Storm

Yesterday afternoon as I was posting to the blog there was a tremendous rainstorm that ended up dumping 3 inches of rain in our neighborhood! Other parts of town got no rain. But we got to see the arroyo in action at last! Jake ventured out in his Australian duster early on and reported that there was a small channel of water in the arroyo. Ten minutes later he said the water was all the way across the arroyo, and five minutes after that when I went out the water was rushing down in huge muddy waves! I suited up in my rain gear and sandals and we walked over to the bridge to marvel at it. Water was pouring in from all sides and the road in front of the house was awash in mud since it turns out there's a blocked culvert up the road.

The backyard was also completely flooded and we watched as muddy water poured over the stone retaining wall in a few places. So much for the nice mulch job that had been done this spring. It was enlightening though in terms of planning future landscaping.

After it finally stopped raining the water in the backyard disappeared within an hour and there's a photo of the arroyo an hour later with just ribbons of water running through it.

This morning we were going to walk up the arroyo, but the mud hasn't dried out yet. We rode our bikes up the road along the arroyo to the next bridge up though. That bridge has very small culverts and they were completely blocked by debris (see photo). Water and mud washed over that bridge probably making it impassable for a while last night.