rain, rain, go away!

while we generally beg for more water in california, we have surpassed our average for the year and it is time to send the rain packing for a few months. it has been a wet week in the santa cruz mountains. today is the first day without rain in over a week. not just rain, torrential rain! since march 18th, we have had THIRTEEN inches of rain...5.5 inches in the last three days. the river gage, which we keep a very close eye on during heavy rains, looks like a see-saw these days. That red line on the graph indicates official flood stage for the san lorenzo river in our neighborhood and is also the river height when the fire department orders mandatory evacuations for us and our neighbors. we crossed that line on thursday afternoon (while i was flying home from south carolina) but the river level dropped before we got any water in our garage. a few neighbors had water in their yards, but nothing more than a nuisance. pete and cassie stayed put and evaluated the situation with the neighbors rather than leaving. living in a flood prone neighborhood definitely keeps you on your toes!



the roads around santa cruz did not fare so well in all these storms. we were nearly trapped in felton yesterday...three of our four routes to santa cruz were closed due to landslides and tree falls and the fourth was down to one lane. it took us an hour to drive five miles. had we known, grocery shopping could definitely have waited!


the forecast for the week is calling for dry, warm weather. welcome spring!