It started raining the day after my last post, and it rained and rained. Thursday it poured rain, and I stayed in the house (except to feed the deer and to walk to the mailbox when it let up for a while).
Below is water running in my “water feature.” It channels water from one of the ravines above the house and is usually dry.
The intermittent stream next to my road that is usually no more than a trickle was full enough to overflow its banks in a few places.
With over six inches of rain in the Hollow so far this month, the meadow is a mess. The ravine that runs on one side became a large stream on Thursday.
When I next rambled, the river was very high…
and roaring!
The rain was ushered in by heavy winds, and the Hollow had at least one downed tree and a small landslide. The road used by the neighbors in Dark Hollow (on the other side of the ridge) was flooded, and they had to come through the field and use our roads. (This is the gate where I take the photos at the end of each post; you’ll see the gate in the ones in this post.)
On the rainiest mornings the deer stayed hunkered down somewhere, which meant I didn’t “wade” down to feed them. When I went down Thursday afternoon (after the rain eased up a bit), I could see that fallen branches and brush had dammed the water in the flooded ravine and made some large puddles. I didn’t see deer until after I got back up to the house. Then I watched as several of them came down from the woods and jumped over the flooded ravine. Later I noticed some commotion near the ravine and laughed as I saw Bambi, Espy, and the other young deer playing in the big puddles. Unfortunately, it was too far away for me to get a good video, but it looked a lot like this one posted by Atlanta’s WSB-TV:
The rain finally ended—-or paused (more expected beginning Monday)—and it was 21° when I got up this morning. The meadow was frozen in some places and still muddy in others. (I think there must be at least one “wet weather” spring in the meadow.) The deer were happy to see me (and my bucket of feed and apples).
I just walked down to feed them this afternoon, and they were ready to eat (especially Bambi!). You can hear Tom the turkey pecking in a pan behind me.
Snow was forecast for this afternoon, so I walked in the morning. It was still cold, and I thought these ice crystals in a muddy bank were interesting. I hope you do, too!
It was snowing when I started writing this post several hours ago (hence the title), but it didn’t stick. And I’m not going to stick around any longer, either. 🙂 I’ll post again soon!
French Broad Hollow Ramble 