… our field, that is.
As you all probably know, here in the north Willamette Valley, we recently received record snowfall, followed immediately by record rainfall. What’s the result? Flooding, of course!
We’ve been watching the river rise in person and via the NOAA website. Today is supposed to be the crest and then the river will go back down. As of right now there’s a wide current running along the slough and then through some low ground where we have some over-wintered and perennial veggies planted. Our next-door neighbor has a shallow pond where his lower field once was. This is the most flooding we’ve seen since buying our land just a few years ago.
I hope people don’t think we’re too upset by this. Flooding is a fact of life on a river island, and we’ve been fully aware of this possibility (and much more) since we first looked at this land in 2006. In fact, the first time we visited the island, it wasjust after an enormous rain storm and the island was just emerging from slightly higher flood waters than we have now.
But, we still find the flooding interesting and worth mentioning. It’s actually quite beautiful right now — very calm looking. If you stand close to the water, you can see and hear air bubbles rising from all the earthworm and vole holes beneath the soil.
Also, we now have a better sense of how the water on our land corresponds to the reported and predicted river levels at Salem. It looks like we get wet when the Willamette rises above 21-22 feet. Right now it’s at 23.75 or so. Other parts of the island were flooded before us and some are still dry.
We also now have a clearer idea of where we should avoid planting over-wintering vegetables. We have quite a bit of stuff in the flood path now but we won’t do that again.
We still LOVE this little piece of ground we’re blessed to farm. A lot of ground in the county got wet this week — ours isn’t alone. And at least we know that when the river recedes, the water will actually go with it. Hoorah for well drained soil!
