The upper lake (Kerr Lake) is a flood control lake with hydro being it's secondary purpose. Gaston (your lake) is a "run of the river lake," meaning it should be at a constant level. Ever notice the picnic tables at Kerr are made from steel and concrete? This way, after water goes down, they will be in same place as before flooding. Once when lake was up, I watched a guy catch a 26 pound stripper that was lurking under a flooded picnic table. All winter over at Jordan dam they have been letting out water. It goes down sluiceway about 3 feet deep at around 40 MPH, to under cut a wall of water that is about 15 feet high. The water is 15' high as that is how full river below dam has to be to handle volume of water being released from the dam. Friday wife and I went to neighboring town. The creek lacked about a foot of coming over roadway In less than an hour road was under water. Google pictures of fish on I-40 after hurricane Florence.
I remember seeing the fish on 40, on TV. My Wife is from down that way. She has an Aunt who had water above the floor into their house, near the Black River, from Floyd. The house was rebuilt. Florence put water up into the rafters. They decided to move to higher ground.
I used to do a lot of sailboat racing on Kerr. There were more than a few times when we launched without leaving the parking lot.
I greatly dislike the muddy mess we have every spring for three weeks or so, but not having the horrible snow accumulations of some areas, and not having the very hot summers of some places are worth the trade off. In a few weeks the ground will thaw out and the moisture will drain normally and we won't have a 6 inch layer of soft gook everywhere. I can't drive the tractor off the driveway or it sinks in 6 to 8 inches and leaves terrible ruts. Last year was rainy, second greatest rain fall on record with no tropical storms to contribute. What is extremely off, is that things did not grow as well. Corn and soybeans rotted on the stalk before they could be harvested. Crop farmers had one of the worst years. Hay is scarce. Too wet too long to make hay last summer. I have been cutting hay and baling it up the same day. I can feed it immediately and save the hay in the barn. Just that now it is too wet to get into the field to cut. I have three weeks supply of hay and the grass grows enough that I do not have to feed come about mid April. So I just have to cut enough to get though a few additional weeks.
So now we have high winds, 50 to 60 miles per hour. On top of the very wet ground, trees are coming down all over the county, Closing roads, knocking out power, etc. I have to check fences for downed trees 3 or 4 times per day. Had to pull a few branches off the fence a couple hours ago.
I can easily get stuck in my fields even with the little Kubota 4WD utility truck, not because of sinking deep in the ground but because of the gentle slope and topsoil like grease. However, in front of my horse shelter the horses are walking through 6" of mud since I can't get in there to fix it. I plan do do what a friend did at his place where the cows were almost getting stuck last year - when it got dry enough he scraped all the goop off down to the hard soil, then put down gravel over geotextile. He said he did a 100'x25' area by the barn and this year it's still like a paved road. He said it wasn't cheap but it worked so well he's planning on doing a bigger section this year.
He said he didn't get serious about fixing it until the day his wife got stuck walking across and had to be rescued.
JKJ
From January to March is the rain season here in Sao Paulo state, Brazil. Lots of rain, strong winds and, above all, thunders. Lots of them.
Some flood and a few slides are common. Typical temperatures between 20°C and 33°C...
Actually it is raining now... with lots of thunders!
Last edited by Osvaldo Cristo; 02-26-2019 at 1:48 PM.
I am in North central Kansas, and we are soaked here. Have enough hay to make it to April 15, no longer. It is so wet, no water soaks in anymore, and the ponds are full, so any rain or snow causes the crick to come up. Hope we get dry enough weather to put up hay this year, last year we got half a crop of hay, because the winter was so dry. But last winter was pleasant for me, cows like dry winters.
Around here - if you can walk in it, it's a crick or creek, if it has spots where the water is up over your waist and flows sort of quick, it's a stream. If it's over your head & is too wide to skip a stone across & it's flows at all - it's a river.
If it can catch fire - - it's the Cuyahoga River.....
& right now - it's 6 degrees F outside - too cold for snow...
If I didn't have a dentist appointment at 9:00, I'd drive over to Punxsutawney Pa. & beat a certain rodent to death with a Louisville Slugger......stupid thing said early Spring!! Ha!
Last edited by Rich Engelhardt; 03-05-2019 at 4:44 AM.
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." - John Lennon
It's been wet all Winter here in Eastern Virginia. Can't get my tractor out of the barn. A few weeks ago I needed to use my van and it wouldn't move more than 3 inches parked in the yard next to my barn. We are just barely above sea level so this much rain causes lots of problems, the good news is that I don't think I have seen more then ten snowflakes all Winter and the temperatures have been pretty mild. It's early for us this year but the grass/weeds are starting to grow, we normally start cutting grass about the third week of March every year. If I had to cut grass today my mower would sink in the mud and I have large puddles all over our yard, large enough to be a menace trying to walk from the house to my workshop. This has been a very strange Winter.
We're not getting the insane quantities of rain I see on the news for the eastern half of the country, but it does seem like SoCal is turning into Seattle: lately it's unusual to get two days in a row without measurable rain. As the saying goes, "we need the rain", but this just ain't normal.
Yoga class makes me feel like a total stud, mostly because I'm about as flexible as a 2x4.
"Design"? Possibly. "Intelligent"? Sure doesn't look like it from this angle.
We used to be hunter gatherers. Now we're shopper borrowers.
The three most important words in the English language: "Front Towards Enemy".
The world makes a lot more sense when you remember that Butthead was the smart one.
You can never be too rich, too thin, or have too much ammo.
Flagstaff AZ Had 33 " of snow a week or so ago and all that melts and flows threw my back yard plus we had lots of rain a moth or so back so the rivers been running for over a month and no end in sight. So I have river front property for a while.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wiNcM94G3s
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Rabbit RL_XX_6040-60 watt Laser engraving/cutting machine Oh wait its a 3D Printer my bad LOL
Lasercut 5.3
CorelDraw X5
10" Miter Saw with slide
10" Table Saw
8" bench mount 5 speed Drill Press
Dremel, 3x21 Belt Sander
There's a big bright thing up in the sky this morning...my neighbor said "it's the sun", but I have no idea what he's talking about.
Yoga class makes me feel like a total stud, mostly because I'm about as flexible as a 2x4.
"Design"? Possibly. "Intelligent"? Sure doesn't look like it from this angle.
We used to be hunter gatherers. Now we're shopper borrowers.
The three most important words in the English language: "Front Towards Enemy".
The world makes a lot more sense when you remember that Butthead was the smart one.
You can never be too rich, too thin, or have too much ammo.
The City of Lewiston, Idaho broke the local February snow record set in 1916. The announced new record total of 29.5" of snow in the local paper on the morning of February 28th. We did get more that night but I don't know if it came after midnight or before. Then the temperatures dropped. My wife was in Arizona and central California from February 19th until yesterday when she flew home. The total snow we had seen before she left was about 5" so over 2' of snow came in the last 9 days of the month. I know it seemed like every night I'd go to bed and the next morning I had to shovel a path to the mail box and my shop.
She measured 9" still on the ground yesterday afternoon after she got home.
Last edited by Ken Fitzgerald; 03-12-2019 at 10:31 PM.
Ken
So much to learn, so little time.....