Water, tides and flow.

The rain combined with the high tides was promising to cause real problems here in "barely above sea level" land.

When the rain started at 4:00, pounding on the tin roof, I was awake.
We got 1 1/2 " in 4 hours.
My ranch already has a lot of water on it, so it wouldn't take much to put the whole thing underwater. Last week, with less water, I had a bit in the barn, just enough to make things damp, but not causing much mess.
Now, I imagined my new baby lambs drowned and floating.
I couldn't drink coffee as my stomach was already in a knot.

As dawn broke I could see that the creek in front of our house, was across the road.
The good news was that the rain broke as well. I headed out early to see what damage had occurred.

I was shocked to see the unthinkable..everything was fine. Not even any water on the cement yard. Sure, there was water on the roads all the way, and more to come, but for this brief moment, I had happiness.
My lambs are fine, everything so far is O K..

I have had 2 neighbors call to offer up help if I need to move anything.
I stacked some hay on 3 layers of pallets.
I watched the water and gauged the rate of rise; all the water from here in the hills is rushing to the ranch.
I have a big pile of shavings I will shove the milkers and dry does up onto if needed. The kid barn is also high, J's yearlings can go in there for a few days.
I put everything up high in the barn.

We had a very high tide at 8:45, so now maybe some of this will start to drain. On the scanner it's all about road crossings and the tides.
The rain has given us a brief break, and maybe before the next onslaught some of this water will leave.


The river is at 22 ft, higher than I can ever remember, forecast to go to 25 ft. My ranch altitude is 5 ft. It's no wonder I have drainage problems.

I'll get some pics.