Tuesday, June 21, 2011

First a quiz for you all! (Don't worry, just one question.)
How do you prepare for a flood if you don't have the ability to build a dike around your home?

You tie a boat to your front porch. Ok, I probably shouldn't poke fun because (a) his house probably has water in it by now (it's over by the levee I was on top of yesterday, yes, the one that broke) and (b) because it's looking more likely that I may have a boat tied to MY front porch in the very near future.

Ok, status of the day....

I truly believe that there is always something to be thankful for. But, as my husband told me today, it seems like that list keeps getting shorter every day. Seriously, we've taken some serious hits to the hope we had that our home would escape the flood. It is starting to look like we might go under, and we are trying to prepare (mostly emotionally at this point) for that prospect. Don't get me wrong, we of course still hope that will not be the case, but are seriously preparing for worst, just in case. Here's what's gone on today...

1) Big Lake is completely flooded. Last I heard, the water level was very very near the record set last year. Mind you, there were homes that had water up to the gutters last year. I wonder what will be left in September when the water finally goes away. So sad, and I truly feel for those residents over there. I know many of them have moved out and are not returning. Ever.

2) The Levee I was sandbagging on yesterday is gone. Water is moving in quickly and will flood the town of Craig very soon, if it hasn't already.

Both of these issues are bad, but did not put our home place in imminent danger. Well, these next factors listed below have moved us much closer to the imminent danger zone. We have always been protected by the Little Tarkio Creek levee. To visualize what this means, imagine a stream with 2 very high and thick banks built up on both sides of it. Oh wait, I have a picture:

I'm a little off-center, but you can see what I mean. Most of the time there is a minimal flow of water between these two levees. When we get a bunch of rain directly north of us, the flow increases to the point of it being bank-full, as in almost as wide as the photo. I can only remember witnessing it truly "bank-full" in 1993 when the flood back then was caused from rain around here. Not rain/snow from somewhere else.... Anyway, on the west side of this double levee, there's Big Lake, Craig...and well, a lot of water right now. On the east side, there's us, Bigelow, and Fortescue to the south of us about 5 miles. (Refer to that map I posted a couple of days ago if you're having trouble following....)

1) So issue #1, the water is so high on the Big Lake side, it is spilling over the west Little Tarkio levee, causing what we call "The Tark" to raise significantly. Yes, that is 5 miles south of us, but when the water has no where to drain out of, and water is pouring in somewhere, the water level raises all the way down the line eventually. 

2) Issue #2 is that north of us, there's a tube somewhere the goes thru the west Little Tarkio levee that is letting water pour into the Tark from the flooded side. This again is raising the water level of the Tark. 

3) Issue #3, 1 mile directly west of us there's a tube thru the east Little Tark levee (what we call "our side") that has some kind of problem. It is letting water run back thru the tube and fill the ditch on our side. The problem is that we cannot get it stopped. And they've tried all day. They don't know what the problem is, but they know it must be fixed or....well...yeah. THAT is the project of the day for tomorrow.

4) Issue #4, badger holes in the Tark Levee. Badgers are nasty little creatures that I'm sure are a result of the fall...they're like moles on steroids. They tunnel thru the levees creating homes holes that can become a serious issue when the Tark is running high for very long. The water will find those holes, flow thru them to the other side, and if the water flows thru long enough, it will eat away the levee until there's a full breach. We check for badger holes every year, but we're talking 5 miles of grassed levee with the possibiliy of badger holes on either side of it. And if the water goes up and comes down fast (like it usually does), they don't always create  a problem. But if the water goes up and stays up for...let's see, what are we up to...10 WEEKS, well, that's plenty of time for the water to get thru those badger holes. So, the guys were walking the levee today, filling every hole they could find with...what else? Sandbags. Gotta love those sandbags. (On a sidenote, Clayton was trying to pack a sandbag into the Suburban today, wanting to take it home for a souvenir. I didn't even know where to start with that.)

So, as you can see, worries issues abound. But we are still thankful for many things. And I've come to realize that when you take one day at a time, things aren't nearly as overwhelming as if you try to ball up all of the worries of the foreseeable future into one big worry-wad. So, that's what we do, just take one day at a time, and let that worry-wad go. Matthew 6:34: "Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

But I do sometimes think about the future. And I wonder what it will be like to have a normal summer again.   I just might be downright bored.

Oh oh, and one last thing before I forget, I've been just dying to tell you all about our newest feature in the neighborhood. We are proud to announce that just down the road about 1/4 mile east, they have now placed a lovely port-a-potty along the side of the road. Yep, that's right. All by it's lonesome. We're thinking about moving our couch out to the front porch because we're starting not fit in very well around here.