If you follow this blog, then you know there is already a post with this title. Water, Water Everywhere the first time (almost two years to the date of this post) dealt with our lack of drinkable water.  This post will deal with our lack of catchable water.

Wednesday morning dawned wet and sticky.  After a night of thunderstorms, the day cleared out to a fantastic blue sky clear of haze and summer dust.

No, the above two pictures are not the same, look at the differences in clouds.  The first one was to emphasize on the sunset.  Love sunsets after a storm.  The second one was for reference for the remaining pictures in this post.  Note the placement of the broken sailboat on the ground in the above picture to the placement of the broken sailboat in the bottom picture.

Saturday morning dawned late and wet. WET.  As in the gauge stopped recording water and have over flowed at 6″.  This was more standing water than ever before seen or experienced.  Even after Harvey. Of course with Harvey, there were no accurate rain readings because all the creditable gauges were blown off the map.  During Harvey, some reports stated 14″ of rain. Some reports stated 34″ inches of rain.  What we did not get was the 50+ inches of rain that East Texas got when Harvey came.

Once the rain let up, water damage was surveyed.  No water in the Kid’s box.  Close, but not in.  This was a stress point all night as the box only sits about 6 inches off the ground.  One broken sailboat collected…

Two pot plants upended and waterlogged….

Water already receding and it is still just early morning hours…  Hopefully, with any luck, the winds will continue to blow the water out to the ditches and into the bays.  Anywhere but in my yard.  The chicken coop was a drenched soggy mess as the roof leaked.  Water was running out from the coop floor.  Yuk.  Chickens were standing ankle deep in water inside their run.  They were released to find dry land.  Haha.

If the rain collection system had been installed on just four forty-foot Conex boxes, the Planner guesses over 4800 gallons of water would have been collected on Friday’s night rain fest.  Assuming if only six inches of rain fell.  This was more than six inches.  This was biblical.  To figure the amount collected, the rule states for every one inch of rain on a square foot of space, 6/10 of a gallon of water will be collected.  Therefore each box collects about 200 gallons for every one inch of rain.

4800 gallons of drinkable water!  That is over two-thirds of the amount water the storage tanks can hold.  Ugh. Since Harvey blew away our water source, Boxes in Fields has been on a serious water restriction plan. Such as less than 30 gallons a day restriction. 30 gallons to wash dishes, bath, and water chickens. Water is collected when washing morning faces to water the plants.  Plants do not care about morning eye funk. Shower water is collected to water plants.  Plants do not care about body funk.  Straddling a 5gallon bucket in the shower took some adjustment but water is water.  Ice melted in ice chest is cold water for the chicken water chest.  Water is precious. Friday’s rainstorm has lit a new fire.  Installing the water collecting system has just become top priority.

Sunday morning dawned late and wet.  Again.  Rain so hard we could not hear each other over the beating of the aluminum skin trailer.  The Kid in the non-insulated Conex box said it was deafening loud.  It rained and it rained and it rained.

With every minute of rain, the stress level rose as we were certain the water would for sure rise into the Kid’s box and into the storage boxes on the ground.  There was nothing to do except wait.  And it rained and it rained and it rained.

Then bam, it stopped.  Just like that.  Like the flip of a switch.  The skies cleared out.  The wind laid down.  People emerged to once again assess the damage.

Oh, how lucky we were.  As it turned out, we have built at the point where the water does not get any higher than the top of the footings to the boxes. With this additional 6+ inches the water never once got higher.  It just spread out across the field, into the roads, into the drainage ditches, and across the tidal flat.

With water coming and going into and across the tidal flats, in came the tidal flat residents. See all the bumps above the water line in the picture above? Frogs/toads.  Can’t really tell as it was twenty feet away.  All that was seen were their heads.  Other marine life were blue crabs the size of a half dollar, shells with and without residences, and loads of various fish none bigger than the palm of my hand.

How much rain is yet another topic for debate.  The range is a vast as Harvey reports.  Some people modestly report 12 inches of rain.  Others report close to 30 inches.  I say it closer to 15-17 inches judging on how many times water was drained from the rain gauge.  Two mornings with full rain gauges is already 12 inches of rain.  17 inches is probably not far from the truth. With water standing everywhere, roads flooding, and cars stuck in ditches up and down our street, we decided just to hang out at home.  What else was there do?  Go boating?

Just love this kid.  He totally reined in on his inner Huck Finn.