2021-04-28 — Justo A Tiempo

Good evening to y’all. Guess what? The skid steer arrived just in time. 🙂

It was gonna be a really stormy day today, so I chose to take it off and head on in to the DMV to get my van registered. I headed that way, and it was pouring down rain as I drove–pouring. With only a few blocks left to the DMV, the water was rushing across the road broadsiding me, and so deep that I was concerned it could water lock the engine. 😶

Fortunately, I made it to the DMV, where I watched in awe as the roads just filled like rivers.

I wasn’t long in the DMV because I forgot about that pesky assessment thing that’s… still not done. 🙃 So I waited in line, only to be told that I couldn’t register the van because my assessment wasn’t complete.

Lovely. So… that’s what I need to do ASAP. I’ve got all my tools pulled out of the Durango for that very purpose. Go through them all. List everything out.

Yeah…. long project.

Anyway, on the way back from the DMV, I thought I’d take a different road home, so I wasn’t inundated with water, but… the road I chose turned out to be just as bad or worse. Car flooded in the middle of the intersection. Water pretty deep. I managed to stop before I entered the intersection, and so I backed up, and turned around, but not before taking some video of everything. It was crazy.

Then, getting home, I drove down the dirt road to our property only to find that the water level at the bridge next to the gate to the property was like 10-15 feet above normal, with water (and logs) actually washing over the top, the water running off the other side, and the logs, some of them, getting stuck in the guard rail on top.

Not only that, but the river had overflowed it’s banks upstream so much that it created a second river probably a 100+ feet wide and knee deep (and super swift moving) running through our lower pasture.

It. Was. Awesome.

Fortunately, the deck that overlooks the river didn’t wash away. (thank heaven) Hopefully, it’ll survive until we can get it reinforced.

Anyway, so that much water basically washed out… a lot. Things don’t wash as much as they used to because I put speed bumps in a few places, and that’s helped significantly, diverting water and slowing it down, but it’s still pretty nutty. The water that comes down the draw between our house and Liz”s house caused the most issues. We have one culvert there, which is fine for normal to big storms, but it’s not fine for huge storms. It gets completely overwhelmed, and the water flows over the top and just completely washes everything out.

It created a ditch probably three feet deep and maybe 60-80 feet long, with a lot of that material perhaps just washing all the way to… wherever this river ends up. We did, apparently, start growing rocks in our lower pasture. It’s full of them. We’d thought about doing pumpkins down there, but… rocks seem to grow better.

Anyway, so the skid steer I put the down payment on arrive today, and I took it straight down to the bridge (after the water receded) and cleared away at least enough debris to make the road passable. That was my maiden voyage with the skid steer. Then I spent the next… 4 1/2 hours, ish? working on our dirt road, filling in the ditch and cleaning up our driveway. Not sure how well it’s gonna do. So much of it is just fine… sand? Just a bit larger than sand? So it might actually make our driveway worse. We’ll see. Cross your fingers. Have to have the rain stop first and see how well it all packs together. I’m usually remaking the driveway with a bunch of thick clay that’s full of rocks. It hardens pretty good and erodes fairly slowly. But this stuff… might just wash away. It don’t know if it’s packable. It might just be like sand… doesn’t bind together.

Anyway, spent a good long time doing that, until my body was well over the edge somehow. Not sure how a body goes over the edge sitting in a skid steer, but it must be a build up of a couple of days? I don’t know.

Got a decent amount done on the road. Still lots to do. Lots and lots and lots. Wish I had my dozer working. Need to get that figured out. That’s another project. 🙃 So many projects. So many things to do. So little time. And so little life left!

#1. I’m grateful for fabulous storms.

#2. I’m grateful that it’s possible to both enjoy the storms and feel bad for those for whom the storms were destructive. Doesn’t have to be either or. Enjoy the power and display of nature. Serve those affected by it. Works great.

#3. I’m grateful the skid steer seemed to do pretty well. Didn’t give me any problems that I know of. A bit of a learning curve. A little less intuitive in some ways. Pedals run the bucket, and the forward and back is run by the hands. That catches me off guard here and there because it’s opposite of what’s natural to me. So in a precarious situation, acting on instinct, I tend to do the wrong thing and… almost tip the thing over. 🙃

#4. I’m grateful to have gotten the Durango at least partially cleaned out in preparation for the tool counting project I need to do to get assessed.

#5. I’m grateful for my mother who, on two hours of sleep, made this poor guy dinner because he was badly over the edge. Thanks, mom. You’re awesome. Awesome awesome awesome.

Loves and hugs, all you wonderful people you. 🙂

Lift the World

~ stephen