Flooding in Tennessee.

I've been working down in Humboldt, Tennessee for the past week or so.  We were here this time to finish up what was left over from when I was here for a mudfest back in March.  The weather started off much nicer this time, but in the wee hours of Saturday morning, a slow-moving cold front moved in that ultimately dumped 12-15" of rain and spawned a few tornadoes.  As usual, I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.  Here's the radar from Friday night:

The hotel I'm staying in is in Jackson, TN, a bit to the right of the center image.  The areas outlined in red polygons are tornado warnings.
















As the storm moved through,  it sort of stalled right over Jackson, and thunderstorms kept building up behind it and moving in.  About 3am Saturday morning, I was awoken to the eerie sound of tornado sirens.  I remember hearing it when I was a kid in Mississippi, and it still gives me the chills.
 
Since my truck and the drill rig were parked 200 yards into a soft field and below a giant oak tree, the I was quite worried about a bunch of rain, not to mention the prospect of a tornado.

 The truck, drill rig, and other equipment before the storm on Friday evening.  First signs of impending doom cloud the horizon.

After getting about 3 hours of sleep, I got up to begin my day at 5:45am.  Took a shower, got dressed, put on my raingear before even going outside.  I decided not to bring my rain pants this time because I figured there was no way it could be that wet again.  So, once I found out nasty weather was on the way, I bought a cheap PVC rainsuit at Sprawl-Mart.  The pants lasted 5 minutes before the crotch ripped out.  The hole got progressively larger, until I eventually I was basically wearing what looked like chaps.  Still, better than nothing.  Anywho, so I walk outside, not too worried about a bunch of rain (it's just rain after all) and pleased that there don't seem to be high winds.  I hop in the car and get ready to begin the 15-minute drive up to Humboldt.  However, I don't make it very far.
 

This building eventually had water 3 feet up the back wall and an adjacent restaurant was ruined by water damage.  When I saw that my way out was flooded, I got in touch with Dave C (our client) so he could pick me up on the main road.  While I was checking out the situation, a poor soaked-to-the-bone guy came over and asked me if I had jumper cables because his car had died.  Unfortunately my rental car didn't, and I asked a few other folks around to no avail.  I did give him the Wal-Mart raincoat, since I wasn't going to need it.  Since I had rain gear and boots on, I decided to wade around and check out just how deep it was.  While I was doing that, a big Dodge truck pulled up and said it was over his hood.  I waded around enough to find a shallow route out that got him, and eventually me to the main road.  His engine is clearly a lot higher off the ground than my little rental car, but I made it too.

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So, I was able to drive myself to work after all.  When I got to Humboldt, here are some of the things I saw:

 

The pictures are a bit blurry, but I think you get the idea.  Fortunately, this spot was actually pretty well drained.  There was fast-moving water running between my truck and the 55-gallon drum.  Here's a closer look:


We're not supposed to work in lightning, because having 100' of steel rods in the grounds acts as a giant lightning rod.  The storms sort of came in pulses though, so there were brief periods where it let up and we could advance the rods (operating that big machine), then sit around while I sampled for an hour or so.  Then repeat.  Despite the insane weather, we actually had a pretty productive day.  We decided to call it a day about 5:30pm, and attempted to head home.  However the road back to Jackson was closed due to flooding.  We rendezvoused at Pizza Hut to figure out what to do.

A short break in the weather as we try to figure out what to do.

Just to the north of the site, the road crosses a small creek on a short bridge.  As you can see, the creek has hugely flooded its banks and the water is a good bit higher than the guardrails on the bridge!  Hmm.

All but one road out of Humboldt was closed at the time we were headed out.  However, after a bit at Pizza Hut (which I don't think I've been to since my elementary school "Book-it" days) we heard of a way out from the waitress.  We packed up our pizza and went for it.  After taking a circuitous route over some almost flooded roads, we made it back to the highway that would take us to Jackson.  However, before long, we ran into this:

About a mile of road flooded.  Lots of traffic backed up wondering what to do.  Fortunately, Dave C had a GPS, so we decided to try another route.  That led to lots of this:

And a couple more of these:

Eventually we gave up on getting back to Jackson for the night, and resigned ourselves to either finding a hotel in Humboldt, or buying air mattresses and sleeping in one of the site buildings (I think I was the only one who'd have done that).  Every Hotel in Humboldt was full, so we finally made it to a town about 45 minutes away where we stayed in some flea-ridden, weird-smelling place for $100/night.  We got the last rooms.  That place made a fortune that night.  Even though the place smelled funny and I had blood stains (not mine) on the pillow, it was good to finally be able to get some sleep.
However, that wasn't going to last long.  Sometime during the night another major front came through and brought more tornadoes and torrential rain.  Another sleepless night with blaring tornado sirens.  We all got up and made it back to the site to pull out the tooling and pack up all the gear.  The rain continued all morning, and by the time I was ready to move my truck, there was no way I was going to get out under my own power.  The driller and I hooked chains up to the GeoProbe and he began to pull me out backwards.  Normally, this works fine, but the field was by no means normal.  The GeoProbe (the biggest one available) was getting pretty bogged down itself.  After about half an hour of whiplash and flying mud, we finally got it out.  Here's how it looked from my perspective:

Finally got everything out of there.  Took a good while to pack up the truck and have it ready to drive.  Took quite a while to get all the mud out of the rear wheels too.
I finished packing up a bit before the drillers and had a little time to look around a little.  I happened upon this old oak that looks like it's been through a lot.

When were ready to roll out, we got the news that the road to Jackson was still closed.  Apparently several of the bridges had some significant damage, probably wash-outs.  We ended up taking a 100-mile detour to get back...

The sun eventually came out and we got to see some pretty scenery, but it sucked having to drive 2 hours to get somewhere 15 miles away.  I don't think I've ever been so happy to make it back to my hotel room.  The past few days have been quite an adventure.
I haven't heard what kind of damage occurred, but I'm pretty sure there were at least a few drownings.  Despite the inconvenience it caused us, at least no one got hurt.  All told, over 12" of rain fell in less than 24 hours.  I imagine the total storm total was a good bit more.  Here is the storm total map from the NWS from this morning:

Most of the streams and rivers went up by 12 or more feet!  Here's the gauge from a creek somewhere to the west:

This particular stream raised by 14 feet.  I don't think I've ever seen a stream gauge rise that much, that fast.

The discharge went from about 550cfs (cubic feet per second) to over 35,000cfs.  To put that into perspective, the Winooski River that runs through Montpelier often runs about 200-1,000cfs in the summer.  The highest I've seen it get since I've lived in Vermont (after snowmelt and heavy rains) was about 10,000cfs.
Regardless, we're talking about a LOT of water.

Last time I looked the storm was still rolling along, but losing some power.  I imagine I'll be following it most of the way home...

Dirt farmin' stone garden.

Here are some pictures of what will eventually become our garden, I hope. Not going to plant anything for a while yet because we can get frost as late as Memorial Day. I'll probably get things going before that though, since I'll be going from seeds. Speaking of that, we've got way more seeds than we've got room for. We'll see how it grows...




A few of the larger stones I dug up. I guess they'll be good for a border or something.


After hoeing.




The tulips we planted last fall. Should be blooming pretty soon, probably just in time for me to be gone for work again. I ought to weed them, but I'm not worried about it...


Gettin' there...

And here's some random plants from around the yard:


Japanese Knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum) coming up beneath the remains of last year's growth. Aka "Mexican Bamboo". Once this stuff gets a couple feet tall, you can harvest it and it's supposed to taste like rhubarb. It is an invasive species that likes to grow along stream banks. I won't feel bad if it's delicious and I gobble it all up.


Dandelion. Going to have to try making some dandelion green salad one of these days...


Great Burdock (Arctium minus) seeds, the inspiration for velcro (TM).


Young burdock. Lots of this stuff around. It has deep roots, so it's really hard to get rid of if you don't want it around.

Bike stuff.

Some good, some bad. First, the bad stuff:
I signed up to do the "Gravel Grinder" today, and yesterday I was prepping my bikes and tuning them up. While cleaning up the Willits (my mountain bike), I chipped some paint off the seatstays. There had been a little paint blister or two for a long time, but I never paid much attention to them. Somehow, and this is quite a mystery, I have several holes rusted through my both of the seatstays. I'm not talking about cosmetic little exterior rust spots, these are actual holes. Hard to describe in words, so here are some pictures:


Underside of seatstays (bike is upside down) showing location of rust holes.


A closer look...


Knife blade inserted into the biggest hole.

How the heck does that happen?! I've seen steel frames rust out before, but they were OLD and had been stored outside. And, they rusted out at the bottom brackets. This just makes no sense to me at all. I guess I'm going to keep riding it until it actually breaks (it won't break catastrophically, I've broken several frames before) or until I can afford a new frame (not anytime soon!). Pretty bummed about all that.

Back to the Gravel Grinder. The weather was crappy all weekend (mid 30's and raining), but somehow it managed to hold off for the 2+ hours I was out on the 30 mile loop. The loop is mostly dirt roads, and there were a TON of steep hills. It was supposed to be a casual, social sort of ride, but there were of course some racer-geek types up front. They didn't sprint off the start line, but they did take off pretty quick. Surprisingly, they never got all that far ahead of me. Of the 150 or so people that started, I think there were only about a dozen people back in the parking lot when I made it back. It's quite possible that those guys are super fast and were taking it easy though. On the other hand, I wasn't riding all-out (except on the climbs, when I had no choice!) either. After the first 8 miles or so, I was riding almost entirely on my own, and after about 12 miles, I only saw one other guy a ways ahead of me, who I eventually passed (I wish it was because I was faster, but he made a wrong turn and waited to ask me directions). I was expecting to be a lot slower than I was, and I think I heard some surprised comments when my huge carcass rolled up not long after the fast guys. Anywho, the 'cross bike ran flawlessly. The only thing I wanted was an easier granny gear. Granny gear on this bike is a 34x25, which sounds like enough, but man, I could barely turn the pedals on a couple of the hills. I actually walked a short section of one of them, and the guy next to me still riding was actually going slower! Some steep stuff.
Chrissy met me at the aid station, which was super nice of her. I know that watching a bunch of bike geeks whiz by can't be much fun, so I really appreciated it. They actually had bananas, PBR's, and whiskey at the aid station, but I didn't partake. Chrissy took a couple photos, so here they are:


Fresh snow on the Worcester Range. This view is along one of the few flat sections (before a big descent!) where the aid station was.


10 miles in and still smiling!


Off I go. I've never seen a picture of myself riding a bike from a distance. I'm huge! That's a 62cm cross bike and it looks like it has BMX wheels or something. Good times. If there were any prizes at this ride, I think I would have gotten "fastest fat guy".

Last but not least, here's a pesky red squirrel that keeps getting into one of our bird feeders. I don't know how many times I watched him fall off of it before he figured it out, but he's got it down now. So I took down the bird feeder. Sucka!

Enjoy it while you can you little varmint.

First turtle of the year!

I took the canoe to work today (on the roof of my car, not paddled it to work) so I could go down to the Wrightsville Reservoir outside Montpelier. There was still ice over most of it about a week ago, but it was all clear today. The weather was nice, so a coworker, Jess, and I took off early and went down for a ride. Jess was my partner in crime for all of the Australia work (3 months of it) and most of the work in California (couple months total also). Anywho, it wasn't the turtle-fest I was hoping for, but we did spot a painted turtle basking on an old bridge abutment. It splashed in long before we went past the first time, while going upwind. On the way back, we drifted quietly up to it. It still plopped into the water, but it stayed just below the surface and Jess got it with the net. Took a couple photos and put it right back.


Painted turtle (Chrysemys picta). There are 4 distinct subspecies of painted turtles. In this area there is the potential for two, the Midland (C. picta marginata) and Eastern (C. picta picta). If I go by the Peterson's guide Teal let me borrow, I'd guess this is a Midland based on the range. However, Vermont is right on the edge of where Eastern and Midland subspecies ranges overlap, so it's likely got characteristics of both, which what I think I've got. Eastern's are supposed to have the large scutes in relatively straight rows, and on Midland's they're supposed to alternate. The scutes on this aren't in straight lines, but they don't really alternate either. The midland is supposed to have some dark splotches on the plastron (bottom shell), but as you'll see in the next picture, it has none whatsoever. Anywho, doesn't really matter much, it's a painted turtle one way or another...


No marks on the plastron...




Those big claws give this away as a male.


That's Jess in the background. You can also see the old bridge abutment he was basking on to the right.

Pretty little guy no matter what. Hope to see lots more.

The Reservoir... again.

I went down to the reservoir again Sunday evening for a quick little paddle. The wind was pretty gusty, so I stuck close to the shoreline and followed the Waterbury River upstream a little ways. Haven't managed to spot any turtles yet (never saw any here last year either), but I did see my favorite bird, the Great Blue Heron. No pictures of the actual bird, but here are some pictures of his gigantic footprints.




My hand for scale.

Also came across a bunch of duck tracks. There have been some ducks around, but I don't know what they are. I think I've seen a few mallards from a distance, but I'm not sure about the others. They have a dark head like mallards, but the rest of them is kind of white. I guess I need to get a bird guide...





This place is also home to many beavers. There are several really big lodges. Here is one of them:


How many beavers typically live in a lodge this size?

Last but not least, the boat that got me there. Bit of a handful to paddle solo, but a heck of a lot more comfortable and easier to paddle than the whitewater boat.

Some random thoughts from today's commute.

I commuted to work by bike for the first time this year (50-mile round trip). A bit nippy on the way in this morning, and a killer headwind on the way back. Felt good to ride the bike into work, but the way home is always a suffer-fest. Here are some of the things that went through my mind:

1) No matter how inspiring Fabian Cancellera's win at Paris-Roubaix was yesterday, I am not and never will be that good.
2) I have a sticker on my front fender that Teal sent me. I usually notice it when I'm suffering; head down, tongue a-waggin'. It reads, "Question Internal Combustion". At those times, internal combustion seems like a pretty good idea.
3) The song "O, Death" by Ralph Stanley kept going through my head. "Oooooooh, Death. Woooooooooooooah, Death. Won't you spare me over for another year?" Subliminal message?
4) The Bicycle version of my route in Google maps says it should take me 2 hours, 37 minutes. The way in took 1 hour, 20 minutes. So at least I'm twice as fast as Google thinks I ought to be! The way back (much more uphill) is always a bit slower...
5) I think I might actually like headwinds less than hills.
6) It's nice that people in Vermont don't swerve at you or throw trash.
7) Bikes are awesome, even if they make me suffer a bit.

Carrion Beetles

Meet Oiceoptoma noveboracense, the Margined Carrion Beetle. They're kind of like vultures of the insect world.
They do nasty work, but they are another of the countless organisms that do the essential work breaking down the dead and ultimately recycling them. A few weeks ago, I came across a dead mink on my way up to the pond. Not sure what killed it, since it was pretty much entirely intact. I suppose an owl is the likely culprit, but it's strange that it was left behind. Hoping to maybe get an interesting skull out of it, I left it there to let the bugs and other critters do their thing. After a week or so, something else came along and took a chunk of it away (including the skull) and the carcass was crawling with bugs. Braving the smell, I stooped down for a closer look. Here's how it looked in the field:



I didn't have the desire (or the stomach) to get more of a closer look than that, but there were probably a dozen of these beetles throughout the carcass.
My field guide tells me that the adults feed on maggots, while the larvae feed on carrion "jerky", sinew, and skin. A related type of beetle (of the Genus Nicrophorus) prefers to "bury the bodies of small vertebrates, removing fur or feathers and fashioning the corpse into a meatball". Reading that got me in the mood for some spaghetti!

I brought one of these delightful insects home to take a picture in a more controlled (and less smelly) environment. So, here's a closer view:


I hope the next time you have spaghetti and meatballs, you'll think of this little (17mm) beetle.


Mmmmmmmeatballs!