A River Runs Through It

Have you ever had a sudden realization that you were focusing on the wrong thing?

Our little valley is technically in a desert.  And often times, our religious leaders ask us to join our faith and pray for rain.  Being a farming community, many of us know intimately well how much our lives and livelihoods depend on water.

That's probably why when it started hailing this afternoon, it didn't really cross my mind to pray that it would stop.....instead I prayed the Lord would protect my garden (the outcome of that one will be determined over the next few weeks).

For 20 minutes or so around 4:45 this afternoon, I would frequently turn to the window and watch the hail pelting my garden and silently pray it would be spared.  About 5:10 p.m. Jake arrived home dashing in and out of the house with only the words, "Hi, I've gotta go, we've got a big problem!"

I was at that point, pretty clueless and followed him out the back door, where I suddenly realized the fate of my garden was negligible compared to the fate of my HOUSE!

Water was cascading down the terraces in my back yard and filling our yard with thick muddy water.

Jake already had his boots on (he keeps them in the car), and was grabbing a shovel to head up hill to see if he could correct the flow and divert it from our yard.  I quickly changed my clothes (of course I would be wearing my newest outfit today), threw on an old pair of shoes, told the kids to stay in the house, and attempted to follow him.  There was only one major problem with that....I don't know the woods like he does.  I followed the water for a short time, but realized if I did find him, I would likely only be in his way.

As quickly as I could, I returned to our yard to evaluate what I could do there.  I noticed that the water had two main paths, one leading into the back yard creating a pool of water and a mountain of mud on the east side of our house, the other turning slightly south and flowing down our driveway.

I decided the best thing I could do was to encourage all the water to take the southern path.  I also knew two heads were better than one, and Jake was already who knows where up the mountain trying to clear the ditch that was supposed to be carrying the water on its merry way.

So I called my Mother- and Father-in-law.  I am so grateful they live close and are usually home when I have a crisis.  Only there was no answer!  Oh well, I had a few ideas.  I darted back outside to start shoveling away at the dirt.  I dug a little trench that encouraged some of the water to head south, but the water was moving so swiftly it was creating its own trench headed west!  I needed a dam, but every shovel full of dirt I threw in the path was quickly washed away.  I looked around for rocks I could use.....we had plenty....except I knew I wasn't strong enough to carry the ones that would be effective. 

Then I spotted the pallets!  Hurray for picking those up last weekend!  I hauled one up the hill as quickly as I could.  I was nearing the top when I heard the phone ring.  I had a pretty good idea it would be my Father-in-law, but there was no way I could get there in time to answer it.  I hoped my son (almost 4) would answer it.  But nope, it was my daughter (19 months) who got to the phone first.

I did my best to prop the pallet up with the shovel and ran back to the house to grab the phone.  I re-called my in-laws and got an answer on the 1st ring.  Help was on the way.

Back outside, my one pallet had fallen over and was allowing water to flow into the yard again.  So I hauled up a second pallet to act as a brace for the first. (They are visible at the top of this picture).

Jake near the beginning of shoveling out the mudslide

 

 

More of the mud/hail/water sludge 

Braced together, the pallets were effectively encouraging all the water to follow the south path to the driveway...now I had to figure out how to remove the water next to the house.  That's when my Father-in-law showed up---in his car!  I should have mentioned to come on the 4 wheeler as our driveway now more closely resembled a stream than a road.

Working together, we were able to clear a path that allowed a large chunk of the water to reach north of the house and fall down the hill there.  We continued to shovel water and dig trenches to guide the water.  When Jake returned (around 6:00???)  we had most of the water away from the house except for what I was bucketing out of the flower bed.  Jake ran to get the shop vac (one of the worlds greatest inventions) and sucked most of the remaining water out with that.

With the water diverted, our focus shifted.  Jake returned to the mountain to see if he could do anything to prevent this from happening again, and I began checking with the neighbors to see if they needed anything. 

Most of our neighbors escaped the flood, and those who hadn't already had crews helping them out, so I returned home.  Jake was back also, and we began shoveling out the mudslide.  2 1/2 hours later, we were pretty much bushed (or at least I was), and we decided to call it good for now.  Then my awesome brother-in-law showed up to help!

So he and Jake went back to shoveling while I ordered hamburgers for our very late dinner.

Gratefully, it seems no water actually entered the house.  Whoever built it didn't include any windows on the east side in the basement, probably because of the depth of the foundation compared to the surrounding ground, a fact I am exceptionally grateful for tonight :)

Except for a few sore muscles, and sadly our garden, things will be just about back to how they were before the storm come morning.

Our garden on 7/3

Our garden on 7/8 after the hailstorm