Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Whoa, Mama

Mother Nature seems a bit moody lately. Maybe it's just me, but after freezing cold temps (lows in the teens overnight), followed by tons of snow (up to 10 inches here, but that's over a few
days and after a freezing rain which packed the first several inches down and gave a nice crunchy crust in the middle), we're now inundated with pouring rain, and many, MANY rivers here are flooding, including the one closest to us, the one our farm is named for: Skookumchuck.

We have Paul's brother and sister-in-law here with their dog for probably a few days, as their property flooded last year. Fridges and freezers are stocked, we have a frozen lasagna in the oven to feed BOTH of these logger boys, and the spare room (which one, you ask?! Ha!) is outfitted with an air mattress.

There is some water in our pasture and around the barn, but nothing compared to some places, including our neighbors' across the street. They may be moving their vehicles over here in a bit, actually, just to be safe.
The Skookum-
chuck is expected to crest tomorrow several feet above record stage set in 1996, but we've heard even at record the river itself didn't come close to us, and our property in particular is not in a flood zone, thank heavens.

We went for a drive this evening and saw a couple of homes absolutely drowning and completely surrounded. Centralia had some minor flooding from a creek at that point, the National Guard was starting to drive around, and they're expected to close I-5 at Chehalis at midnight tonight. Two rivers, the Skookumchuck and the Chehalis, will flood Centralia overnight and into tomorrow, both north (downtown) and south. Bucoda, the little town next to us is already experiencing flooding of the Skookumchuck, but it's not at it's high level yet.

Elsewhere, things are even worse. The Cowlitz River at Randle, where Paul's parents and grandma live, is expected to crest at six feet over the record set in 1996. Many have evacuated and we're praying for all. There's flooding, I do believe, in every county in Western Washington this week. What a scary thing. Here's a link to the National Weather Service's flood page for Western Washington's rivers...very cool graphs and fairly up-to-date information. http://tinyurl.com/9x3hc7

Our animals, as you can see, are fine. The chickens, much to my surprise, bolted out the barn door this afternoon and spent several hours pecking in the pouring down rain, the nutty birds. I put them away sopping wet (but boy are they warm under those feathery wings!). The cows are just fine, although soggy. (Ingore Bridgit's contorted pose...she had an itch, which she scratched with her left horn.)


Mother Nature's pretty riled up, I believe. I wonder if a piece of sacrificial lasagna will help appease her? Anyone?





1 comment:

  1. I dunno know about sacrificial lasagna, but she sure is pissed! Silvana, our closest town and home of our favorite butcher and breakfast diner, is under water from the Stillaguamish. And our easy access to Arlington is cut off. Luckily we're high and dry as are all of our animals. Hope you don't end up with the neighbors crammed in as well!

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