The Power of Water

What a difference a day makes. It must have rained a bit in the night, but gently, as we were unaware of it until we looked out this morning and things were still wet. The sky is blue with puffy white clouds which turn grey periodically and cover the sun. The fury of yesterday's storm is gone and we are back to the occasional drizzly rains that started last week. The paper says that Santa Rosa got almost 8 inches of rain yesterday.

After Pilates and coffee at Trail House we walked down to the end of the road to look at the creek and the view of it from Cindy's back garden. The creek is still roaring, but much lower than the visible high watermarks. A tree from the other side of the creek fell on Bruce and Cindy's roof after she sent yesterday's picture, breaking the new fence that was built after the fire. They won't be able to tell if it damaged the roof, also replaced after the fire, until it is removed. 

I tried to take a picture of the debris dam that stretches from one side of the creek to the other and rises about ten feet high but it was impossible. I settled for a close up of just one part of it which is clearly made up of burned debris which washed down from higher up the mountain and lodged itself between the trees growing in the creek. Just a few more hours of that kind of rain and the creek would have been in Bruce and Cindy's living room.

Just one more thing that has to be cleaned up and carted away. Fire can have unforeseen or at least unpredictable consequences....

We were grateful that none of our trees fell as some of them are in dubious health. Our drains and culverts all worked as intended and, because the burned leaves on the trees refuse to fall, we have very little debris.

There are advantages to living on a hill at the top of a steep driveway....