Catching Up: January 6-10, 2009

01/10/2009 Saturday: Light and heavy rain off and on all day.

My Mexican helpers didn't show up today. I think I'll have to call them.

Chas and I went into town to pick up some groceries. Shop n Kart was flooded but is expected to open tomorrow. We went to Grocery Outlet to do our shopping. I'm always amazed at how much I can buy there for so little money.

We hit the library and the used bread store (Franz). Chas was pretty much out of his favorite bread. I complimented the head librarian, Corinne, at the Chehalis branch of the Timberland Library. She encouraged the staff of the Chronicle to use the library as their staging ground while the Chronicle building was flooded. I am so proud of her. She sees the library as a community resource. It made it possible for the Chronicle staff to continue reporting on the flooding and related problems.

I made chili for dinner. It was pretty tasty. Hard to beat a good chili.

01/09/2009 Friday: An amazing day. Periods of cloudy skies with the occasional blast of sun. It's hard not to stop what you're doing and just admire the sunshine.

Hope Creek is down even further. Not quite normal flow for this time of year, but not overwhelming water either.

We were invited over to Sharon O's place for lunch. I had Chas leave earlier than I did because Pat M came by and we removed the two shelves on the huge river rock fireplace surround and hung Chas's wonderful redwood coffee table top. I had it covered with a sheepskin on the south wall in the living room under the window that looks over the gazebo and gazebo garden. I had it sitting on two card catalogs. I've wanted to hang the coffee table top because it is so beautiful. I needed a wall that was large enough and dramatic enough to set it off. The rock fireplace surround sure did set it off.

Lunch at the O's was terrific, brussel sprouts freshly picked, carrots from her garden and rotissery chicken along with homemade bread. It was delicious. Sharon took me on a tour of her new living quarters which she expects to occupy once the sink and bottom cupboards are in. It's a large lovely place with a great heater, essentially one large open room. We also toured the stalls and arena. There's still a lot to pick up after the flood of 2007. It's so hard to put a farm back together again once you've been flooded.

We didn't bother with dinner except to munch a few blue corn chips.

01/08/2009 Thursday: We got lucky last night. The water stayed in the creek. The water in the creek is still running fast this morning but nothing like it was running yesterday.

Charles and I put one bale of hay in with the Dexters and two into the collapsible feeder for the Herefords. I need to order more hay.

I'm hoping the road that my hay dealer lives on is not flooded and that his hay didn't get wet.

I wasn't expecting Sherry this morning because her back yard got flooded as did some of her fields. One of her fence sections is down and will have to be repaired. She was able to lure the calf I sold her to a field that hadn't flooded with grain. She said the water was chest high on him when they finally got him moved.

The creek is way down now, at least 8-10 inches less than it was last night. That's good news since it means that we will not likely have a wet basement. It's nice not to have to listen to the creek roar by the house.

We headed out to visit with Mary and Gary N. Both of us were getting stir crazy and we wanted out. We had a great visit. Gary's pond overflowed and the water came across his west field, across his garden (likely removing the chicken manure he's just put on the garden, and dropped into a large, landscaped ditch that has a culvert at the end that empties into the Chehalis River.

Highway 6 was closed near Pe Ell. Highway 12 is closed due to mudslides. Randall is completely cut off. Carnation and Snoqualami are flooded. Sedro Wooley was hit pretty badly as the snow melted under the rain. And they got lots of rain. Sedro Wooley is where my friend Susie H lives and raises her Dexters. Her farm is where my Dexters came from.

Dinner was bangers and mash. I made garlic potatoes instead of plain potatoes. We'll have to go pick up some more sausages (bangers) from our source at Francis Meats.

01/07/2009 Wednesday: Yucky weather today. It rained all night and is still raining at 9:30 this evening. We've been keeping a close eye on Hope Creek. It rose to within about 12 inches of the bank but seems to have fallen a little.

I guess Randal and Chehalis are being inundated. I-5 is closed down from Napavine to north of Centralia. There have been mud slides. Sedro Woolley where Susie lives was hit with more rain than we got. I think she's on higher ground so she should be ok.

We got a little water in the basement. The window in the pantry leaked into the pantry and through the wall into the guest bedroom. The window well is filling up with water. We'll have to put up a cover for days when we're experiencing a "pineapple express" weather pattern. We've never had water in the pantry before.

I'm so glad I didn't remodel the basement. When I do it will be with wicker furniture and reed/mat carpets, things I can easily move to higher ground.

The animals are doing fine but the cows are wet from standing out in the warm rain.

The bump on my right arm is still swollen up but is gradually disappearing. Imagine, it was 2 months ago that I got hit by the hay ring.

We had three occurrences of power outages but only for a few minutes at a time. Thank heavens as I was able to cook dinner with no problem.

Dinner was hot noodles.

01/06/2009 Tuesday: Cool, overcast and rainy. Most, but not all of the snow has disappeared. Hope Creek is still up, but not as much as it was a couple of days ago. It's still hard to tell that the days are getting longer. My weather feature says that significant amounts of rain are expected and that some areas will flood.

Dena and Tammy showed up today to drop off some knitting and cross stitch books and magazines. I gave Dena two really nice knitting books that I had duplicates of.

Got my UW email beat down to 2 messages.

Dinner was leftovers: chicken, green beans and corn bread. Chas put the dry ingredients together. I added the wet ingredients and cooked the cornbread. Dinner was really good.