Water pics... what it left behind

Yesterday I showed you the water. Today I have pics of where some of the water had been, and what it left behind. This first photo shows an amazing path through a soybean field. The water had apparently rushed down from higher ground, come through that grove of trees and left a wide path of washed-out beans and a lot of debris. This photo, in particular, is more impressive when it's bigger, so just click on it (or any photo) to enlarge it.

You can see how it washed cornstalks and a lot of junk right up to the edge of the road.

There was quite a bit of dead wood that came from that grove of trees. The water was rushing awfully fast to have the power to bring all that along with it.

Below is what is normally just a small creek. It got incredibly wide as it flooded the low part of that pasture.

The water again brought old cornstalks from the fields and washed it up in thick layers on the sides of the hills... on one side.....

..... and the other.

Here's another field that got washed out a lot:

You can see below where it washed over the edge of the field and into the ditch, flattening out the long grasses.

There's a tile outlet going into the ditch, and when we were there, the water was still gushing out of it.

Below is an example of how the water cut a gorge as it rushed through.

We've never seen flooding like this around here before. Lots of crops have been drowned out, but we still were luckier than some other areas to our south that also got hail that wiped out what crops the water didn't drown.

Fortunately we haven't gotten any more rain, and the forecast is looking a little calmer now.

Water pics

We've gotten 8+ inches of rain in less than a week! Yesterday morning I took these pics from our driveway of the standing water in our neighbors' fields.

Continuing to the right of the above photo:

There has been a lot of flooding in areas that Grandpa and I have never seen flooding before. We took a drive last night so I could get some more photos. Here are some of them. Click on any to enlarge.

These first two are where there is normally just a small stock pond, but it's completely disappeared.

I tried to back away a bit to get a better view of the whole picture, but it doesn't do it justice.

Next is a road Grandpa travels to work every day. You can see where they've added new gravel because the water had washed out the road.

And on the other side:

The water rushed so fast that it washed tons of old cornstalks off fields and into huge piles in the ditches.

Below is one of Courtney's daddy's soybean fields.

Here's some more of it. Lotsa drowned beans under there.

Grandpa usually turns off that road onto this one on his way to work, but it was still under water last night. That bean field is on the right.

I'll post more photos tomorrow. As of this writing (Wednesday night), we're under a tornado watch for during the night. Hopefully I won't have anything worse to report to you!

Update: Thankfully, we didn't have any storms last night, and just some sprinkles of rain. There's still a pretty good chance of thunderstorms this afternoon, but hopefully they'll miss us and the water will get a chance to soak away.

MORE RAIN... and escapees!

Yesterday I showed you the small lake in our front yard. That had all soaked away. Then it rained again yesterday afternoon, and the new lake was even bigger! Once again we were spared any storms, thankfully. So far. There have been a lot of storms around us, though.

I did manage to get that grass mowed before the second lake came. Barely. The rain started before I got finished with everything, but at least the part that needed it the most is done. There's more rain in the forecast, too. Ugh. Wish there were a way to share it with areas that really need it (Mark)!

Oh, and if you happened to notice that light area to the right and behind that main tree, it's water standing in the cornfield. There are a lot of fields with huge areas under water right now. There are also some roads under water, and a lot of areas have heavy flooding! We don't need more rain! But we're apt to get it.

On a different (more fun) subject... I had escapees Sunday evening! I stepped out into the garage, and this is what I saw:

Purrl had made it up and over the edge of the cardboard. (Not the first time, but I thought I'd since secured it.) And did you notice behind her, on top of the tree stand (which they use for a "tree")? It didn't take Georgie long to follow suit:

(What an innocent little face, huh? Ha.)

So fun to check everything out!

And who's about to just stay on the chair.....

..... when there's a whole garage to explore?!

Can't blame 'em. It was so wet outside that I hadn't let them out for their usual romp, so they must've been bored. ;) They did get to go out later, however, and I discovered that if I put the box flaps to the inside of the pen, they can't make it up and over. Yet.

I know... they need to be out of there... they're 7 weeks old already!! I guess I should just put them out in the machine shed. They'd have lots of playmates. I counted 9 out there the other night, and I know of at least one more (not counting the 3 youngest that don't come out yet). Rainbow won't like having them out there, but maybe she'll just wean them and be done with it. (Or drag them back to the garage!)

RAIN... and flies

We got big rains Saturday night... like upwards of 3 inches! Thankfully, it came without storminess. Everything is certainly looking lush right now.

For the last couple of weeks, we've had swarms of these little flies, which I believe Grandpa said are seed corn maggot flies (we have them every year). They're usually thickest in the grass, bushes and evergreen trees. Since we have a lot of evergreen trees to mow around, I've been thankful that I've been able to breathe through my nose lately (sometimes I'm not, due to allergies), or I'd have had plenty of flies in my mouth. Yuck.

I guess the flies didn't like all the rain. There have normally been a few in the oriole feeder, but nothing like there were yesterday morning... look!

That grape jelly is covered solid with them. Poor birds!

Even the finch feeder was covered with them:

I'll be glad when their season passes. Hopefully it'll be soon. At least they don't bite or anything... they're just annoying.

Panorama puddle play

It rained all day Saturday. The areas of water standing in our front yard kept growing and growing. I could no longer capture either whole "lake" in one camera shot... from the windows, that is, and I wasn't about to go out in the cold rain with my camera. So I decided to play with my panorama program again. 

This first picture was actually taken with four shots, then I used the program on my computer to blend them together. It turned out very well, except for the slight bending of the deck railing, which couldn't be helped.

These pics don't really look like much until you enlarge them, though. Click on them to get the full view! That's a lot of water!

This second pic was made from 3 shots:

The water in the pic just above was up onto the driveway and seeping over it a bit by the end of the day. That's a first! Speaking of firsts, though, I also saw my first robin of the year late that afternoon!

By yesterday morning the water was all frozen, and it remains so today. It's cold again! Poor robin.

Today

It's a good thing we had a day of sunshine yesterday to charge me up a little, because this is what it looks like around here today:

It's been raining for quite a while.

These guys don't look too happy, either, do they?

Brrr! Look closely and you can see the streaks of rain coming down:

At least it's moisture, which is badly needed. But it sure is messy out there. And sooo dreary. I think I need a nap............

Morning sights and sounds

We've had close to 4 inches of rain in the last 48 hours!  Things are pretty soggy, to say the least. The drought is definitely over!

(Click any photo to enlarge.)

You can see we have an abundant supply of dandelions. The good news is, the heavy rains have washed all the "fuzz" off, so mowing won't be such a nose-tickling job next time. Yay!

Here's a view from our driveway. Note the new lakes in the recently planted fields.

I zoomed in a little on that same scene. If you enlarge the picture below, you can get a better view of the hilly ribbon of road, which I think looks kinda cool.

Just a pretty tree stump:

Honeysuckle:

I was being followed by a Hairry guy:

The birds were very happy about the rain. Or maybe they were just happy that it had stopped! Turn up your volume and listen!

Yeah, I had plenty of accompaniment on my walk. Always there. I love 'em! At least two of them are "with kittens", possibly all three. And they're not the only ones! Yikes!

Rain!

I'm happy to report that we got nearly an inch of rain during Thursday night and yesterday. That's the most rain we've had since last July! Good news for farmers and robins alike!

This puddle was quite the busy place for a while.

As you can see, I've still been procrastinating on mowing the lawn. I have not mowed at all yet this spring. The grass seemed to be growing fast earlier, and then it almost seemed like it was shrinking because it was so dry. But alas, I'm afraid I need to get out there at the first opportunity now. Maybe today if it doesn't rain more. Phooey.

Photos of the day

This is the sight I saw when I first looked out the window this morning. Poor ash tree. It's one that Courtney's daddy brought home from elementary school one Arbor Day all those years ago. Pretty sad to see it so damaged. At least it didn't land on the sandbox under it and break the cover.

(The photos look so much better enlarged! Just click on 'em!)

Incidentally, below is the first photo I took of it through the drippy plasticked window. It made for kind of a unique effect.

Here's the back side of it:

And up close:

Our maple tree lost a lot of branches again, too. As I was outside taking pics, the wind started coming up, and more were falling... glad I wasn't standing under the tree at the time!

We had a lot of rain yesterday, and there are lots of puddles, one of which you can see below. They're kind of a yucky brown color.

I even left yellowish-brown footprints because of all the wetness under the snow:

There were some pretty effects, though, too!  I love the "hooks" on these maple branches! Amazing how they formed, isn't it?!

Here are some more icy maple shots:

Even the asparagus looked pretty:

But the best view, in my opinion, was what I saw in my sewing room window as I walked back to the house:

Yep, those buds will be opening very soon! And green is so refreshing to see again!