January 27... How High's the Water, Mama?

This area of Texas has been in a drought situation for along time now.  When we were here last year there were wild fires.... in fact, as we were driving back from Granbury one afternoon the smoke on the horizon indicated that there was a wildfire fairly closeby.  A state park and a housing area near Mineral Wells were threatened and had damage.

Bill & I have been back in the area a week now.  I think it rained at least 3 of those 7 days.  It had already been raining 2 days before we bought a rain gauge...  and by then we thought the rain had stopped.  But Bill set it up and that night we got 1/2" more rain.

On Saturday we took the back way into Glen Rose.  Since the water level is often quite low, they don't bother to build bridges across the rivers and creeks on the county roads.

This is a typical river crossing ...  it had already been raining the day before so the water was a little higher than usual.

Another crossing...  these can be slick with mud, but usually aren't very deep and crossing is fairly easy...  even with our little Scion.

It continued to rain... all weekend....  and the rivers and creeks continued to rise...

By the time I took this picture, the water on the Paluxy River (here) had already gone down about two feet. The county had closed the safety gate across the road.

As we drove along the county roads we could see that the farm ponds were full to overflowing.  Creeks that we barely knew existed were running full steam... (or full stream?)

This road is about a mile from Celeste's house...  what water there usually is would run through a culvert under the road...  The creek was so full it was overflowing.  You can see the debris on the road where the water had been higher, but had receded by the time we drove through.

Celeste and Victor live on a tract of land about 5 miles from Glen Rose - just far enough in the boonies that they have no traffic, no neighbors, plenty of open land with wildlife...  but close enough to make a quick run to the grocery when needed.  A creek runs behind their house and although you can't see it unless you take a short walk, you can hear it if it's running high.

Bill & I could easily hear it several minutes before we reached it on our walk the other day.  Again, usually it is just puddles of water here and there along the stream bed.  After all the rain...

it was moving right along! 

Here's Bill standing high on the bank overlooking the stream. 

Further downstream, the creek bed becomes even rockier...

Looks like Niagara Falls, doesn't it?  I like this picture because it also shows the juniper trees (hardly more than bushes), the oaks, and shrubs indigenous to this area.  There is even a prickly pear cactus at the lower left corner.

Looking the other direction, the stream bed narrows again...

and continues it's way to the river.

I think the rain is over for now...  the sun is shining brightly and the rivlets of water in the yard are receding.  I hope this rain has relieved the drought situation.  And I hope it came in time to nurture the beautiful spring wildflowers that need the rain to grow.

That's all for Today....