Flood recovery ongoing

I'm hoping my sons will fix the road. If not, I'm prepared to hire someone. Meanwhile, I'm working at repairing the severely, nearly compromised, dike. At 85, it's slow and painful going. I was asked about getting a volunteer crew to help, but it's just not practical. I'd have to be micro-managing it all, and I'm only able to manage one or two helpers at a time. I get worn out in 3-4 hrs and it's not worth having them make the long drive for that amount of time. Less stress if I just whittle away at it. My son, Lee, will be back from his summer in Colorado on Friday. That'll be a big help. I'm going down to work some more Thursday, and thinking of asking my neighbor Ricky Green for help.

In the above photo, I'm in the middle of repairing an area of the dike that washed badly. The white rocks are holes I filled with rock, and then topped with dirt. After that, I restored the steps as best I could. There're two other similar areas to do. No hurry, in that we won't get another deluge like that in my lifetime.

I also did some weed-eating, besides managing to top off the stucco tank from the broken tank. Before I came back to town, I took my pump out of the tank. Exhausted, trying to get the 35 lb. pump out of the water that was covering a good six inches of mud, I lost my balance and fell smack into the mud. I have an agonizing time getting to my feet any time I get down, so it was an ordeal. I crawled a ways, but only got more mud-covered. Finally and painfully, I used my walking stick in one hand and when I got the pump dragged up the slope a bit, I was able to use both the pump and the stick to get to my feet. It hurt my knees a lot, but I had no options. After that, I had to spend an hour getting mud off me, the pump, hoses, electric cords, etc. No photos because I don't dare take my phone with me into the tank.

I need to pump water Thursday and I discovered the heavy 3" line going to the stucco tank had washed away from the connecting joint during the flood. That's something I can't fix by myself (I could have 10 years ago), plus the 3" pump connected to it is very difficult to start. Also it's time to start watering again unless it rains soon. Thursday will be two weeks since things got watered. Normally, I don't let it go that long, but after the huge deluge, I felt ok with doing that.

Lots of butterflies, and saw my first migrant bird of the season, this lovely Yellowheaded Blackbird.

The BIG ONE

 

The BIG ONE is the one I never want to get.  I watched it from town on radar. It concerned me because it's the first time I had seen the center of a bad cell directly over the oasis since I've been watching radar. The last, and only, BIG ONE since the oasis was created, was in the year 2000. It overran the dike around the oasis, washing some of the dike away. After that, my late husband raised the dike. It never breached again.

Yesterday, the BIG ONE went over the dike. It didn't breach it, but cut into it badly (above photo). When I first arrived at the oasis late this afternoon and saw the devastation, my first inclination was to just give up. Nature won. But then I made myself focus on what was left. My cup half full, not half empty, so to speak.

A BIG ONE inundates the whole oasis, takes away all the mulch, washes random places away, piles silt in other places, and leaves debris everywhere. In 2000 it flooded the potty shed with about a foot of water. We raised it a foot after that. Yesterday it flooded it again, although just a couple of inches. When the water recedes, it leaves a thick coating of mud inside. So much to do and so little energy. But I have time, so I'll do it bit by bit. What made it worse was that when it hit, all the tanks were already full and the ground was already saturated. No place for the water to go. 

I guess the road is the biggest concern. Right now only high clearance is doable. I'm going to try to hire someone to work on it. The problem is, what's left is basically rock. It needs padding, not grading. But I'll address it as a challenge, not a problem. We'll see. It's not over til it's over. 

UPDATE: It was late last night and I was exhausted when I posted this. Forget to mention that my oldest son, Eric, got all 3 pumps in top running shape in no time. He can, it's just if he will. The oasis is a full-time job and my sons have their own lives they want to live. Eric did say when he got back from a trip to Florida in a week, he'd come work on the road. That would be so wonderful if he does.

Feast or famine

Lower dirt tank brimful

Broken tank

More accurately, deluge or drought. This afternoon, it deluged again. The good news is that everything is full of water. No need to pump... or water. The bad news, other than that the big broken tank won't hold water for long, is that my best gas pump that was at the upper dirt tank got inundated.  I used to drag it well away from the tank so that couldn't happen, but these days I'm not able to do that. It's been years since it was necessary, but if a big surge of water rushes over the spillway, it can happen. Due to my vigilence, this is the first time that has happened while the pump was vulnerable. A surge of water over the spillway doesn't last long, but long enough. You can tell from this photo, the water had been much higher. (All photos by Ricky Green) 

Tomorrow I'm going to go down, and with help loading, bring the pump to town. My one son is in Colorado, but my other son reluctantly agreed to try to salvage it. It will need lots of drying and cleaning. New gas, oil, clean the plug, etc. and hope for the best.

Maintaining the place has become too much for me, but I just can't bring myself to let it go. I'll fight till the end. Fortunately, I don't seem to be any worse for the wear after those last three days of pumping. Of course, had I known nature was going to fill everything I could have saved myself the torture. Such is my life! I wouldn't trade it for any other, although I'd sure make myself younger if I could! LOL

My deepest gratitude to Ricky Green for his invaluable help in my time of need! And to the continued support of all the wonderful birders out there!