Rain

Got an inch and a half of rain last night, bringing my year to date total to 5 1/2 inches. Still have a long way to go to reach the 60 to 70 inches each year brings. I truly enjoy the rain, especially now that I am retired. Working patrol is one of the jobs where one wishes for rain on your days off. No matter how new the banana suit was (yellow rain jacket with leggings), my wool uniform would get still get wet under it. Wet wool pants have a particular aroma and the sensation of wet wool on my skin was just plain icky. I now have the luxury of enjoying the rain, no matter what day of the week it is, and I thoroughly enjoy it.

The above picture was taken standing under the redwoods that separate my little cottage by the creek in the redwoods from the pink house to the south. In the lower right of the picture, you can barely see the end of the pool that parallels my deck. The gravel beach shown here will be completely covered when we get a big rainstorm as the creek overflows the narrows before joining the river (at center in the picture). This is very similar to the view from my bedroom window (with less looking down). It was just starting to sprinkle when I took this yesterday. The small amount of rain last night was not enough to increase the water flow of Bear Creek enough to push out the leaves, branches, and other forest fallings that are in the creek.

The big tree that fell at the end of last winter is still laying at the bend north of me, cut into large segments that allow water to flow past it.

The segments are still somewhat in line with the original tree form. They were much too heavy to move manually. We are all waiting for it to start to move downstream, and will keep a sharp eye on its progress as it goes past the wood bridge's steel supports. The tree was estimated to be 80 to 100' tall (before falling) and the root ball is huge (2o feet tall or more). This picture was taken after a good sized storm in April and before it was sliced into segments in early summer.

Since the tree fell in the creek (a riparian zone), we must let Mother Nature take care of it. The only assist permitted was the sawing to allow water and debris to freely flow and not pool up behind it. I would say this was only partially successful regarding the debris.

The wind is starting to pick up and the NWS Radar shows more rain is on its way. Woohoo!