Drought Relief

Last weekend it rained . . . and rained . . . and rained. It started Thursday and ended Saturday night, for a total of over 3 inches.

When we moved here almost two years ago it was going on 10 years of drought. Water restrictions were put in place within a year and the next spring when we put in most of our grass, I had to get a special watering permit for new landscaping (this included taking a test, mostly on water conservation). So far this year, we are to near normal - helping a lot with the drought conditions here, but we'll have to wait to see what happens come summer.
Anyway, when the big snow, we had last month (see post 3/2/09 In Like A Lion), melted and that coming after a lot of rain, I thought the river was pretty high. We had never had our river flood over since we had been here - until then. This past Sunday we took a walk to look at the river - it was higher than ever!

I took the picture of the river standing on our path, by the sand pit (for those who have been here) - which was filled with water. The first line of grass and trees is the riverbank, water covering our path from where I'm standing. The second line of trees is our island, almost completely covered end to end. And the other side of the river beyond.
After looking at the river we decided to walk to the neighborhood park. The sun was finally peeking out and made for a beautiful picture. This isn't our house, but the house is up for sale if you want to move into our neighborhood. :)

All the trees you see below are normally ABOVE water and the whole underwater area is known as Skipstone Park. All the children threw stick after stick into the water, Logan especially loved it which kept me nervous the whole time. Robert, in the picture, had just thrown a stick (a thick one) and hit the tree - his intended target. Natalie didn't believe that he had hit it, she must have missed the whack it made when it hit. They had lots of fun and then we headed home.

The water has begun to receed. We've had some sun and now some rain again today and continuing tomorrow. I love the freshness of a wet Spring.
Unfortunately, Logan LOVES (an understatement) being outside and rainy days and the wet days after the rain stops are hard for him. He usually goes through many outfits (mostly pants) when I let him out. Today I made him a fort and we've been reading books to keep him from thinking about going outside - so far it's working. :)