Insignificant Weather Event

The predicted additional snow today did not materialize. Instead we had rain. Lots of rain. And warmer temperatures. By tonight, all the snow is melted except for where it fell off roofs and made piles. Thankfully, all the snow is off the horse barn roof because Mr. Smith would not come in to eat this morning. The others did. Tonight Mr. Smith came in and chowed down, but not through the scary place lined with snow hills from off the roof. Thank goodness he came in. I fed him in the rain this morning but he did not eat all his food. Life was just too scary with the occasional loud whump! as another hunk of snow fell off the roof.

With all the rain and melting snow, our pond filled to overflowing. But it flowed over where it is supposed to, not over the top. Johnny had built the dam with a lower place at one end for water to run harmlessly across the drive and around the dam into the creek. Clever Johnny. He is standing directly above the dam overflow in this photo. The stream visible in both photos had receded back into the pond banks by afternoon.














Areas north of us had snow and areas west of us had high winds. We missed all that, which is okay by me. I enjoyed two days of lovely snow but not the subsequent slush or traumatized horse. Ordinary Oregon rain is just fine, thank you.

A week ago, before the snow and flood, we saw two fish chasing each other around in the pond. We have been told by someone who should know that they are cutthroat trout probably in pre-spawning behavior. We have resident trout in our pond, plus possibly some that migrate in during high water events like the one that created the temporary stream around our dam this morning. Youtube videos of the fish action are here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc1w3FLXPh0&feature=related and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tZtiL7yiK4&feature=related

It was pretty cool to see something like this in our pond, something that I've never seen before anywhere.