This Week...

Sandra standing at the edge

some insight into the formation of canyons

another culvert around the corner washed out too

Susan Osterman's finished pillowcases

Our high excitement in the last week has been adjusting to the after effects of the flooding that hit our area on May 26th. We had severe thunderstorms overnight with torrential rain. Many roads were washed out from the heavy run-off, and local rivers flooded.

Memorial Day Weekend found us picking up the pieces and figuring out how we were going to make due with some changed circumstances. At the school, the upper driveway is not passable by vehicle, and the ditch in front of the property is badly washed out. The dye gardens are sodden and the ground completely saturated with water, to the point where we have to drain the big dye vat in stages so our leach field can actually absorb it.

The scene around the corner is a great deal more dramatic...Kate's road is completely washed out at the culvert. She now has a wonderful moat, keeping all but the most intrepid dog-walkers from wandering by. With the help of a good friend she was able to rig up a small foot bridge to cross the brook, and has been able to use a neighbor's car to run necessary errands. But she has been enjoying the quietness and peace of not being able to do everything as usual.

Just down Eaton Cemetery road, the road is mostly washed out at the culvert where the same brook goes under the road. You can walk over it, but you can't drive a vehicle past. Both of these culverts are so big that they need to be custom-fabricated, so it will be some matter of weeks before these roads are repaired and useable once more.

In driving around the Montpelier, East Montpelier, Barre, Plainfield, and Marshfield area, it is remarkable to see all the damage caused by this one storm. and to understand more clearly about the power of water to change things. Some of what i have seen is truly incredible, from cars underwater on the side of a road, to deep washouts down to bedrock, houses that have had their foundations all but washed away from underneath them, mud thick and caked in backyards and along city streets, and silt and stone fields where brooks are rivers have carved new pathways.

On a lighter note, Susan Osterman finished her linen pillowcases and brought them in for us to see. They're gorgeous. They feel very durable and you can tell by touching them that they will become washed into a rich heavy softness over the years, and will most likely become treasured family heirlooms. Hats off to you, Susan, for beginning this project of weaving your own bed linens, which no one else here has completed so far (except for Norman, of course).