For my first blog entry (thanks, WordPress) post-Google Divorce, I thought I would share a few pics from our place in the Hill Country. I’m mainly doing this for family members with at least a somewhat vested interest, but the rest of you are welcome to tag along as well.
We’re between Fredericksburg and Harper, well north of the worst of the flooding in South Texas that you’ve all seen on the news … but Spring Creek runs through the middle of our 45 acres. The main house and barn sit 40-50 feet directly above the creek, and the secondary house sits farther back on the other side of the driveway. But it’s also about 50 yards closer to the creek where it crosses the concrete bridge down from the road. The bridge has an open box that diverts the (typically minor) flow from upstream underneath the road and to the neighbor’s property on the other side.
Here are a few captioned pics during peace-time that kind of set the stage …
On Thursday, we drove down from Kansas to take stock of things and stay for a few weeks. The best post-flood overview probably is from the video linked below. Please bear in mind that this was 36-48 hours AFTER the high water mark once the rain had stopped.
And for those of you familiar with the property, here’s the Schnerr Lane side. If you are not familiar with the property, from where I’m filming in this shot, the creek itself typically is almost invisible … and there is a 10-foot wide ford that you can drive across to access the property from the northwest side. Not so much anymore.
There are many downed trees in and around the creek proper, and from the flattened grass it’s evident that water was out a hundred yards or more into the pasture beyond the creek.
Other points of note:
- The rancher who runs a few head of cattle on the property said that he measured 15+ inches over a 4-5 day period … far worse than during last year’s Guadalupe flood and the worst since the (presumably infamous) flood of 1978.
- Based on debris in trees, the water got to within 5-7 feet of the rim of the bluff where the house sits. If you’ve been here, you can appreciate how unimaginable that is.
- There is debris in a tree beyond the bridge up toward the gate that suggests that at the high-water mark, water was 25-30 feet above the level of the bridge.
- Despite all of that, the bridge was passable within 48 hours after the rain stopped.
Reclusive Codger 
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