First Rain

The first real rain of the season arrived this weekend, so I decided to make sure the stove pipe through the roof of the cabin was still weather proof. If you've read my earlier posts, you know that this had been quite a challenge, but it did seem to finally be fixed.

When I arrived at the gate, the rain was really pouring, and the road had several large rivulets eating away, so I decided to try a quick-fix diversion of the water. I managed to get it back under control, at least to a certain extent, but just ten minutes or so in that downpour, and I was soaked.

So I drove on down to the cabin, and after verifying the weather-worthiness of the roof -- not a drop coming in! -- I started a fire in the stove, stripped off my soggy clothes, wrung them out as best I could, and arrayed them around the stove to dry.

As I tended the fire, periodically flipping things over and around as they dried, I noticed that the rivulet coming down the road had increased in volume, sprouting a side branch that was flowing into the foundation of the cabin. This did not seem to be a good thing. So even though I was buck naked, I put on my water shoes that I keep for summertime swimming, and made a foray back into the downpour to divert the water away from the foundation.

Fortunately, it really wasn't that cold, maybe mid-50s, and with the exertion of digging wet gravel, I didn't feel cold at all. After about five minutes, things seemed to back under control, and I returned to my drying chores, giving my own backside its turn in front of the open stove door.

The creek was now a raging torrent, and quite a spectacular sight. Then I noticed my redwood lawn chairs bobbing around in the back-current in about a foot and a half of water, and it was clear they would soon be bobbing downstream. So I put my water shoes back on, and otherwise naked as nature, waded out and rescued my chairs. One way to keep your clothes dry in a downpour is don't wear any!