Take 1 yard of Storm Downed White Pine
Apply Hand Ax with Vigor & Stack
(This may take several days)
Place on Sawbuck & Apply Chainsaw
(This will take several more days)
Yield: Double stack of White Pine firewood
(N.B. Requires 13 wheelbarrow loads to transport to rear of yard.)
Rapidan Mill & Dam in Mid-Summer
April showers may bring May flowers but this spring’s April showers brought more April showers which in turn brought May showers which lead to still more May showers. Basically it rained between the rain storms. And then it rained some more just because it could.
Rapidan Station Mill Dam
Yes folks there is a dam under all that water. This is the 2nd of 3 floods in a 2 week period. The flood after this closed the road so I don’t know just how high it went. This photo is about 5 hours after the flood crest. The flood before this one was about 1/3 this one, which is typical for a spring flood at this location.
Very Large Tree Stuck on the Dam Spillway
This tree is totally buried under the water, most of the roots are above the spillway but under the river. Its got a 3+ foot diameter truck right about where the limb is broken off.
Mill Spillway Door
I’ve seen this area in flood about a dozen times and this is the 1st time the overflow gates on the spillway doors were working at capacity.
The Downstream View from the Bridge
The river is half again as wide as its normal banks. There was a great deal of debris in the water also.
Backyard Storage Shed
About 200 yards from the dam a storage shed was washed into the river from its bankside pilings. It literally floated off down the river at quite a clip and was intact at least as long as it was in sight. That red bit in the photo is the shed roof.
Canada Goose
This goose came floating down the river right in the main current quacking up a storm of its own. Obviously it made it into quieter water and then exited onto dry land.
Of course the Rapidan river area wasn’t the only area to flood this spring.
My Backyard Fire Ring
I don’t think I’ll be using my backyard fire ring anytime real soon.
Brook Behind My Yard
The little brook just into the woods behind my house was running high enough to be at the cedar log bridge I made to cross it easily.
Secondary Flood Made Brook Channel
There was enough water over the rear edge of my yard to flatten the grass down for about 30 yards on my side of the brook. A new secondary channel was also cut which has been used off and on since. These photos were taken several hours post flood crest.
Standing Water at the Wood’s Edge
It took about 2 weeks for all this to dry past standing water. Of course the subsequent rainstorms didn’t help the drying out part one little bit. (This was the worst flooding I would see all year.)
