Yesterday's Rain

I still can't get all my little videos on here so I just have the one. Yesterday it rained almost 3 inches in a couple hours after a long, grey, day. Our river appeared again and sent debris down down down near the fence line. The neighbors chain link fence borders the two properties and we are/were on the "up" side but they think digging it out is a good plan so it gets deeper and the water moves faster and one of these days the fence will fall over. It is unbelievable how fast and furious the water moves and then in an hour it is completely gone. I have been planting gingers and trees and all kinds of things I dig up and move from one place to another down there. I have some bamboo started and the plan is to plant that down there to stabilize things but I don't want to do it when it might get washed away! The house and "creek" have been here for 30 years so we know the house isn't going anywhere and the erosion is gradual I guess. I plan on planting vetiver in the path of the water every 10 feet or so when the wash out danger is past but it will probably only divert it somewhere else! If I can grow enough vetiver I can use it to terrace things with a trail on the upside and the vetiver as a dam sporadically across the hill. What I WILL NOT be doing is digging it deeper! It doesn't rain all that much here but when it does....it really does!

Waterfalls in the Back garden

Jeff was able to get this little video of Tuesday's rain onto the blog. It isn't that interesting but here it is! I've scooped out 6 wheelbarrows of dirt so far. Should we go up a block? The vetiver is doing well up top, but I need to add some more grasses and things to slow down the water! What would a hurricane be like? I don't want to know.