My Husband "Subvet" says that when our first son "Sonshine" was born the sun rose on our world, when our second son "Gator" was born the sun laughed and when our daughter "Sugars" was born all the flowers bloomed. That says it all.

"Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass...
It's about learning how to dance in the rain."
Anonymous

Your mind is the garden, your
thoughts are the seeds, the harvest can either be flowers or weeds. — William
Wordsworth

Saturday, July 7, 2007

Rain, Rain, Rain

Many of you fine folk and blogging buddies have asked me if I've flooded out. The answer is no. I do live in NE Texas about 50 miles or so from Dallas and we have had a gazillion inches of rain in the last 4 months. But my home is fortunately still above water. Those just a bit further north of us are not so lucky. However, I thought I would show just what it does look like 'roun these parts. We had a sunny, pleasant (90 degree) morning. I guess it hasn't rained in about 24 hours. Subvet is hoping the rain will hold off for about another 24 hours so the ground will dry enough to get our mower through the lawn. Since the weather was pleasant, but the ground still too swamp-like to let the kids play outside we went for one of our "road-trips." Subvet and I love these. We just pack everyone in the van and we pick a direction and drive. We tell the kids we are going to "count the cows", they'll grow up thinking Mommy was a Professional Cow Counter (just call me The PCC). The round trip today took about 3 hours and at least we've gotten out of this blinking house!!

These are pictures of our front yard still draining into the gutter.



It's been wet for so long there is algae growing (and stinking) all around. This is unheard of around here. ESPECIALLY in the middle of July!!!



This is a picture of the manhole cover in our front lawn that is over the water meter. Subvet uses the standing water here as a gauge of whether or not he can mow yet.



ummm, not yet dear.


Here are some pictures I took of Lake Lavon as we drove over it.







The view from this bridge was quite different 4 months ago. There was no water. None at all. The lake bed had been dry for so long that there were cattle grazing in knee high (to them) grass and scrub brush. Lake Lavon did not completely dry up, but you could not see any water from this point. As you can see, the water is back.





These show how close the water is to the guardrail at the bottom of the picture. Don't worry, for those of you who didn't have to take Texas History in the 7th grade. There are no natural lakes in Texas. They are all dam-made. Lake Lavon will not overflow, but they might have to let some water out of the dam to flow down-river. Which will cause problems for folks who live south of us.

Now, there is always a silver lining......or so I've been told. Here you go.



These are the cannas on the side of my garage. They are almost as tall as Subvet (who's 6'3"). Whoever heard of 6' tall cannas in the middle of a Texas summer???

As we rounded to the last leg of our road trip this morning the clouds started moving in.






And we had a few rain drops hit the windshield before we got home. We'll have to see if Subvet gets to mow tomorrow or not.

I pray for all those north and south (down river) of us. We're wondering about mowing our lawn, they're wondering about salvaging their possessions and there have been some very tragic deaths due to the high water. Thank you for your concern for my family. But, as you can see, we are fine. Send your concern to all those who aren't.

6 comments:

Pen of Jen said...

Thanks for the updates

I must say something that has me totally laughing.
Your husband is trying to get a break to mow the lawn, we keep reducing the size of our lawn due to water rationing!!

Our lawn used to be 6' x 25'(I know but it is New Mexico) and now it is 3' x 25 '.
The boys just tilled up the other part to reduce, and we added a barrier to maintain the water.

I am laughing at the complete silliness. Maybe between you and I say in San Antonio, all is well with their lawns!

MightyMom said...

Honestly, if I had my way there wouldn't be any lawn. I'm not a big fan of grass (probably because I'm allergic to it.) I would love to have acerage and just plant bulbs as far as I could, let nature take the rest. Of course, the lawn does make a nice place for the hooligans to play, when it's dry. :-) What do you do with the part of your property that isn't lawn?? ye ol' rock garden??

Pen of Jen said...

Yep, Rocks and Dirt, and a football toss, and lots of gardens surrounded by rock. I will update my home school blog to show the gardens this week...I let you know when.

Sorry about the allergies...here I would prefer anything to dirt...well not snakes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh and in NM where ever you do not water, you get nasty nasty pokey weeds, so in the edges I have weeds. The kids call it their War on Weeds Wednesday, which is the outside upkeep day!

MightyMom said...

Subvet and I decided you don't have a lawn, you have an outdoor bowling alley, or green sidewalk/dogrun. I've never been to NM so I have no reference. Like the WWW, kids are cute.

Berber said...

We're having lots of rain over here in The Netherlands as well, but thankfully not as much as you!

MightyMom said...

well, at least things are green. Usually by now they're all brown. :-)