evan's ant village log

I think the arroyo suddenly coming to life was a surprise to just about everyone. I literally fell out of bed the first morning of the flood, to the sound of a waterfall!

That's a lot of water! It's so cool to see all the paths the water actually took as opposed to where I assumed/guessed it would go. Some places the creek backfilled a ways back up a secondary smaller draw and in other places it spread out or narrowed to a rapids. Walking up and down the now living creek offered countless surprises. One of the biggest surprises was seeing an actual pond in the pockmarked disturbance of a meadow we call Cat Pond.

Wow!  

Was snowpack similar to last year? I don't remember seeing anything like that last tear so I guess all your earthworks are coming into play!

Do you think any water will stick around or will it soak in pretty fast?

I hope everybody's house's feet are dry?

Holy crap that's a lot of water!  Thank you for the pictures Evan.  I would love a bunch more or my plot if you have the chance.  I also hope my shed floor stayed above the water, i definitely wont be parking anything down there over winter again.  It looks like that berm between Steve and i is holding back the flow and backing it up the draw.  It definitely looks like a proper dam and spillway is in order, gotta catch all that spring run off! Luckily, I'm going to get some training in dam and pond building during the ELI course this year.  

It looks like your pond is full to the top!  So awesome!  Time to have some dance parties as it dries out.  Im real curious to see how fast it dries up, especially that pond below my house.

It seems to me like we got more snow this winter than last, and it seems like our fall was wetter, and so far, spring has been rainier too. It's hard to say how long it will stick around, though I expect a lot to soak out through the too-steep sides of my ponds. The ducks are hard at work but they can only do so much. We just got a little solar pump to lift water up from the full and overflowing Dancing Lake, the lowest pond on Ava, up to the higher ponds. With any luck all the ponds on Ava will be full by the time the creek stops flowing. Surely then at least perhaps some of the ponds won't completely dry up by late summer...

Everyone's houses seem to have been built above the flood zone, but unfortunately, Jesse, your shed floor did get a little wet. Kai heroically pole-vaulted over to it and got your power tools off the floor though. Hopefully there wasn't too much damage. The berms backing the water up have eroded somewhat and now the shed floor is above water again, last I looked. I'll be sure to take lots more pics of your plot for you, Jesse!

We threw some rocks across the place where the water was leaving Ava, both to use as a bridge and also as a kind of filter to slow down and catch some of the debris and floaty stuff.

i would have never guessed this would happen. its a real miracle ! wish i could be there to check it out for myself but pictures are great to !i hope that we can use pictures of where the water is now for future reference on where the creek will be if we do bring it back permanently. thanks so much for the pics man !

Some more pictures of the living creek in ant village.

Excellent to see - you are recharging the aquifers, even if it all soaks in.  Your baby trees will be able to access it, encouraging their tap roots to go deep.  The process of transformation continues. . .