Friday Foto: Still Raining

Just to put this picture in perspective. The creek is on the left. There used to be a 15' bank to a cheery little creek meandering through the willows where the coyotes would come to drink. The water looks to be at least 10' deep, if not more. The wide plain of water between the creek and the paddocks is where we stood to take pictures of Ashke with Liz. Just off camera to the right is a gravel road that runs from the main parking lot between the Indoor Arena and the Main Barn to the upper paddocks.

This is the other side of the creek. You can see the gravel road leading from the parking lot to the upper paddocks. This swath of water is where a low grazing area used to be. Now, it is raging stream.

That edge you can see is what used to be a drop off into the canal. There has to be fifteen feet of water there. And a drain pipe. And there used to be a small dirt pathway between the lower creek and the upper pond, which is lined with cattails and some old cottonwood trees.

Thankfully, all of the horse paddocks are on high ground and the horses are all safe. Ashke and Cali are bedded down in their stalls, and although I'm sure Ashke is a bit bored not being able to play with Fool or Pearl, he is healthy, dry and safe. N says that his run is pretty decent too, which makes me feel good about putting the squeegee in his run.

This is where the road used to be going to the upper paddocks. I'm very curious how they are getting hay from the hay barn up there and dropping the shavings/stall muck onto the muck pile which is at the upper end of the property. The water to the right has to be eight or nine feet deep.

And then you have this. A poor little lost crayfish on the parking lot instead of in his stream, like he should be.

I am having mental issues with figuring out why this whirlpool is happening in the middle of this pool of water. There has to be a drain down there that is emptying onto the other side of the gravel road. Although the other side of the gravel road is the very first picture I posted, so I'm not sure how the water is moving fast enough to cause a whirlpool. Curious.

We are, thankfully, dry and safe at home. Our condo is on a hill and with the improvements to the building that were completed 18 months ago, there is no accummulation of water in our crawl space. The dogs aren't happy with the rain, they definitely prefer snow, but other than that we are doing great. I think our rain total is over 10" for the city of Thornton.

Unfortunately, the rain is predicted to continue until Monday. The small town of Lyons was completely evacuated by the National Guard this morning, Hwy 34 from Loveland to Estes Park has lost it's road in two places, which does not bode well for getting to Estes Park. The only way in or out of Estes is over Trail Ridge road, I've been told. Hopefully, there will be no snow until the access roads up are fixed. Estes Park has gotten 15" of rain in the past two days. At one inch of rain per 10" of snow, they could have had 12.5 FEET of snow, had this storm come when it was a tad bit colder.

Boulder is under heavy flooding. The pictures coming out of there make me very happy J and I haven't pursued our dream of living in Boulder. Boulder has gotten at least 15" of rain as well.