Pictures

Do you remember the roadwork we had done last October? It included digging a deep ditch by the side of the road. The idea was water pouring off the mountain would flow down the ditch to the entrance of the culverts under the road. The road would be protected.

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Saturday’s micro-deluge filled the ditch with mud and rocks and buried the entrance to three of the culverts — water, rocks and mud ran down the road instead. Notice the ditch is gone.

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X marks the spot where the entrance to one of the culverts is buried.

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Andy, Beate and Tim moved the biggest rocks off the road, but you can see what a mess the water made.

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The gully in the center of this picture is about a foot deep.

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So, the rainy season has just begun but we already have to bring in heavy equipment. We don’t mind saying that makes us nervous. Wish us luck!


 

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8 Responses to Pictures

  1. Alan G says:

    Wow… indeed that looks to be quite a large project. You certainly have my best wishes and hope everyone stays safe and things go pretty well for them.

    • Jean says:

      Unfortunately last year we had to repair the road several times. In addition to the ditch, we installed bigger culverts in some spots. We put stakes in front of the culverts so they no longer get filled with big rocks and debris, but branches will get stopped by the stakes and other debris will then build a dam in front of the culverts. The the water, rocks, mud and debris fill up the trench and spill over to the road, washing part of it away and leaving a mess. If we don’t dig out the ditches and allow water to flow though the culverts, there will be more serious erosion when it rains again.

      By “we” I mean Andy and Orlando. I just give my blessing and write the posts.

  2. Rummuser says:

    I wish you all the best always, but it looks as though it will take a few more years for the top soil to stabilise with green so that such land falls do not take place.

    • Jean says:

      Of course, in some spots the top soil is washing down — that mud is coming from somewhere. Farther along the road the vegetation is coming back nicely, so we don’t expect as many problems. When they built the road causing the problems Andy warned it was an ecological disaster and a maintenance nightmare. They built it anyway and closed the route we had been taking. That was in the 1980’s, and we were lucky for years — until the fire.

  3. bikehikebabe says:

    Mother Nature at work again!

  4. tammyj says:

    did you ever see the old classic movie with elizabeth taylor ~ elephant walk?
    this kind of reminds me of that.
    the elephants won in the end.
    i hope your outcome is better.
    i was going to say… the very words ‘rainy season’ sound wonderful to me.
    as we have nothing like it. we’re already in the 100’s heat indexes with no rain.
    but goes to show… too much of even a good thing is too much. xo

    • Jean says:

      I love the rain, and I enjoy it no matter what happens to the road. Also without rain the vegetation doesn’t grow. We do love it more when the rain comes down gently.

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