Yep, we’re complaining about rain and weeds while those poor folks are grieving for lost and missing loved ones. It sure puts things into perspective, doesn’t it? My heart hurts for them so bad. We saw the power of flash floods when we lived in New Mexico. About half a mile from the house was a little creek. We often walked down to it so David could fish for sunfish in the pools. It was so small, you could jump across it. But one day it rained. Not by us, but a few miles away. Rained hard! Well, our peaceful little creek turned into a monster in just a few hours. We could hear it roar from the house. And, walking down to it, we saw it raging 10 feet over the normal banks, in huge, angry waves, carrying big trees downstream like so many matchsticks. Seeing that made me aware of the danger of building anywhere near a creek.
Even here, in Northern Minnesota, flash floods do, occasionally happen. As you’ve noticed, our house is built on a big rise, high above our little creek. Not by accident, I assure you!
I’m getting ready to mulch the peppers in the Sand Garden, after getting them weeded. Will has been busy getting ready for haying. Today, he’s working on our spare haybine (the one that caught fire!), after getting the primary haybine all ready to go. As soon as the weather has settled down, rain-wise, he’ll be off haying nearly every day. I’ll be keeping on weeding and weeding and weeding.
I had to laugh. A visiting family asked if we planted any flowers to attract pollinators to our gardens. Well, yes and no. Around every one of them are acres of clover, both medium red and alsike. The fragrance about knocks you down, it’s so sweet. The cows are up to their bellies in it. Yep, the pollinators sure love it too!
— Jackie
Jackie, thank you for your positive feedback
Hurrah the squirrels bought off corn growing taters hilled weed free!
I hate paying off squirrels, so they don’t eat our sweet corn but it’s the only thing that works. I’ve tried plastic owls, predator urine, flashing eyes and, of course, traps. The traps do work but usually we lose a lot of corn first. With the blackmail, we just lose some grain, at least.
Weeds, weather, success, failure…homesteading is a chosen conservative lifestyle of living as independently as possible, planning and preparing. It has nothing to do with politics (Thank God).
It only answers to mother nature, so we pray, we care for the land and others, we learn, we grow. I’ve done this for decades and will protect what is mine but know a tornado could end it in a day. These weather-related deaths in numerous states are heartbreakingly powerful, and we do not know when our day comes.
But thankfully, knowledge Jackie and others have shared will remain, and this lifestyle will always continue to grow and nurture us.
Erin, well said. Chosen lifestyle and prayers. Not politics. Having people like Jackie and will’ :family and friends who help one another.
I absolutely hate politics, especially today when this nation is so divisive about them and so hateful! I can only vote when the time comes. The rest of the mess, all we can say is to plant more beans and pray for the future.
I don’t equate conservative lifestyle with homesteading.
Jackie, You recommended 8 inches of mulch under Oregon Spring tomatoes, which I did using 2 yr old sterilized straw I bought. Well, back then turns out ‘sterilized’ means either grazon or glyphosate treated. I’m hoping this mulch will not hurt my plants. I never incorporate this straw mulch into the soil and do not irrigate through it.
I live in Texas very near the area that got the worst flooding. That area floods at times but it has never been like this flood. The camps in the area have been there for decades and never lost campers to flooding. There should be a better warning system in the area for sure. Alerts did go out ahead of flooding but you need to know it was around four in the morning and most people slept through the alerts. Police officers were going in person telling people to evacuate but the water rose so quickly it was impossible to reach most in time. If you aren’t here you can’t know all the circumstances. Finger pointing doesn’t help. But people from all over have stepped in to help and Texans are strong and will recover. No one will get over the loss of loved ones so we can only pray for them. I am very lucky. Even though we got over nine inches of rain in two days my home is high in the hills and had no flooding. The roads were closed for a bit and I was flooded in but living alone and being 77 I’ve learned to always be stocked up and prepared.
Joining in prayer with everyone for those lives lost in the floods and their grieving families. May God give continued strength to those searching for the missing. Let us all remember to love our neighbors as Jesus asked us to, whether we know them or not.
I agree with that. If folks would put as much energy helping others, there wouldn’t be so much darned hate in this country. Like my skin is a different color than yours, you’re of a different political party, a different nationality, I hate you. That’s so darned wrong!! We try to help others as much as we can and overlook our differences. But don’t put up with hate!!
Jackie and Will, You are keeping those gardens in great shape! No surprise there, its hours of hard work and dedication to supplying your own food. It is good to be able to see how the pros (You two) keep their gardens going. Texas floods are a horrible thing. So many young lives lost with no one to help them in their hour of need. As a parent I would never be able to forgive myself for allowing that to happen. When you see people built in areas where they are in the low ground, or with mountains all around them like in NC, you just have to wonder what they were thinking when they decided to build in those areas. Our lives are products of the decisions we make. Asking for heavenly guidance is a necessity. Those children are in Heaven now with the other innocent victims of the floods. God Bless them all.
In most states, counties, etc. they keep record of 100 yr flood zone and real estate informs you when buying property that you must build above that line. Your house must pass inspection concerning this. But this flood in Texas, I bet, was far above this line and never remotely expected. In 45 min. the river rose 26 feet; this is what I read. In New Mexico, simultaneously, pretty much the same thing happened.
Amen Elizabeth. A lot of people figure it will never happen to them. They buy what they can afford and live their lives. Then disaster strikes. Fires and mudslides in California, tornadoes, hurricanes and floods. It’s so sad but it does happen. And, more frequently today, often due to climate change screwing up the “normal” weather.
It’s the same reason a lot of folks fail to do any preparedness for emergencies. No, preparing wouldn’t have saved those poor people from the flash floods. But things like that are more rare than having long-term power outages, being snowed in, being trapped in place by road closures, losing a job, a pandemic or so on.
Jackie, Texas is beyond horrible. Searching for the bodies is beyond anything most people would be able to help. The recovery teams are heroes. I keep imagining Jesus scooping them up in his arms as those children and adults run to him. We all praying for the families.
I can’t even imagine the pain those recovery teams and the families of missing loved ones are going through. It’s just so horrible!
Everything looks so good in your gardens. Just wait until all the produce comes in!!!
We’re finally seeing some result from our work this spring. The new corn is up nicely, the ground squirrels have been bought off by putting piles of grain around the corn patches, the squash is starting to run and the potatoes are looking great, all hilled up and pretty weed-free. We’ve got tomatoes and peppers on the plants and we’re finally sighing in relief. But, still weeding like mad.
Glad to hear that the “chores” are moving along! Hard to keep up with it all here too but we keep at it like you do. Praying for those poor folks here too. It does put things into perspective. Best to you as the summer progresses Jackie and Will!
Thanks Wendy. We got a big rain yesterday and it seems like the plants are shooting up. So are the weeds, of course, but we’re slowly getting them under control. Kind of.
Yes, seeing the disasters that others are in, makes us realize our troubles are so tiny compared to theirs. Prayers for everyone.
That’s sure true. We feel so lucky to live where we do, be in good health and have a safe family.
While we’re “down hill” in our rural subdivision, it would never be a flash flood in our area that would be of concern. We are not in a “low lying” area. Plus better half has landscaped so any fast moving water is away from our house (also helped our elderly neighbor).
Those in flash flood alley in TX – penny wise and pound foolish. I would not have had my kids at camp over the 4th. Sorry – the emer plan for the camp was sub-par at best. Sorry for the poor kids – they had no say. The adults, well let me leave it at that.
I will be weeding Sunday/Monday (family time Fri-Sat). Something I will need to get my mind elsewhere (best cat ever did not care for asparagus or strawberries, though he knew we liked both).
Do you realize that Camp Mystic had been there since the depression? Are you aware that 2 days before this event, Camp Mystic was inspected and passed with flying colors, including emergency plans? For many families, it was a family tradition going to Camp Mystic. Look more at the county level. No emergency sirens. Also, their was poor notification of any problems coming.
Flying colors with ever weaker rules. An area named flash flood alley should give one pause. There are less and less houses on the river in my area as there is a pool of money to buy out the owner and put it back to green space. No rebuilding on a couple of islands that had houses on there since yes, the depression. Facts are facts – not a safe place for people to build much less live.
I really don’t blame anyone. It would have been a good idea for some folks to have a weather app on their phone, or some other warning device, but a person can always say “should have” after the disaster.
We’re awfully careful about everything but still, things happen. Will had a tractor roll down the hill and crash into our fence (could have run him over), the haybine caught on fire, I had a horse crash over backward into my lap. Could these have been prevented? Yep. Still, they happened. The disaster along the Guadalupe River happened and we pray daily for everyone out there and families missing their loved ones.