into the floodplain, through the first miniford without a problem, splashing through a wet second miniford, then stopping in distress in front of the third miniford.  Time to leave the vehicle and head out on foot!

The water was too high to make boots worthwhile.  Even rolling up your pants gets pretty useless when the muddy floodwater reaches above your knees.  We splashed through the last miniford and peered at the raging waters in the creek itself --- about chest high.  No way we were walking through that.

FloodwatersLucy was in her element, galloping along the water's edge.  She jumped onto the footbridge, thrilled at the way the creekwater was even with the boards.  Bits of trash washing down the creek lodged on the side of the bridge so that she barely had to bend her head to grab them.  A farm dog paradise!

If Lucy could get across, so could we.  I took one of the produce-filled backpacks and carried it across, then came back for the other and to hold Mom's hand.  My mother is pretty plucky --- most folks won't even walk across our footbridge when the creek is low and the boards are dry.  But Mom cut down a Christmas tree and dragged it home when she was nine months pregnant with me.  She canned endless loads of produce when she was nine months pregnant with my sister.  A floating footbridge was no problem.

The good thing about raging water is that it blocks out the sound of old walnut logs creaking and cracking beneath your feet.  The water under the footbridge actually made it feel more stable than usual --- like walking on a waterbed!  Mom reached her car safely, then Lucy and I braved the footbridge again for the wet walk home.  Now I'm holed up with two dry cats, hoping the flood waters recede in time for Mark's return tomorrow evening.  Too bad he missed all the excitement....



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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.



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