Friday, July 29, 2011 :: Who started this rumor??

People have been telling me, "Looks like the water is receding." Which makes me want to stop and look around and go, "Really?? Because I hadn't noticed a whole lot of that."

Now, to be fair, yes, the water level has went down a little. But honestly, that's like saying an inch of water evaporated out of an olympic sized swimming pool. To prove my point, I took some photos today... (click on any of them to see them larger)

Here's the panoramic view from the top of the levee a mile west of us.

This is a mile west of our house, on the west side of the west levee. You can see the water is starting to eat the side of the levee away. Although it would have to eat quite a bit to break all the way through, you never like to see your levees doing this.

Continue on down the road about another mile and our neighbor's NObama sign has literally floated down the river. Sorry Kelsey. You know I would have saved it for you if I could have.

Continue west about another half a mile and the highway has completely washed out, indicated by the roaring rapids through here.

Also, this pivot is in serious trouble as it appears the ground underneath it has started to wash away. We are wondering if the other end of this pivot has washed up against the poles down there and toppled them over, along with the lines. When I was down there, I thought it had, but I can't seem to prove it from any of my photos.

This one (also down that direction) is one of our neighbors' homes. It looks as though all of his bushes are going to die around his house. That just stinks, ya know? And I know he's already lost a couple of trees, too. You can buy new possessions, but you can't just go out and buy a new 30 foot tall tree or established bushes.

Come back to our house and head south about a quarter mile, and this is what you will see. Actually, we do own this field (and for as far as you can see), and although it looks like dead stalks laying on the ground in the foreground, it is in fact a mat of dead stalks floating in about a foot or two of water.

Continue south of us about another mile and you will find this:

And this--we own this field, too, what is to the right of the gravel road...you know, the gravel road you can't see because it is covered with water.

Now, if you come back and travel straight east of us about a mile, you will see these fields. Again, anything brown is dead corn standing in water.

...and this...

Go back to our house, and here's what's going on there...
First, the deer are feasting on our poor little apple trees, or at least the bottom half of them. We have four of these trees--I hope they survive...and if I catch any deer out there munching away...well, let's just say it won't be pretty.

In other "wildlife" news, apparently massive hoards of flies accompany floodwater or something. I've resorted to hanging fly-strips in the garage....and if I could remember where I put the rest of the box of fly-strips, I would hang a couple in my kitchen. So if you come visit me, don't judge me for the nasty fly-strips hanging in my kitchen....or the couch and deep-freeze out on the front porch. KIDDING. Just kidding, people. (...about the couch and deep-freeze, not about the fly-strips in my kitchen)

But speaking of my deep-freeze, the guys moved it from town back into the garage today. YEAH! (I can't tell you how inconvenient it is to drive to town just to get into your deep freeze.) I did take the "opportunity" to defrost it and get it all organized and sorted through...even if it doesn't look like it from this photo....

 And last but not least, although I am making progress on the unloading of boxes part, the sunroom still looks like this. <sigh> At least the boxes are sorted out into rows, with each row containing items that go in a certain place in the house. So if I'm looking for a book that went on the tall bookcase in the school room, I at least know where to start looking.

So, what do you think? Is the water receding? Maybe, but not enough. And it does sound like the Corps has a schedule to start reducing releases, but that won't start for a while yet. But I'll save that tasty bit of information for another time. All I'll post right now is this quote from the Corps' facebook page, "Eventually, this steady drawdown from the reservoirs, and respective floodplains, will bring water levels low enough for contractors (weather and funding permitting) to begin repairs as early as Dec. 1." (emphasis mine)


Wow, Dec. 1. And don't you love how they make it sound like such good news. More on that another time.