Monsoon Season

Well, we're getting a taste of what it's like to live in the tropical monsoon/typhoon part of the globe. Let's hear it for climate shift and global warming!!! The state posted its first hurricane warnings yesterday and the coast got hammered with winds over 100 mph...no point in trying to get there from here right now. It's either trees across the road, mud slides, or flooding. I ended up at midnight last night hanging from tree roots in a near vertical slope, clawing rocks out of a canyon stream with my 80 year old sheep buddy David. The stream had blocked up and diverted across the slope to come straight down on his house and shop. We got it back into its bed before he got too much water inside, but that was some wild scramble believe me. We figured with the two of us, one of us would be able to get help if the other fell in. But we survived (David went down the hill on his butt but no damage). Then ...heck it was after 1 AM...we strolled down the bike path to see what the new Johnson Creek flood project (on David's old family homestead) looked like. At 4 PM it was about two feet short of flooding. At 1 AM the entire huge 30 acre area was solid water. No ground showing at all. This is a worst case scenario, since nothing has had a chance to grow, they just ripped the ground and seeded it a month ago and the grass has barely sprouted. Look out Willamette...here comes a LOT of silt and young trees your way. It will be interesting to see what old Johnson Creek decides about where IT wants to run after this is over. I'm heading back over there around noon, when the creek is supposed to crest to take some pictures. It may be up to the bike path by then. Maybe I should take a boat?