In which the rain-rain-rain comes down-down-down in epic, wet, quantities

Sing with me!

Wintertime

And the swimmin' is easy.

Fish are jumpin

And the water is hi-iiiiigh

Oh, your daddy, he Splish

And your mama's a-Splash-in

 So hush, little baby

Don't you cry.

Oh, one of these mornings

You're gonna rise up swimming.

Spread your webby-toes

and you'll head for the (Swamp)

But until that morning

There's a-nothing can harm you

With daddy and mammy

treadin' water nearby.

This morning when I went outside (with my new camera in my pocket) I was very surprised to find a creek running down the side of our property.  Our property has never had a creek before.

Uh-oh.

My first thought was that a well-pipe had cracked, and was gushing.  The amounts were surely too copious for rain runoff....right?

I turned off the the well pump, and waited half an hour...and the gushing didn't stop.  Thus, I deduced that it wasn't wasn't the well.  If not the well, then, what? 

I tracked the water gushing further uphill.  An artesian spring?  My experience with artesians is pretty much limited to a short series of very humorous beer commercials from the early 1980's.  If you're from the Swamp region (and you're old enough), you will remember the Olympia Brewery's artesians:

Then, I heard a car drive by on the road above the house.  Hmmm.  Cars don't normally make a gigantic splash sound on that part of the road.   Hmmm.

I walked up to the road to look....and saw Linda and Greg's driveway.   Hmmmm. 

When did they get a small river installed in their driveway?   Hmmm.

Fortunately (sort of), the water wasn't coming from a burst pipe from their well...it's coming (sort of) from a burst pipe in God's well. 

The whole dang mountain  is shedding water. 

Jim came home from work early to suss the situation.  He found super-saturated soil all the way up the hill, high above Linda and Greg's house (their driveway rises at steep 11+ degrees, and currently has a gully washed out of the middle from the little river), and both directions up and down the road.  The water is passing over and under the road--probably compromising it. The ditches are full--they didn't get mowed or scraped last summer. 

Jim called the county to alert them, and was promised that "they'd have a crew look at it."  I'll believe that when I see it...meanwhile, could everyone please think cool, dry, non-windy thoughts  for a few days, please?

I like Linda and Greg just fine, but I don't think I want their house to slide down into my front yard!

Sigh.

Life is...well, it's interesting, isn't it?

p.s.  apparently, our house is protected by french drains, probably installed when the house was put here...the gravel under the sills is DRY.  If you ever wondered if the high expense of installing drainage would ever be worth it, my experience would indicate a resounding "YES."