It’s been a wet summer here, which is somewhat unusual in the high, often dry Rocky Mountains. Other places in the country easily get 2, even 4 inches of rain regularly, but around here, that’s a BIG deal. Last week, for the first time in our nearly 6 years in this house, we had a full-blown flash flood in the creek that cuts through our property. My husband was gone and had the camera at the time, but I went out after the storm passed and recorded this.
This file is a digital recording of what 1.75 inches of rain in 35 minutes sounds like as it pours through Elk Creek.
Creek audio file (MP3) *** I’m sorry to say the audio file got lost when we changed blog platforms.
The good news is that we’re in a wide valley. Our house sits on a hill well back from the creek bed, so we’re fine. Even the goldfish in our pond survived the influx of rushing water. By our count, several days later when the water cleared, no one got washed away.
Some neighbors with watershed passage issues weren’t so lucky — with flooded garages, washed out driveways and flooded kitchens.
The storm was a doozy. The rain is one thing, but the lightening was something else. One cloud-to-ground strike hit behind the fire house, which is just 3 lots up from our house. When it hit, the sky lit up and pulsated for several seconds. Then came the HUGE thunder clap.
It made me and Lilly and Ginko jump. We sat on the sofa together for a bit, but then I decided they would weather the storm better in their crates. So, I sprayed some of that dog appeasing pheromone on a couple washcloths and loaded the dogs up.
Once the storm ended, the three of us came out to look around. Lilly and Ginko both had some nervous energy to burn off. While I checked the fences through the creek and watched the water rushing by, they played a rousing game of “rabbit dog.”
That’s our name for crazy-ass chasing, where they blast around at top speed, changing direction on a dime, even flipping around in mid-air to catch the other by surprise.
Thankfully, their instints told them to avoid the creek because that was some seriously fast-moving water.
Within hours, everything was back to normal. The creek back to its usual trickle.
While the dogs ran around, and I pondered where the various fence posts now stuck in our trees came from, neighbors on both sides hollered down to be sure Lilly, Ginko and I were OK. That’s the thing about living in a rural spot. Those close by keep an eye out for each other.
Bridge Over Trickling Water
Monday afternoon before a snow storm, I took the dogs out to shoot these photos near our bridge over the little creek that crosses our land. …