Weekly update: Nature hasn’t read the script. An old spiritual proclaimed “no more water, it’s the fire next time.” We had the fires last spring. Last summer we had a storm that flooded my retaining wall. Saturday, it rained hard for more than an hour.
In Oklahoma the cast observes the “wind comes right behind the rain.” On Wednesday, we had the fourth 50-mile-an-hour wind storm. Most of the restored fence held up. However, the weakest joint failed.
When I saw the top of the fence was several inches away from the post, I stood in front of it to hold it in place. The fence section banged against my back for an hour. As I leaned there, I watched Russian thistles blow up from my uphill neighbor’s side and land in the spirea and apricot. Some hit me on their way down to the driveway. When the wind shifted from the south, they blew down to the gate.
Around 6 pm, the wind shifted, and Russian thistles blew into my back yard from the prairie to the southwest.
Those roses of Sharon, which I received last Friday, still sat on the back porch. The weather bureau opined there might be more wind before the rains came on Saturday. I spent Friday removing the carcasses from the gardens and backyard. When I was done, I was back to where I had been the beginning of the week before I started clearing the last section of the back.
Saturday, I spent two and a half hours removing them from the gate, so I could get my car hour to take trash to the road on Sunday. I got about a third removed. The wind was blowing from a southerly direction, and took them up the road.
The storm was intensifying around 6:39 pm. The cement edging tipped over by 6:45. My driveway was flooded. Water poured off the back roof and collected in a brick lined bed. Then, it flowed on both sides of the beauty bush into the dirt path that I had worn from my many trips taking Russian thistles to the road.
It went downhill from there to join the water flowing along a similar path along the wire fence that paralleled the Ranch Road. It turned south to head for the eroded fence corner that I had spent the winter repairing.
Most of the repairs survived. I had built up the space between the ground and fence bottom, then placed stones to hold the dirt in place. Later, I planted some grass seed that I covered with sand. The sand I didn’t sink like I hoped, but splattered the boards. A few places washed out, but only for a few inches. At the corner, a gap of less than an inch existed between the boards and stones. It had widened a little, but not much.
From there the water turned toward the Ranch Road, where it joined the water flowing from my downhill neighbor’s yard. The boundary between the bank and the road was erased. A similar thing happened with the channel I had dug by my house.
When I went out Sunday, I saw a few things had to be done. Not as much as last summer, but a few to reinforce work that hadn’t been sufficient. I needed to re-dig the channel, and put down some larger stones in the openings in back.
I looked more closely at the scalloped edging that fell. When I looked at the photograph below, I realized it had always been a problem area. I had placed the Saltillo tile against the retaining wall more than a decade ago when water was going through the retaining wall. It continues to work.
Last winter I found a low place on my neighbor’s side which I attributed to some actions in the 1990s. The utility pole was placed after that. I didn’t realize the role it played.
When I laid the walk, the cement blocks were level. Over time, water from the uphill side has eroded the dirt on the far side of the blocks and tilted them.
Since the flood of last summer, I first filled the low place on my neighbor’s side and placed some his old 4x4’s parallel to the fence. This spring, I have been laying wooden posts along my side of the fence, and added the faux-brick edging on the other side of the walk. You can see the edging failed at the utility pole. I have not completely solved the problem, but I now have more information on its cause.
Later on Sunday, after the damage inspection, I planted the roses of Sharon.
Weather: For whatever reason, this is the week that plastic hoses, which had had problems since late last summer, went from being acceptable to having to be replaced. I’ve never figured out what temperature conditions cause these changes, just do what has to be done.
Last rain: 5/13/23. Week’s low: 31 degrees F. Week’s high: 84 degrees F in the shade. Winds were up to 54 mph in Santa Fé on Wednesday.
What’s blooming in the area: Austrian copper and Persian yellow roses, spirea, lilacs, purple flowered and black locusts, bearded iris, purple salvia, golden spur columbine, blue flax
What’s blooming beyond the walls and fences: Apache plumes, tansy and tumble mustards, hoary cress, fern leaf globe mallow, bindweed, white tufted evening primroses, alfilerillo, purple mat, western stickseeds, bractless cryptantha, fleabane, dandelions, goat’s beards, needle, rice, cheat, and June grasses
What’s emerging: Trees of heaven, Illinois bundle flower
What’s blooming in my yard: Woodsi rose, tulips, lily of the valley, Dutch clover, coral bells, vinca, pink evening primrose
What’s emerging: Desert willow, Saint John’s wort, perennial four o’clock
Animal sightings: Western chickadees, geckoes, cabbage and swallowtail butterflies, hornets, sidewalk and harvester ants; hear crickets
Notes on photographs:
1. Rosa woodsii, 13 May 2023; taken before the deluge. The flowers last a day, so it was not bothered by the hard rain later that day.
2. Russian thistles (Salsola tragus) at my driveway date, 11 May 2023, after the strong winds on Wednesday.
3. Same area on 14 May 2023, after the rain storm and two-and-a-half hours taking some thistles to the outside road.
4. Paths of water coming from my back porch on 14 May 2023 after the hard rain. It fell in the bricked area, flowed over in the area washed smooth, and from there of both sides of the light colored beauty bush trunk (Kolkwitzia amabilis). The lilac (Syringa vulgaris) to the right helped channel the water.
5. The water then moved through paths made bare by the drought. It moved around clumps of June grass (Koeleria cristata). The darker colors are good soil that has been dislodged.
6. Back fence, with brick used to terrace the slope. This is one place water broke through the dyke I had made.
7. The block walk that parallels ym fence with my uphill neighbor. On one side are wooden posts, and on the other the colored-concrete edging. A Saltillo tile is against the retaining wall. The walk begins tilting at the utility pole.
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