blowin' bubbles

[Reed]

Five months of no rain now five days of nothing but.

Getting cabin fever here - not that I don't love my woman, but......

The Pedernales (pr: Purdnalis) River is due north of my front porch. It's usually three feet deep and ten feet wide - this morning, as it's been the last couple days, it's 4/10ths a mile wide and thirty feet deep, runnin' around ten to fifteen mph. Seeing many giant pecans and sycamore trees floatin' by. Lost one of my three wonderful dogs, the youngest and dumbest. Miss him greatly.

Spent two days ago helpin' clean-up Luckenbach, now I can't leave home 'cause the mile of road has moved somewhere else. I'm 4-wheel drive but with nothing to drive on, might as well swim.

You guys in Seattle? - I know moss grows when air is water but when you get days of nothing but, what do you do? I could sharpen all my chains I guess, tune-up some gear too but the thought of that puppy helplessly floating away.....

Oh well, melancholic moments. I have plenty of storm damage out there once I can get there. The oak trunks turn green with blooming moss after so much moisture, very hard to climb safely with thoughts concentrating on knots, saws, and drops. It's going to be a few days after all this before tree work again, I'll get fat and soft in the interim - work slower, feel sorer.

Bored, restless, and sad. Just maybe I should add that this site and all you tree dudes are helpin' me get through the day(s). Detected a bit of a spat between a couple of ya last couple days but on the long road, ya'll are a ???? fine bunch of humans. Thanks.

Oakwilt(ing)

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Sorry to hear about your dog. You wrote about it inthe same sentence as the flood. Did you loose Dawg because of the flood?

You must be new to the business. I can't even remember the year that I stopped wondering what I should do when I have some spare time. I think it was around 1983 or so. There's always something to fix.

Tom

 

[Reed]

Been tree'in for a while - apples in Iowa in the 60's, dutch elm in the twin cities in the 70's, USFS in the 80's, wilt in the 90's. Heck Tom, I'm climbin' with your spikes!!! It's me.....Reed!!!!

"Ben" was like my other two dogs - abandoned 'till they found me. Pete was a pup hangin' out at the drive-thru pizza joint in town, Stubby was dumped at my road entrance, and Ben wandered in, too scared to approach me at first. I spent many weeks trying to locate owners, no one would admit anything. The next time someone dumps a dog and I'm around to witness it, they'll get a .243 caliber round thru the back tire, maybe.

Ben came into being a great little mutt - half shepard and something else. He slept outside and was a smart warning device, except owls and coyotes were all he would react to. He was just getting proficient at tree climbing. I think he was down at the riverbank messing with the beavers or snakes when the wall of water hit - that's how we flood here - a wall comes tumbling down and the reason so many people get swept away, that and thinking they can drive thru a low-water crossing. Back in '87, a full busload of Baptist camp kids were killed when their driver thought he could beat the highwater. That was 15 miles from here.

Today it was suppossed to recede but.... I'm sitting here looking at a continually rising river and warnings are still coming. I have this cabin up at 40ft above the normal channel but now it's creeping up past 32. There's no going anywhere today, I have 3 or 4 low water crossings on my road to the asphalt county road outta here. Oh well, kind of cozy but as far as the equpment goes - my barn and shed are packed solid with stuff not to mention a few leaks. I only have the saws, saddles, ropes, winches, irons (thanks again), and miles of cable and hardware and a few hundred jugs and spraying gear. There's an old helicopter in the goatshed and I just may see if she'll fire-up if that river don't quit. FAA is no problem out here, don't have a current rating nor is the bird licensed. Wonder how she'll like 2-cycle fuel?

I've been down the riverside a few miles on foot - impassible terrain and no sign of Ben. These things happen, I know, but it hurts just as much each time. Dogs don't live long enough as it is. Always had at least one by my side all thru my life. Thakfully 'ol Pete and Stub remain safe, but they too are obviously a bit concerned.


One thing is obvious for certain - our drought is officially over. I can at least burn some of the months of oaks I've brought back here to unload. If tonight quiets down any, I'll also plan on a few rockets to honor what America used to be like. Bless us all.

 

[Stumper]

Sorry about your pup Reed. Stay safe and May God bless.
P.S. Crank up some CCR "Who'll Stop The Rain"

 

[SpikedSupra]

Rain

I wish I could be so fortunate to say that it has only rained 5 days in a row here in Florida. It has literally rained 16 out of 19 days now! Its gettin ridiculous. Everyday that it rains is a missed day of arboriculture training. Its not bad though cause the days that it does rain I read, read, read, and read some more to leanr more. I am determined.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

You aint gettin 15 inch at a pop though Forrest. Look at the news and see what is going on in TX. Glad my Dad got a topo map when went house hunting for this place, nieghbors a block away flood every 4-5 years.

Been thinkin 'bout you Reed with watchin people in boats around their houses. Glad your high and some what dry. Hope the river starts to subside before it gets anywhere near the 38ft mark.

My dad tells a story of some troops setting up camp down there durring WWII, nice drywash. Ranche came by on horseback and told them it was not a good idea.

 

[Reed]

Topography is my religion - before settin' up this homestead I asked the old timers along the river, then checked the maps to see who was lyin'. Turn out they all were so I elevated the beams a few more feet just to err on the side of survival. Dry still and the river's gone down a couple feet - unless we get another cell and the weather service is telling me one's on the way!?! If I can get outta here, I'm going to a buddy's and get airborne to check things out.

Between Luckenbach and here, the total in four days has been 26.7 inches - well beyond our annual average.

In spite of the whitewater everywhere, I still love momma nature. In writing a friend in Alaska, he told me this is typical of what's coming insofar as measured changes to weather patterns globally. They have destruction that's historically unprecendented all occuring in the last 20 years - like the Spruce and Fir beetles, the glacial melting, the permafrost loosing the top 3 feet of solidity, etc. Oh well, reap what we sow.

Guess we'll have some fungal and mold events when this passes. Wish I had installed a rain-water storage system - nothing makes blossoms like rain. Oh, it's official - the burn ban's been cancelled. We were set to toast like Arizona here.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I was wondering if people out there had cisterns dug.

 

[Reed]

The old places all had cisterns - roof run-off could be diverted underground and usually an 'ol hand-crank conveyor with tin buckets or just a well pump would get them their water - if the home was too distant from creeks, rivers, etc.

Modern builders don't even want to go there - some banks still refuse to finance a rain water system like back in Minnesota the banks never used to finance a home with wood heating systems. I think with economic attitudes like that, no wonder we're in such a pickle when it comes to deminishing resources.

There's a guy I met at a few oakwilt symposiums that sold and installed rain systems - he was struggling along for a few years but today he's franchizing-out his dealerships. If people want to know about things like this they have to look hard - it's sad. Every new home here should be mandated to have not just a rain system, but solar assistance and a wind generator. In most other countries, rural homes are much more self-sufficient than in America - more common sense goes into living and surviving but here it's still prettymuch "go to WalMart" to get what you think you need and "trust the builder" to build what he wants you to have instead of what you should have.

I at least have several stock tanks that are now full, plenty of 5-gallon buckets filled too - most of the nursery stock of oak-hybrid seedlings I experiment with can only grow successfully if I irrigate with rainwater. Well water's too high in pH and minerals.

The county laws prohibit anyone from using cistern water for consumption - new systems are exempt though. What they don't know won't hurt 'em though.

 

[Reed]

Pedernales normal flow

Here's the normal river -

 

[Reed]

...and here she is after a rain - -

(this is way lower than she is right this moment)

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Get out the kayak and do some white water runs!

In a number of comunities here thay use cisterns for fire service. Reduces your insuarance premium if you have large ones near the road.

 

[Nickrosis]

Here in Poland, they just had a lot of rain two days ago. In fact, they got half the normal rainfall for July in a single day. The normal annual rainfall is around 800mm/year. Not a whole lot from my Midwestern standards.

Nickrosis

 

[Reed]

Nickrosis -
what the heck you doin' in Poland?

 

[treeman82]

Reed, where did you take those 2 pictures from? Thats quite a bit of water you guys got there

 

[Reed]

those flood pic attachments are from the Pedernales State Park. It's a frw miles downstream from here. I enjoy(ed) the same view from my desk here.

We're down now to pre-flood levels but it's a bit muddy here and the view's changed a bit, river has a couple new channels. I think the puppy's gone for good too. Still have a good many bridges closed, low water crossings destroyed. Thunderstorm cells continue to form but for the most part the low pressure system has moved north. The National Weather Service can't explain what happened, but it seems to fall into the predictions coming-in around global warming. My pilot buddies tell me it was a tropical depression overland, a hurricane of sorts that formed over dry land. When it doesn't rain here, we toast - when it does, we drown.

In spite of the severity of it all - I still love storms, volcanoes, tsunamis, and earth quakes. It's allpart of who we are and where we came from. I keep thinking that dams are only temporary, made by man against a much more powerful force.

 

[SpikedSupra]

Holy Cripes

The comparison between the before and after pictures of that river are unreal. All of this talk about floods has brought back memories of old Tropical Storm Gordon that ran right through Daytona Beach when I was a kid(8th grade). My entire middle school flooded and every house in my neighboorhood flooded except for mine and one other house across the street. For some reason my house, which was built in 1972, was built on a 7 or 8 foot bluff while all of the other houses were built just above the street line. They all got flooded needless to say. My mom woke me up that morning for school and said "I have a feeling you dont have school today." Confused, I woke up and walked out to my driveway where a then saw a streaming river running down my street and the water line was inches from the entrance into my garage. That day my best friend and neighboor got out the two man kayak and paddled through the streets.