Flooding near the bug-out property - all is perfect!

The rain is here.  In the first three days we've gotten 3 inches.  That's more than ¼ of our yearly total.  There have been no issues with the rain here at home.  The bug-out place has received about a foot of rain with these series of storms so far.  I had no idea what would happen there with lots of rain since I bought it last February, after we had received most of the rain.  My friends are living on the property now and are cleaning up the very neglected property.  They've sent me pictures and provided me with updates on how the land is holding up to the rain.

 

You can't cross the main creek and have to walk in the last mile to the property.  I did know this about the property when I bought it and that was actually one of the things that I liked about it.  I know that you can get to the back of the property going through a couple of private ranches but that's something that I'm going to deal with next summer. 

 

Once you've crossed the main creek, there is a small creek that has to be crossed about ½ mile from the house.  It has a 12 inch culvert and appears in good condition.  When I had my friend out there who was the dozer/grader operator, I had asked about pulling the culvert and putting in a rocked ford.  I'd rather not have culverts because they are always subject to plugging and blowing out.  He said he thought the culvert was the way to go and instead I should widen the road there.  The culvert stuck out about two or three feet from the edge of the road so there was room to widen the road.  Today the normally dry creek is flowing over the road.  I'm sure water is flowing through the culvert but more is flowing over the road.  This explains why the culvert is sticking so far out over the edge of the road.  The water is downcutting the road there.  It looks like the rocked ford is the way to go here after all.

 

There is a pond ¼ mile away from the property that our dry creek empties into.  This pond at one point had an overflow culvert.  It too blew out a few years ago, I was told, and instead has a 15 foot gape at that road.  This road leads to the back side of my property.  It's really better that the road doesn't go through there because it would be a huge security gap if it did.  This "dry pond" did have about three feet of water in it last February. Right now it is full, about 20 feet deep, with water ready to overflow through the blowout.  If it does blow out again, that pond will no longer be a pond.  That's ok with me. 

 

The house itself is doing fine.  The outbuildings are all holding up.  There is no movement of the soil on the property.  Most of the buildings are raised up a foot but the shop/garage has a cement foundation straight on the ground.  I need to make sure that the water doesn't seep into the building.  In a bug-out situation, most of the reserves would be stored in this building.  This building is really sturdy.  Two of the walls are built directly into the edge of the hill.  Those walls are made of cement.  The floor is cement.  There is an inner room that's made of brick.  The building has a wrought iron gate across the area you drive into and also a 10' tall roll up door.   

 

I also want to put a conex on the property.  There is one area which was previously dug out from the side of the hill.  It looks like it was going to be a pad for a motor home or trailer.  It would be a perfect location for the conex, and it would be easily buried all the way to the door.  I could put an outbuilding in front of the door and have a door from the outbuilding go into the conex.  For now I need to check to see how much water comes out of the hillside where this conex will be placed. 

 

I need to assess where the fruit trees are going to be planted next spring.  So far, I haven't seen any areas where water is pooling and would drown young trees. 

 

Overall, I'm pleased with how things are turning out with this storm.  We are only half way through so things may get worse.  I don't know what to expect with the bug-out place.  I'm just glad that I have the opportunity to deal with anything that comes up prior to a TEOTWAWKI situation arising.