connect-the-puddles
Posted by Zonie on January 01, 2020 at 17:36:46
It rained on the 24th and again on the 27th. All the rain we've had since late November coupled with the failure of the southeast monsoon in July and August makes me wonder if we're transitioning to a Mediterranean climate. The pollen in buried sediments indicates that's what we had during the Pleistocene, but that's the opposite direction of where Miss Thunburg, Dr. Attenborough, and the IPCC folks think we're headed. Well whatever it is, I'm going to enjoy it while we have it.
The construction-destruction area of the Reach 11 Recreation Area had its mud recharged by these rains, and playing in that quagmire never seems to get old. On this long New Year's weekend, I went there three days, Saturday, Sunday and yesterday. I skipped Monday because I had some chores to do at home. The feeble winter sunshine and the unusually cool weather (by our standards) helped preserve the mud. It's been in the 30s in the mornings to the 50s in the afternoons.
I decided to ditch the cowboy boots and wear something actually designed for water and mud, the wellies I generally reserve for garden work and swimming pool maintenance. I had some doubts as to their ability to take the churning action of thick mud for so long a period, but I figured they'd be cheap to replace if they couldn't, and they're quite intact after three days of that punishment. On the one hand, they're size 13. On the other, I'm 320 lbs., so I think overall the ground pressure was greater than that of most people. I wore my blue denim overalls tucked into the boots, a flannel shirt and a camouflage cap.
I noticed a lot of the mud puddles were separated by a short distance from others and were at different elevations and in proximity to natural drainage channels. Doubtless this was the result of the clearing process. I'm a bit surprised that nothing was done to remedy this, give that the equestrian center was supposedly responsible for this leveling of the vegetation and consequent creation of the indentations that allowed these large puddles to form by the earthmoving equipment. Mosquitoes have bred in this area before, and those people should know that western equine encephalitis is far more dangerous to horses than to human beings. Well I encountered a few gnats, but no mosquitoes yet.
I decided to promote drainage of the puddles by stomping down the mud berms between them and channeling them to natural drainage in the arroyos. I soon managed to stomp connections between the puddles. Sometimes I would have to kick channels with my boots, splashing mud all over the place, including on my overalls and my shirt. I didn't get a whole not a drainage done, but I had a lot of fun trying. The construction company could, of course, have done this a lot more efficiently with their earthmoving equipment, but for whatever reason they didn't want to do this. Oh well, more recreation for me. Going back the next day and Tuesday I found where the drainage had occurred and where I could make improvements and encourage more drainage. Even yesterday there was still plenty of mud. Not much had dried. In several areas it was still almost to the tops of my boots.
Yesterday I wandered away from the area to the west where there was still more construction. I got as far as the Black Mountain Dog Park, and outside that there was a construction trail where trucks had obviously gone through a big mud puddle multiple times giving it a nice soupy consistency. I loved slogging through that multiple times.
Over those three days I didn't have much of an audience, as nothing was going on at the equestrian center. It makes me wonder why they leveled all this vegetation to expand when they don't have enough business to keep the arenas they've got busy most of the time. I did encounter several people. A couple of them said hello, and I returned their greetings. Nobody asked me what I was doing or why I was doing it.
As the sun was going down yesterday after having spent seven hours out there, I washed my wellies in a puddle in the parking lot and went home to do laundry. I had some places to go where I needed to look civilized.