More Destruction from the Storm

 There is a 500 foot drop from a sandstone cliff above our home.  Water rushes over that cliff and down our property in a flash flood when a lot of rain falls in a short period of time. Once before (only one time in 11 years at this place) we had a severe storm of this nature that brought down a lot of silt.  This time, our new landscaping and driveway were not well enough established to withstand the force of a waterfall!  The local weather announcer said the rainfall was falling at a rate of 6" per hour in our area that night.  No wonder there were flash floods.

 A lot of large rocks were washed down and deposited where our driveway used to be.  A fairly large portion of our driveway was washed away. 

There is a huge ravine below our place (probably drops down at least 150 feet) and this is where all that water and gravel from our new driveway went.  We are lucky that we didn't just get an enormous deposit of mud and water, as some people in the area did.  Instead, it was washed away.  There was mud about 4" thick on our back patio and garage pad.  We spent the two days we were without electricity shoveling the mud up and hauling it away.  The driveway and retaining wall will be a longer term project.

The iris I had planted in this retaining wall bed are all quite submerged - most under about 4" of silty mud - some as deep as 8".  I am going to have to dig them all out and replant them.  They won't grow at that depth.  Sigh.  (I have started on the iris digging and it is backbreaking work - I was only able to do about 15 feet yesterday before my back was hurting and I had to stop).  It will take a couple of weeks to get things back in order  here.

 I have planned all along to plant some native grasses and wildflowers on the raw slope to control erosion.  Based on my research, I learned the time to plant such native species is fall - after the first frost.  I will be planting for erosion control after I get things put in order here.