Rain, Rain, and More Rain

We were pounded with ridiculous amount of rain... one day alone we had 3 inches and this was only the last day of the storms that kept coming.

This is usually dry

This was the beginning of the first washout of the driveway.

Stream filling up



Pippin kept calling it "chok-lit water" but the children had just watched the *old* Willy Wonka movie.



The dog taking a swim.


After many days of rain the children couldn't take the indoors much longer and went outside and got a little giddy.






We're to overflowing at this point.


Galadriel retrieving some leftover game items before they were washed away.


A heavy wind storm blew through for a short period of time. It seems the only purpose was to blow down the last working windmill.


The garden boxes were flooded.


The funniest sight met my eyes when I saw the children had taken out the sleds and were attempting to "ride the rapids" through the play area.


Normally there is no water here at all but we had a regular waterfall going. It was very difficult to get any pictures to focus properly as it was pouring rain while we were outside.


Our damage was relatively very little.


The windmill landed very conveniently right between the parsley and cilantro and didn't hard a single thing in the garden. (must be we have a good garden angel...)


However, not all the destruction is due to the storms but to the town who is insisting a ridiculous amount of trees/brush be cut down.


It's a bit unnerving to see our lovely roadside turning de-countrified... this is what happens when city dwellers move to the country :(

We decided to take a drive to see some of the very local damage. We are now the state of 10,000 lakes. These pictures are all corn or crop fields *not* originally lakes and ponds.





Yikes!


We made our way to the local dam and was it ever roaring away. There was some fear that it may burst like some others did. Only 1/2 hour or so north of here houses were completely washed away.


The dam


This was all that was left of the "beach" where Grandpa would take the boys fishing.

The river was pretty deep. A ways north of here a river was 14 FEET above normal (or so that's what I heard anyway)

We decided to drive by our favorite swimming place. This is the other side of that lake.

This cracked me up!!! This man was toting his lawn mower in his canoe. I guess they must have had to evacuate and I suppose they are trading their lawn mower in for something useful like a motor boat.

The beach where we swim just isn't there at all!

Galadriel and Bilbo

Our driveway washed out pretty nicely so we called for some reinforcements.

Waiting for another load.

Two loads of the wrong item arrived.

But like ants on an anthill it made no difference, it was a great place to play!

2 loads of the right thing....

Aragorn working to rebuild the driveway.

My little mud puppy, Pippin

2nd wash out and worse yet, this was after 5-1/2 inches of rain in 2 days.

Delectible Merry

Our road was closed as part of it washed out pretty badly I guess.

During Rosary one evening the little boys fell asleep, one on either side of me. When I got up they fell in this pile!

Now this was the neatest sight! To the south the sky was just black with storm. The rumbling thunder was just constant.

To the north the sky was a beautiful briliant blue with lovely fluffy clouds. The line between the 2 sights was just right directly above my head!

Aragorn and Sam working on the new windmill.

Frodo and Bilbo looking on.

Getting ready to raise the mast so to speak.

At this point the tractor could no longer move as the ground was too soft. I ended up having to drive the big lawnmower attached to the tractor. I guess it was just enough extra to get the tractor out of the mud.

Voila!

Aragorn and Sam working on something or other with cables and whatever to anchor the windmill.

Our only other loss was a partial loss of Aragorn's car. Well, depending on what you call a loss. On the way to chores he hit a sudden large amount of water on the road and off he went, filling up enough of the car to render it useless. It now can be driven but it's not a happy vehicle!

To put things into perspective, I'm putting some pictures someone sent for the destruction just north of here.

The interstate was actually closed as the road was gone in one area.

Wooops!!