So much for a white Christmas...

Well up until two days ago we were looking at the prospect of a white Christmas.  But then a warm front came barreling through and with it came quite a bit of rain.  In fact, it has been so much rain that this part of the state is under a flood warning until Tuesday of this coming week.  I told Pam yesterday that this is probably what the South looks and feels like throughout most of the winter.

The pictures shown above were taken from my second story window (not that the water was that high!!) and give you an idea of how the pond has expanded its boundaries out of the backside.  The bottom one is noteworthy because about 25 yards from the edge of the pond (the cattails) is the drain (the red dot by the fence).  The drain pipe is usually about two feet out of the ground and is almost covered now.

This shot of the firepit shows that the bottom layer of blocks is almost completely under water.  This is about 10 feet from the normal edge of the water.

And of course, if the water is out of bounds at the back end of the pond, it is also exploring new lands at the front too.  The split rail is about 30 feet from the pond normally.

And here is another shot from the window.  This is my neighbor's back yard.  When we get a bunch of rain, this area always ponds up and we call it "Lake James."  The road is just on the other side of it and the fields behind it are starting to cover over with water.  When it finally stops raining it will take it another couple of days to drain, but the creeks and rivers will be at flood stage for a few more days after that.

Oh well, at least as the old timers around here always say, we don't have to shovel rain.  But you do have to make sure the sump pumps are working!!

When the rains come around here, things really get messy for a lot of the neighbors.  The clay soil doesn't absorb the rain so much as it supports it; it holds it up near the surface so things flood, roads are covered, and nights bring on repeated encounters with such heavy fog and darkness that my little Christmas lights struggle to pierce thru.  There are times when it gets like this, especially in the winter, and farmers gaze over their fields, they say the heck with winter wheat, we've got a bumper crop of "standing water" and mud.

"Do not be angry with the rain; it simply does not know how to fall upwards.”  (Victor Nabokov)




Hooah