Flooding and Mud

Many of you have heard of the flooding in California.

Our little valley is about an hour outside of a relatively large city. There are 4 ways into the valley. The main way is a canyon road that goes directly into the city, there is a small mountain road that is open intermittently in the winter, a road that goes through another valley and then hits a major highway, and the last route goes through a pass out into the desert. This last week has seen all ways in and out closed for short periods of time. The canyon road has been closed since the first storm hit. Many of the people in this valley rely on that road into the city to get to work. For the last week and a half many of these people have been driving hours out of their way to get to work. Today all roads were again closed. I keep wondering how much longer employers are going to be understanding. Will they give up and hire people who are having fewer troubles getting to work?

I was really lucky, although I missed 2 days of work I was able to make them up. Paul has been suffering in that he can't get into the city to sell anything. Since his salary was revoked as of last month he isn't making any money. This is the last straw, bankruptcy is looming.

The road into our property was washed out in the first storm. Once the flood waters receded we were able to walk across the creek. The creek used to flow under a bridge which allowed access to the properties in the area and the BLM road that goes into the forest. Now the creek flows about 50 feet in front of the bridge. A neighbor was able to get our truck across using his bulldozer to get it through the mud.

For the last week we have been walking a half mile to the truck which is parked across the creek. Last night the latest storm dumped enough water into the creek that it came up to our knees in some spots. During the day the crossing isn't too bad but in the dark it's daunting. Getting food and small supplies in has been relatively easy. Unfortunately we are just about out of hay so we will have to carry 100 lb hay bales in one at a time. A load of hay consists of 36 bales, it's going to be a huge workout for all of us!