Nice soft spring rain

[897tgigvib]

It cooled off some yesterday and clouded up. This morning it began a nice soft rain, about 10:00 now, and 55.4 degrees. It's a very good thing. Though all the sunshine lovers don't much like it, we need the rain. Off with the summer shorts, back on with the jeans, long sleeves, and sweater. Great excuse to stop raking for awhile.

The Beans all seem happy in it, everything does. This kind of rain will probably mean 47 degrees tonight and 55 degrees most of the day. That's pretty good after all those years in Montana.

 

[Stubbornhillfarm]

That's actually my favorite kind of day Marshall. Enjoy! I love the rain.

 

[curly_kate]

I usually appreciate the rain, but on Weds, we broke ground on our new house. A giant hole was dug for the foundation, the footers were poured, and a layer of gravel was poured. Then, starting Sunday morning it rained. And rained. And rained. I went out and checked the rain gauge this morning - just a hair shy of 3"! Looks like the contractor is going to have a considerable amount of dirt to dig out before he can continue pouring concrete. :/

 

[baymule]

Sounds like a nice day Marshall! We have had weird weather, record breaking cool/cold temps for this time of year. Run the heater at night and turn on the AC in late afternoon. Gheesh. Poor plants don't know what to do.

Curly_kate, it always seems to pour when you least want it to. I hope you get all dried out and can continue on your house. Start a thread and post pics!!

 

[curly_kate]

Baymule - ain't that the truth! I only have 2 pics so far, but I'll definitely post them when I have a little more progress to show.

 

[bj taylor]

I love the sound of rain on the roof, especially at night when I can just lay in bed & listen. rain has become very scarce here. the new mojave

 

[897tgigvib]

The water board powers that be, Sonoma County Chamber of Commerce rich kids I think, who are on the water board did not raise the gates on our dam and the lake stayed at the same level during the rain. Meantime, Lake Sonoma is over 90% full. Pillsbury remains around 60%, and by what I've heard, Lake Mendocino is down to around 50%. It's one of the more complex water systems there is.

Lake Pillsbury, the lake where I live, is on the Eel River. Down stream from our dam here, called Scott dam, (a miniature Hoover dam that was built as a practice for the Hoover dam engineers), feeds down the Eel river. About 15 miles downstream is a diversion dam, where some water continues down the Eel, but other water enters a 4 mile long tunnel made of Redwood conduit back around 1915, sunken underground, and it goes to the main start of the Russian river, which eventually supplies water for Sonoma County. It does that by first going down the upper Russian river to Lake Mendocino to supply Mendocino county. From Lake Mendocino's spillway, the water goes down the main central portion of the Russian river to Lake Sonoma. That lake is also fed by some smaller streams, and is much larger, and feeds water to Sonoma County, even down to the north part of Marin county. Once filled back around 1980 after construction of the dam there, it has never gotten lower than 75% full, even during the worst drought years. They only feed enough trickle to keep the water inlets 15 miles downstream of it with enough water during those times, the rest held as some kind of huge reserve.

So why did they not raise the gates on our dam here at Lake Pillsbury? My best guess is the chamber of commerce folks don't want Lake Sonoma to become a bit unsightly. Tens of thousands of tourists go there. Meantime up here, with a few regular visitors...oh well. This is where the real beauty is though.

Before Scott dam was built around 1924, where lake Pillsbury now is stood a dusty little almost ghost town called Hullville, population 24 or so, mostly aging pioneers. It was where 2 forks of the Eel came together, along with a lot of other streams, and the groundwater then, and still is, awesomely flowing at a lot of places. Including springs that still flow that are under the lake, visible as occasional bubbles. It was a gravely valley that often flooded. During the Ice Ages it was a natural lake off and on.

=====

I sure enjoyed our little rain today. The ground darkened more colorfully, the moss greened, Hull Mountain stood pretty in the clouds, seeds sprouted in my garden, frogs made their croaking sounds, Lizards were hiding somewhere...

 

[digitS']

Today has anything but a soft spring rain.

If it rains again tomorrow, it will be a summer rain! Too much wind. I shouldn't complain about the rain because this will help with the fairly dry conditions but I'm tired of there being so much wind and it is too cold. After noon now, 49f with wind gusts of nearly 30mph . . .

I will be taking a nap after lunch. Usually, I have lunch mid-morning before I go off and do something! I won't be able to fend off the nap, today. May as well get the Lazy-boy lined up with the teevee . . .

Stev . . . snore

 

[so lucky]

Sometimes it's a good thing when the weather prevents us from working. At least that's one time when you can relax without that little niggling feeling of "I oughta be doing something constructive right now." Besides, Steve, that lazyboy might be getting lonely.

 

[897tgigvib]

Someone bump digit. His snoring's waking the neighbors up! what's a good movie on youtube?