Signs of Spring

~From March 2008~

Will she hold? See the grass above the culvert? The water DID top it and push that grass up there while we were at church...


Twice a year, in March and October, for about a week each time, the creek in our driveway becomes a raging river. This is because Sunnyside Valley Irrigation District (SVID) primes their canal (fills it up in spring), or drains it. It overflows and drains into the creek that flows through our driveway (Spring Creek), eventually getting back to the Yakima River. SVID says the creek is a "wasteway" and not a real creek, but before the canal was connected to it, it was a real creek. Just didn't flow year round. Anyway... Those times, our quaint gentle creek becomes a raging river. A definite trap. Mom and Dad both have relatives that have drowned, so we respect the scary water!

Since we've replaced our old bridge since the last "purging", we get to see how the new bridge holds up with the high water flow this week. It used to be a wooden bridge--more rustic and aesthetically pleasing in our opinion. Now it's a plain ol' culvert. But it's supposed to last a lot longer (and it cost a lot less), than if we'd replaced it with a new wooden bridge. The old bridge was collapsing, and when they finally removed it, it was scary to see how bad of shape it was in. The beams just fell apart when they lifted them out. Yikes.