RIDING OUT WAVES OF INTENSE ATMOSPHERIC RIVER RAINSTORMS

We are being hammered by a series of wild and scary bomb cyclone driven mega rainstorms in the mountains of Northern California

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This is the WEEKDAY edition of THE DAWNING LIGHT # 1214…

Our FREE version of our “Daily Journal of Transformational Writing”

STILL MOUNTAIN CHRONICLES SECTION # 80 Stories by Chinmayan about our life in pursuit of simple living, our own spiritual path and our service to the world in a small meditation center in the mountains

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RIDING OUT WAVES OF INTENSE ATMOSPHERIC RIVER RAINSTORMS

Still Mountain Feels Like An Island Being Battered By A Hurricane

As I sit at my desk in my writing studio, howling winds and fierce rain are thrashing our building so intensely that it sounds like millions of hammers beating on the roof.

We are being battered by a series of bomb cyclone driven atmospheric rivers of historic proportions.

I am extremely grateful to be safe and dry inside our Meditation Hall, where we keep a fire going in our big woodstove night and day.

I am grateful that we had plenty of warning and time to prepare for this storm which is every bit as bad and nasty as predicted.  

The radar pictures of the huge bomb cyclone that is swirling in place out in the Pacific Ocean like a wannabe hurricane and the rivers of rain being driven towards the West Coast made national news. 

Our mountain valley is 32 miles inland from the Coast, in the exact center of the area predicted to be hit the hardest by these storms.

I am glad that we took those severe weather warnings seriously because now that we have been under the storm’s assault for a full day, there is no way that we want to go anywhere. 

We have had 5 inches of rain so far, with another 7 inches predicted for tomorrow with at least a week of more rain beyond that.

It could get downright nasty and probably will.

We won’t try going anywhere because the flooding water will get so deep from overflowing creeks that the roads into town will be closed. Still Mountain feels like an island being swept by a hurricane.

Fortunately, because of the past two winters of one intense atmospheric river after another, we are veterans with too much experience and were as ready as we could be.

We Rebuilt and Upgraded Our Sump Pump System To Drain A Lake Under The Floor

Last year we put extensive work and all the money we could scrape together into upgrading and rebuilding our sump pump system. 

In heavy rain like this, water flows under our building from all sides and until we built our pump system, would form a lake underneath the floor.

This lake would get bigger and deeper as the winter sent more rain, and the moisture and constant wetness caused the floor above the lake, which covered half the building, to rot away.

Last fall, before the rains came, we put two months into removing the rotted floor, repairing and improving the 6 sump wells, installing new sump pumps, cutting wide deep ditches to catch, collect and channel incoming water into the wells and then finally rebuilding the floor. 

I wrote several stories about this work in progress reports published in this newsletter, such as this one...

And this one…

The Sweet Sound Of Sump Pumps Pumping...

As I sit in the warm Meditation Hall tonight while the storms shrieks and hollers outside, I can hear the sump pumps coming on automatically to pump out all incoming water and then shut off when the well is empty. 

Believe me, it is a sweet sound to hear them humming as they push the rainwater through buried pipes into a small creek on the edge of our property...which flows into bigger and bigger creeks until joining a wild river on its journey back to the sea.

We are on the edge of a 100 year flood plain, but fortunately this is our first atmospheric river this season, so all the creeks and rivers were at their lowest stage.  Nonetheless, I am keeping a watchful eye on possible flooding.

I have learned through hard experiences to treat these storms with respect and take each one as a wake up call.

We are well stocked with food and basic supplies.

Making Firewood From Dead Trees Donated To Us

We have been harvesting dead trees that folks donated from the hills around us for the past month, so we have a good reserve of perfectly seasoned wood in piles under tarps. 

On the day before this storm hit, which was my 74th birthday, I invested hours into making plenty of firewood to keep our fire going for several days.

Last year, after an atmospheric river wiped out our firewood production shed in one night of high winds and rain, we invested in building a heavy-duty shelter to replace it.  This gives me a dry place to take reserve wood from the piles and split it into as much perfect firewood as we may need.

Another atmospheric river later that winter destroyed our firewood bundle making shop during two nights of heavy rain that had survived countless storms before then. The damage is so extensive that it is now a tear down project.

Before this series of storms arrived, I filled and brought several carts of firewood into our building’s shop area, so we are well supplied.

The Pleasure of the Dancing Flames

One of our great pleasures of winter is gazing into the fire in our woodstove through the glass in its door, at the ever-changing beautiful dance of the flames which goes on night and day. 

Sometimes, as on a frosty morning, we like to open the big door of the wood stove to enjoy it as an open fireplace, sitting there in silent communion as the heat caresses our faces.

Then we are grateful for all the hard work it took to make each piece of wood that we feed to the fire to keep it going.

The swirling colors and sparkles, the sound of our heat powered little fans on top of the stove as they whirl faster and faster.

Tonight, as I write, I am grateful for being here, warm, safe and dry as the storm roars outside.

I Pray That I Will Always Welcome and Enjoy Walking In The Storm

Earlier, I went out walking in the storm, just so that I could feel it firsthand, knowing that I would be returning to this warm sanctuary.

It is exhilarating to hear the roar of howling winds above me, while cold raindrops pelted my face. I intend to never give up going out into the wild and scary night and cavorting in the storm.

It is so enlivening to my heart to love even the things I could be afraid of and to enjoy them.

As my beloved often says to remind me to appreciate this very moment we are sharing...”Enjoy it while you can!”

Thank you for being here today!

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