Quite enough water exists on my property without me adding a milliliter more, so the plan was to wait late in the day before I turned the outside faucets on, letting them drip a bit, so they wouldn’t freeze. From about late May until nearly October, we had temperatures in the mid to upper 90’s, when we weren’t having hurricanes, so I’m not bitching about the cold weather.
In April of 2023 we had a freak rainstorm that dropped eleven inches of rain in six hours, and then after that, hurricanes and tropical storms dumped more and more rain. One giant Live Oak fell in the back yard, the old dog kennel flooded, as well as an old shed that was hit by two trees and I just haven’t gotten around to removing it yet. Now, there’s over a foot of water in both places.
I forgot to get moving while there was still good daylight, so as the sun descended, and light faded, I realized I hadn’t gone out and turned the faucets on. I grabbed my wading boots, which are about a foot tall, and my flashlight, and out into the water I go.
Getting to one of the faucets was easy. The water barely got up on the boots at all, yay. The second was close to where the Live Oak once stood. It always had a serious lean to it, and I wondered how it could stand like that. Once water saturated the root system, it couldn’t, and down it came.
Two steps into the water, no problem and then blackness. The battery died. Okay, it’s dark, but not that dark, so I get to the faucet, turn it own, hear the water dripping, and onto the old kennel I go. The water there is just deeper than the boots are tall. Icy liquid pours over the tops and I’m looking for a floating door without a redhead on it.
Once inside the kennel, a random piece of barbwire snags my hoodie and I get stuck for a moment. I’ve only got one free hand and it takes a bit to get loose. Meanwhile, as long as Bill Paxton didn’t show up, I felt pretty good about the situation.
At 39 degrees, the water is cold. Outside, with cold water in rubber boots, it seems a lot colder. My breath comes out ragged and in gasps. But the mission is accomplished, it’s not that dark, and I take a short cut to get out of the water, heading more or less in a straighter path than I came in.
The problem here is one of the great environmental advantages of a tree falling over is the roots take a lot of dirt with them, creating a small yet deep pool for water to form. This is home to amphibians and other small water creatures, and because the root ball is nearby, it’s usually shaded for some part of the day.
One foot slips into this hole, and suddenly I care less about toads, frogs, and root balls than ever before. As my weight and Newtonian physics work against me, one leg sinks deep, the other follows lest I topple, and I’m in water up to the shrivel factor.
Both boots are full of water, both pants legs are soaked, but I manage to retain the flashlight if not my dignity. Away to the house, I shed the boots, dump the water out of them, then once inside I strip to get the jeans, socks, and shirt into the washing machine.
Moments later, having immersed myself in hot water, I emerge from the shower, warm, and ready to write.
The Winter of 2025 has won the first round.
Take Care,
Mike
Yes, I do know of that you spoke about. Nothing worse than working in the swamp and planting your booted foot deep into the muck. Survival instinct kicks in and you try to plant the other foot to help you get out. Now 2 boots are full of swamp water and the muck has a suction like a Hoover. So you pull your soaking feet out of the boots that were supposed to protect, pull your now empty boots out of the muck and slosh your wet self back to dryer ground and into the suburban. Fun times.
Brian,
I was surprised at how cold the water was, but the next day it was frozen over. Then the snow and ice fell. I might have been cold but nowhere as cold as I would have been had I waited. My wool socks had to be washed twice because they were muddy.
Oh noooo!!!
Kris, it could have been worse if I lost my balance and fell in. Might have been funnier, too.
This is not the type of weather I signed up for when I decided to stay in this part of the country either, my friend. We aren’t so saturated down here in Central Texas as you are there in the Deep South, however, this bitter cold can take a long hike. I’d much rather have days with heat and sunshine. I can deal with that.
Chick, yeah, this was NOT in the brochure. We usually get a few cold days, but ice, snow, and 23 degrees with the wind blowing and no let up during the day.
I had a heat lamp and a heater in the well house.
Well, that redhead on the floating door was not too bad looking…
Mike, it sounds you should live in an ark, not a house.
Tim, there might come a time, and soon, we have to thinking about getting a pump and lowering the water level. The only problem is finding somewhere there isn’t already too much water. It’s getting serious.