# Some days I walk across the pastures to see the river



## greybeard (Mar 29, 2016)

Some days, the river walks across the pasture and comes to see me.
The river is just beyond the farthermost trees in the distance.
Normal:






Note the 2 gates in this picture--it is the same location as the last pic in this post.










2 weeks ago:



















Closest it has ever come to the house, but it would have had to rise another 6' vertically to get in the house. It came up in less than 8 hours, overnight Thursday night. By Sat night, it was all gone.  Worst flooding here since late '80s


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## Latestarter (Mar 29, 2016)

Wow, impressive. Glad it didn't rise 6' more. Hope no loss of animals trapped behind fencing and such.


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## Mike CHS (Mar 30, 2016)

Glad everything turned out well.  There has been some strange weather this year and last or so it seems.


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## samssimonsays (Mar 30, 2016)

Wow, hopefully everything stays normal now. The weather has been crazy here too. We have had 3 occurrences already where the barn has flooded.


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## Ferguson K (Mar 30, 2016)

That's to close for comfort! Glad everyone was okay!


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## greybeard (Mar 30, 2016)

it was surreal, to wake up that fri morning, on a clear day and see all that water where there had been just dry land the sunset before. Another thing I just couldn't get used to all day, is seen in the last picture--that whitish line at the far edge of the water. Just beyond that, is a paved farm to market road, which had water coming over it from the forest beyond it. The water hit an old hog wire (woven wire) fence and it became clogged with leaves and other debris on the lower 1/3 of it, with the water cascading over the top of the debris in a long waterfall--I could hear the constant noise of that waterfall all day long from my back porch about 1000' away. It's why I use only individual strand fences, barbed wire or high tension slick wire on all my fences. In a flood, a woven wire fence would never hold up--the water behind the clog would lay the whole fence over or at least lean it over a lot. Being on the same property since 1965, ya learn a few things. And no, we lost no livestock--cattle are pretty smart and head for high ground. I'm sure tho, that most of my big catfish are now gone from my ponds.


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## Latestarter (Mar 30, 2016)

Well, you can always hope to have picked up some large bass and maybe some crappie to replace what you lost. Do you have gators there?


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## greybeard (Mar 30, 2016)

Latestarter said:


> Do you have gators there?


Sometimes, but they just seem to 'disappear' not long after they show up.





Same way the colony of these critters did earlier this year:








Get some of these too, and they too just seem to go 'poof' and disappear.




We have a process here, of dealing with unwanted critters, and the state law is on our side.





(that's my wife on the far end with the 300 blackout.)

and a different day and different crowd a month before


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## Ferguson K (Mar 30, 2016)

Was that yote snake bit?


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## frustratedearthmother (Mar 30, 2016)

I was wondering that too...


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## Baymule (Mar 30, 2016)

You must be on the San Jancinto River. My sister used to live on the San Jancinto River outside of Conroe, but a flood in 1994 got into the second story of her house and did so much damage, the house wasn't safe to live in any more. So they bought another house on the northwest side of Conroe.....close to the San Jancinto River......and it has flooded too.

Your place is beautiful, sorry about your big catfish.


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## greybeard (Mar 31, 2016)

Your sister lived on the West Fork San Jacinto--I live on the East Fork. Both forks converge south East of US 59 right before Lake Houston. There are no dams on the E. fork, but when Lake Conroe gets high, they open the flood gates to avoid flooding all those high dollar subdivisions and the excess water backs up into and slows down the flow of the East fork,  which is probably what happened in this latest instance. Not much on East Fork except National forest and a few places like mine, so the SJ River Authority doesn't care how much water they send my way.


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## greybeard (Mar 31, 2016)

Dunno if the coyote had been shot in th leg, snake bit, or been caught in a trap, but I put the poor thing down--he couldn't walk and looked as if he was starving to death. 
Been snakebit myself (copperhead) a few years ago, and my leg was swollen within 10 minutes--whole thing turned black for about 4 days and foot and ankle never did fully go back to it's normal size. Most painful thing I ever endured--worse than the lightning that hit me when I was 16.
Just a note on snakes and canines: 
My vet always told me, if one of the dogs got snakebit, especially in the face or chest, to get as much liquid Benadryl down them as quick as possible to keep their airways and lung passages open, then haul butt to the vet with them.
Bit in the foot, they usually survive on their own.


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## Ferguson K (Mar 31, 2016)

Four of my animals were snake bit on the leg last year. The only one I had trouble with was the old man, they almost lost two toes to it. Vet tthinks maybe it was a timber rattlesnake. He was the only one we took to the vet also.


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## TAH (Mar 31, 2016)

How sad. That is a lot of snake bites in one year. We live in Oregon and the only snakes we see are gardener snakes.


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## Ferguson K (Mar 31, 2016)

We Texans have a smorgasbord of snakes.

Coral snakes, rattlesnakes, garter snakes, Kinsnakess, rat snakes, water moccasin, copperhead, and so much more just in my backyard alone. I'm sure I'm missing some. ..


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## TAH (Mar 31, 2016)

Does not sound like fun.


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## Baymule (Mar 31, 2016)

My mule stomped a coral snake to death. The horses shied away from the dead snake like it was still alive and going to bite them. The mule was proud of her dead snake and wanted me to see what she had done. She basically hates everything that isn't a horse.


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## greybeard (Apr 1, 2016)

TAH said:


> Does not sound like fun.


Ehh, not so bad, and--it helps to keep the riffraff out.


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## Mike CHS (Apr 1, 2016)

We have the usual poisonous snakes but they usually stay away from us and we stay away from them.  My wife is the most capable woman I have ever met but she wants nothing to do with snakes. With that being said she has an arrangement with a very large Kingsnake that lives in our garden shed.  He agreed to not move fast when she's around and she always looks where she is putting her feet.


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## Baymule (Apr 1, 2016)

greybeard said:


> Ehh, not so bad, and--it helps to keep the riffraff out.


I just got a mental picture of a No Trespassing sign, WARNING!!! GUARD RATTLESNAKES ON DUTY!!


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## greybeard (Apr 18, 2016)

Looks like we're going to do this again. 8.52" of rain here since 1 am, and no let up in sight.
 from PWS station about 6 miles away from me:
64.9 °F
Feels Like 64.9 °F
4.0 mph
Wind from ENE 
Gusts 4.9 mph
Dew Point: 57 °F
Humidity: 76%
Precip Rate: 1.49 in/hr
Precip Accum: 8.52 in
Pressure: 29.73 in

Daylight may show me something I really don't want to see. 
NWS:
_at 432 am CDT... Doppler radar and automated rain gauges indicated
thunderstorms producing heavy rain across the warned area. 4 to 7
inches of rain have fallen with areas of 6 to 16 inches of
rainfall. Flash flooding is on going._


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## Mike CHS (Apr 18, 2016)

Wow - I don't envy you this week.


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## frustratedearthmother (Apr 18, 2016)

Hang in there Greybeard - from your neighbor south of Houston...

Hoping all of us Texicans don't float away today!


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## Latestarter (Apr 18, 2016)

Hope it's no worse than the last time. At least it didn't make it to your home then. Hoping for the best for all you folks getting over watered.


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## greybeard (Apr 18, 2016)

For the first time ever, we're trapped on to the property. 3 ways out and they're all under water, but house is 5' above grade and livestock all on high ground. It has slacked off considerably, so maybe later I can get out in truck and get to town for milk, bread, coffee and some ice cream. Gonna be an interesting week fer sure.


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## Baymule (Apr 18, 2016)

Houston got hammered by 16" of rain. My great-niece lives in the Cypress area, has a foot of water in her house, my other great-niece, living along the Southwest Freeway, moved her car to the top of the parking garage, lives on the second floor of her apartments and the first floor is taking water. The whole city is practically shut down. My niece is not flooded, but cannot get out of her subdivision.

@frustratedearthmother I hope you are ok and may the rain be kind to you. @greybeard don't forget the brownie mix!


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## frustratedearthmother (Apr 18, 2016)

We're hanging in!  The biggest part of it was north of us most of the night.   When I went out at 5am to feed this morning, we'd only had a trace of rain despite strong winds, lightening and thunder all night.  Can't say that now....we've probably had about 5 inches since 6am. 

 Hospital where DH works sent all 'non-essential' personnel home.  Every school district around us is closed except us... geeze.

Everybody knows somebody who is flooded, or stranded or worse.  This is bad.....


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## Ferguson K (Apr 18, 2016)

Prayers too all of you stranded.


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