Friday, Floody Friday

So, here's the view coming into my housing area. This isn't where I live, I'm at 350 ft elevation, this is down in the beautiful valley below. Normally, this view includes the Snohomish river, a railroad line, a river road (which we normally take to go to Snohomish - the city), and many fields belonging to various farmer-folk.

As you can see, those farm-folk (and other rural non-farming neighbors) are feeling a bit damp these days. All of that blessed snow we got last month is melting in the warmer and very rainy weather we've been having. I'm sorry for all the power lines in the photos, but the top of the ridge (and road) is the path for power lines, and there just isn't another accessible spot for photos (or, apparently, power lines).

This photo appears to show a house bordering the river with a bluff on the far side. Actually that isn't the side with the river, though there might be a tributary over there in regular times. All that area is normally fields and pastures for tons of cattle & crops. (It all sort of depends on which farm I got here.)




This shot has a long dark line on the bottom-side of halfway (does that even make sense?) That line is the train track, I have no idea if they are running right now, but I wouldn't think so. The bottom of the picture is fields (below the rails), the bit above the rails is where the river *should* be, and a thin strip of houses & farms, then more water.

Somewhere in this stretch of houses is the farm where we go for pumpkins every year. They have a barn that is marked with lines showing the heights of flood waters over the years. I'm wondering if this year will be a record year for them. I've never understood why these folks take the risk, but I am grateful for fruits of their labor and risk.

I felt a bit like a ghoul taking all these photos of someone elses' disaster, but it is an amazing thing to see. I hope they all survive the flood financially, I'm certain they are all physically safe, though I do worry about the livestock. I have no idea how they manage them in flood situations. This isn't the first flood I've seen in the past 8 years in this house, but I do think it might be the worst.

On a craftier note, in an effort to lighten the mood, I spent Wednesday and Thursday helping out in the girls' classes, as usual. I've also continued to run errands every single day, to try to get everything all caught up. I still have Christmas pressies to mail out. I was unable to mail these before Christmas because I had ordered them for pick up at the store, which I couldn't get to because of the snow. So, now they're sitting in my living room demanding attention. I'm being quite rude by continuing to ignore them. I just can't stand the thought of dragging out more wrapping paper. How pathetic is that?!

I managed a few hours of sewing time yesterday, which was nice. But I've got a badly written pattern (are there well-written ones anymore?) and found I'd made a pretty big error. I think I've got a fix for it, so I won't have to re-cut and re-sew that part of the shirt (for my oldest). Sigh. Anyway, today is the first day I'm not going anywhere (other than going out to take the pictures. And get a Twix Mocha. Yum!). I'm having the worst time deciding if I should do more sewing, dedicate some serious time to the socks I'm working on (did I mention the new sock KAL?), or do some spinning. Decisions, decisions. There's always laundry. heh. I've just been on the run all week, I'd like a break today, but I feel like I'm running in circles.

The shirt is a surprise for DD1, so I don't like to work on it when she's home, but then I never get any time to just sit and knit like crazy on the socks. I need that time. But I'd like to do some spinning, too. I'm sure I'll decide what to do about 5 minutes before the kids get home. LOL