"THE FLOOD OF 2008"

Hey, if the Weather Guessers can get away with such titles I should be able to as well. Everything and everyone survived. The water has receded and all the critters are happily back out on pasture. I feel a bit like the old fiddler with the leaky roof. Can't fix it when it's raining and it doesn't need fixing when it's not. I'm talking about the ditch that runs through my pasture and the culvert at the far end. Apparently I have two problems (I'm sure there are those of you out there who would say I don't know how to count if I can only come up with two), in my pasture. First, we are located at the bottom of Spring Mountain. It didn't get it's name for the season. Water, like other things, flows down hill, and leave my pasture saturated a few inches below the surface most of the year. That doesn't give new amounts of rain anywhere to go. Second, the ditch. It is supposed to channel the water from the culvert at the top of the pasture (the culvert that diverts all the run off from 3/4 a mile of hill side into my pasture) across the pasture and through a second culvert leading to the larger drainage ditch on the edge of the neighbors corn field. The ditch, hand dug some 30 years ago, has mostly filled in and doesn't really channel much water. Add to that the culvert at the far end, a pathetic 6" culvert that is at least half full of silt, and you will understand why we occasionally flood. The plan is to replace the whole ditch with a 10" pipe and a pond, but that is a few years down the road. Up until this past week, we haven't had any real problems. Early in the spring that part of the pasture floods, but all the critters are well up on the hill, and not effected. This year... Unfortunately, I cant get in there with any equipment to fix it until the ground dries out considerably. Bu then I won't need to fix it because we will be passed the rains and I'll be tempted to save the time and money for more important things. Someone should remind me to look back at these past few posts and get the job done.