Every Day is an Experience

Thomas and I worked on the driveway and got a path worked out to be able to get in and out but it wasn't pretty.

On the north side of the property a 50 foot long ditch opened up in the road.

Everytime I look up at the sky it looks a little dangerous

This is where the road got washed away when Jax and I got stuck with tires on each side of the wash out and a 10 foot deep ditch full of water running under us. Miracle we survived. Roughly two years ago and it happened again but we weren't any where close to it this time.

This is hard to understand. There was and always has been a fence running along the side of the road to next door. The road turned into a river, washed out the embankment, one pole fell off the embankment, got washed down the flood, planted in the flood and ran the fence across the road.

The bowls I put the Kit & Kaboodle in for the critters, two have gone missing two nights in a row.

The Damage of the Nine Minute Storm

The Front Entrance by the Base Camp sign despite all plans and preventive measures Mother Nature wins again.

The turn at the bottom of the lodge driveway that takes you to the north side of the property has significant damage and something I've never seen before and couldn't imagine even how it could happen. The fence that runs along the top of the driveway got wiped out and a fence pole fell into the raging creek, took it 30 feet down the creek bed and planted it. The result was a new fence being strung across the road. I couldn't even begin working on the drop off until I had cut the fence. So strange.

When I woke up this morning to feed the birds I wondered what they would think with their tree that's been there for 18 years is gone but eben with the tree lying on the ground they were in the branches that only were three or four feet off the ground and looking across the river which no longer had a beach was an indication of how much water that nine minutes brought.

The road going next door the water had broken through the dam again and tore up the road but leaving just enoufh to drive around.

The last road to check out was going to the boat ramp which was not bad but the water had risen up the stairs.

The Nine Minute Storm 2

The tree has been dead for five or so years and I had a guy that was going to build me a tree to replace it. I wonder what the birds are going to think in the morning. The rainbows are bright, a double rainbow. So many pictures I've taken with the dead tree in the picture but the last one tonight is the same place I took the last one yesterday but no dead tree. Morning is coming and we'll see the damage. One year we had six once in a hundred year storms in 17 days. This is starting to feel like that year.

The Nine Minute Storm 2

Jax and I walked down to the bottom of the driveway and it was fast, deep, and bad. It's hard to tell because the dirt and the water are the same color. When it would slow down it would rain again and now at 1am the morning of Saturday the 24th it's still raining so won't get to see the driveway damage until daylight.

The Nine Minute Storm

At 5:55pm I looked across the Colorado towards Dead Horse Point and swa one of the three nastiest storms I've ever seen coming to see us. One of them swept Linny away and she nearly drown. One of them almost swept Jax and I away and this was the third one. Thomas was working next door and I called him on the walkie to tell him it was gonna be bad. He ask if he should come back and I thought back to the other two times where Linny, Jax, and I nearly died in the Colorado River and suggested staying in place on high ground and let the storm pass over. I thought it was going to take 15 minutes to get here but I was wrong. It was here now. I yelled at Kobae to come inside and he just got blasted. He never blinked or hundered down even when the hail came. He just set there absorbing the blows.

The first wave hit at 6pm and it quitr and at 6:09. The dead tree finally fell over and took a grill with it. Kobae came inside and is sleeping in the laundry room. we had 30 minutes of intense lightning and it was close and loud. Never experienced anything like that. Jax was running all around the lodge wanting to play all excited and crazy. The rainbow was bright.

Stuff

Cleaned out the garage and found my favorite type of glove. Seven left hands and two right hands.

Kobae comes out around 4pm every day to the porch and then walks around a bit and hangs out until dark. A couple days ago he walked across the driveway, went in the kitchen first and peed all over the place and then came back out on the front porch to eat.

Remember this dead tree for the next post.

Across the River

On Saturday there were lots of vehicles across the river at The Ranch. Today there are almost no vehicles there and down to five tents.

The Driveway

What it looked like after a couple hard rains and nine hours later, an expensive nine hours, and it looks like this now.