California's drought is not over, but one could be forgiven for thinking it was. It is now 1 p.m. PST Sunday afternoon and it has been raining steadily, and heavily, since about 11 p.m. Thursday night - a solid 62 hours. (That's about 61 hours more rain than I would have liked to have fall on me this weekend.) And the rain didn't come in showers, no, it fell hard, unabated and relentless. It's still falling now; it's blowing in sheets and visibility is quite poor, (I can't see the range of hills opposite Vinoland). Yesterday, the news reports were of wind and flood warnings for the entire Bay Area, along with a treacherous-driving condition alert and the possibility of mudslides in hilly areas. A small creek flood advisory was also issued and, right on cue, Vinoland's small creek breached it's banks...we now have our own rapids. Lovely.
The photograph shows where the creek passes under the deer fence on the northern end of Vinoland. The water is only about 24-30 inches deep there, but it is moving quickly and a little further on has flooded a 10' wide flat area - another 7-8 feet and the creek will have reached the Pinot grigio vines. And to think I was going to start pruning the white grapes this weekend. The best made plans...
