Heading For Higher Ground

If this isn’t the exact wording of the old saying, I think it should be…Those who procrastinate my drown. Or at least that is the case of our current weather system pattern.

I had been cheerily thinking I would meander down to the spawning niches to spy a few Coho at their glorious finest, but I procrastinated and a strong storm series moved ashore bringing a good amount of rain with a little warmer weather. The field of snow we could see coating the clearcut area in the Coast Range above Timber was melted in the overnight pelting. All of a sudden, finding dry spaces becomes the norm rather than romping around enjoying the mild-ish weather.

The river went from being able to see the bottom along with any returning Coho from the ocean, to running at the highest level so far this fall. The water is turgid and boiling with mud and debris swiftly churning as it goes past the farm in a flurry.

Instead of river gazing, I spent the day inside the barn where I could work with a roof over my head, but I noticed that I was not the only one looking for drier ground. Dozens of earthworms had made their way onto the cement and were congregating about midway inside the large flooring of the barn. By the time they worked their way across the dusty cement they were coated and nearly twice the size they were when outside slogging through the mud.

I didn’t expect to be harvesting and flinging earthworms as part of my work routine, but it would be this or spending the day stepping on them as I move around my work station making firewood bundles. Along with the worms, I did find a small tree frog drying out, he did not like the idea of a photo or flinging and headed back to the very wet pasture without my intervention.

A big Atmospheric River is going to be slamming into California and the Sierra Mountains in the next day or so bringing possible mudslides and flooding to the area that had been experiencing drought and fires the last years. The system is so big that it may continue to us and higher toward Canada before lessening its moisture release.