LIFE ON THE RIVER  (FUN IN THE FLOOD)

“Dear Santa.  It seems as if we had a bit of a misunderstanding.  For Christmas, I asked to be ‘blessed with peace and love’, but instead I am ‘stressed with weeks of flood’.  Next Christmas I will try to choose my words more carefully.
Love, Lynn  P.S.  I still believe.”

Yes, we are flooded, and have been since about a week before Christmas.  We have lived on the Suwannee for 18 years, and we have experienced six or seven real floods, and several episodes of high water. This flood is our first Christmas flood, and it is a minor flood.  Our house is built on stilts, and Cary’s tool shed and my greenhouse, are built on floating docks, now tied to trees. Our picnic tables are also tied to trees, so they don’t float away. Our floods are not flash floods.  We always have several days to do flood prep.  Our utilities continue to function. We travel by boat from our house to our cars, on the other side of the water (about a ¼ mile through the swamp).  It is kind of fun, except when it is raining.  Cary has put reflecting tape on the trees, and with his head light, he can see his path through the swamp at night. Groceries come in by boat, and garbage goes out by boat.  Guests come in by boat, and guests go out by boat. We live in this flood plain by choice.  It is a bit complicated, inconvenient, and time consuming, but by no means a catastrophe, unless we get a flood so severe that we get water into our house. (Because we are almost 75, perhaps it is time for us to consider selling, and moving to non-flooding property?) As of late January, our river level has dropped about 12 inches. Baring no more big rain events north of us, especially in the Okeefenokee Swamp, we should be back to normal in about three weeks.  (Please stop praying for rain.)

Granddaughter enjoying swinging, with her toes in the flood.
Cary in boat in back yard.
Grandchildren arriving for a visit.
Neighbor’s tractor fell off the road driving through high water.