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seldneiWe've had a very rainy August down here. Our little town is supposedly the result of a real-estate scheme--some guys dredged out a bunch of canals, some leading to the Gulf, some not, with an eye to selling the land near them as "waterfront property." I'm not sure how true that is, but a) It worked for a while, and b) we have a lot of canals. One is about two blocks away from us.
In general, when we get serious rain, our street floods at both ends. This is not so much the canals flooding as it is the lack of drainage. Our part of the street tends to stay dry, but the ditches and the yard (which is built up in a slight hill from the ditch) tend to flood. Once the rain stops for a few hours, though, the water drains off the road, and by afternoon it's obvious we had some serious rain, but you don't have to worry about whether or not your car is going to be floating down the street.
Hence, Scott has not seen this phenomenon very often, since usually by the time he got home from work, the roads would be clear.
Okay. So, one day in early August, it starts pouring after we drop the boy off at day camp. We pick the boyo up from day camp and drive home in the deluge, which starts to slack off once we get inside. While I and the Z are having lunch, Scott is looking out the windows at the flooded back yard, then the flooded front yard. He gets the camera and takes photos of both to post on Facebook (because, really, why does anyone take pictures anymore beyond posting them on Facebook?).
Suddenly I hear, "What the hell is that?"
I get up, Z following, and go look out the window.
There's something moving in the water in the front yard ditch. It is obviously not a mammal. And very definitely not a turtle. But it's in the ditch, so ...
... we all traipse outside in the rain to see.
CATFISH.
I kid you not, a catfish was in our ditch. It was swimming in a squirming sort of way, but we could see it was about a foot long.
IN OUR YARD.
Looking up and down the street, all of the ditches and the bottoms of everyone's driveways are covered in water. This fish could probably have swum from one end of the street to the other via ditches and driveways. The main intersection from our road to town also floods like whoa, so we think that it was swept into a drainage/sewer pipe form a canal, then out again into the street or a ditch.
We watched this fish swim across the driveway to the other side of our yard and then into the empty lot next door. It had to swim under Scott's car.
So our wildlife sightings since we've lived in our Little Pink House are: an owl when we bought the lot (we have more now, we hear them in the evenings), ospreys, bald eagles, various songbirds and woodpeckers, lizards, a black snake, ring-necked snakes, a possum, 2 crawfish, various frogs, and a CATFISH.
In general, when we get serious rain, our street floods at both ends. This is not so much the canals flooding as it is the lack of drainage. Our part of the street tends to stay dry, but the ditches and the yard (which is built up in a slight hill from the ditch) tend to flood. Once the rain stops for a few hours, though, the water drains off the road, and by afternoon it's obvious we had some serious rain, but you don't have to worry about whether or not your car is going to be floating down the street.
Hence, Scott has not seen this phenomenon very often, since usually by the time he got home from work, the roads would be clear.
Okay. So, one day in early August, it starts pouring after we drop the boy off at day camp. We pick the boyo up from day camp and drive home in the deluge, which starts to slack off once we get inside. While I and the Z are having lunch, Scott is looking out the windows at the flooded back yard, then the flooded front yard. He gets the camera and takes photos of both to post on Facebook (because, really, why does anyone take pictures anymore beyond posting them on Facebook?).
Suddenly I hear, "What the hell is that?"
I get up, Z following, and go look out the window.
There's something moving in the water in the front yard ditch. It is obviously not a mammal. And very definitely not a turtle. But it's in the ditch, so ...
... we all traipse outside in the rain to see.
CATFISH.
I kid you not, a catfish was in our ditch. It was swimming in a squirming sort of way, but we could see it was about a foot long.
IN OUR YARD.
Looking up and down the street, all of the ditches and the bottoms of everyone's driveways are covered in water. This fish could probably have swum from one end of the street to the other via ditches and driveways. The main intersection from our road to town also floods like whoa, so we think that it was swept into a drainage/sewer pipe form a canal, then out again into the street or a ditch.
We watched this fish swim across the driveway to the other side of our yard and then into the empty lot next door. It had to swim under Scott's car.
So our wildlife sightings since we've lived in our Little Pink House are: an owl when we bought the lot (we have more now, we hear them in the evenings), ospreys, bald eagles, various songbirds and woodpeckers, lizards, a black snake, ring-necked snakes, a possum, 2 crawfish, various frogs, and a CATFISH.
