Routed
Although we did
eventually make it
across the creek Wednesday, our first attempt was a failure.
"If I just had a paddle, I
think it would be safe to kayak across the floodplain
while the water is so dispersed," I told Mark Wednesday morning. Within
fifteen minutes, he'd created me a paddle out of a flipper (thanks,
Rose Nell!), a furring strip, and some duct tape.
Unfortunately, when we
embarked on our adventure, Mark immediately saw the flaw in my plans.
Despite flood waters receding about three vertical feet in the last
twenty-four hours, I still couldn't reach the kayak using hip waders.
All it took was a little
more time, though, to achieve our goal. By 1 pm, the creek had gone
down another foot and Mark and I together were able to retrieve the
kayak we'd stashed by the creek. He hoisted it into a tree to empty out
the water (a difficult feat when knee-deep in the drink), and we even
discovered that we'd been smart enough to leave a paddle stashed
inside. Maybe next time we'll get yet smarter and park the flood-water
transportation device by the barn!
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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