🌋 Landslides, Kitty Cats, & Nothing Else 🐈⬛
Landslides near our cabin have kept me away from Hive lately, but I have a kitty friend that helps me when I do have time for Hive.
🤳Wait, ChairWoman Meow Photo Dump First 🐆
I'll get to the landslides in just a bit, but until then, look at my cat yo. I suffered a two month Hive hiatus recently, but during that time I still took photos, and I am currently working through my camera roll to catch up to real time. I feel like these events took place a few weeks ago, but it could've also been 6 weeks, time kind of stands still here in the middle of nowhere.
I never intended for a cat to take over my camera and blog, but very much enjoy watching her experience new things and learn how to handle herself in this dangerous village full of dogs without gates or leashes. I understand why she's very particular about where and who she will sleep with, it's a very vulnerable situation for an eagle snack like ChairWoman Meow. On my lap is where she often spends her days, and I'm quite happy to have a deskmate.
🌊 The Floods Are Biblical Here 👳♂️
We suffered three landslides this season, all on the same slope that had problems last year. It's partly because our land isn't full of rocks like the forest, mostly due to the clay backfill that we and previous owners have dumped on the land to bring it up to road level. The land was also clearcut before we owned it and there are very few native trees holding up the river bank.
Combine this with an outside bend of the river, and it's a recipe for disaster. We can't grow anything fast enough in the dry season that will have strong enough roots to prevent a landslide the following season. We hope this year to have some kind of excavator get into the riverbed when it's dry season and ankle deep, then we could move some boulders to the bottom of our slope, both shoring up our bank and also allowing the water to flow more freely through this part of the river.
🦜 Kind Of Like A Pirate 🏴☠️
If Meow was a parrot and my turban was a tricorn, I guess I'd be a pirate. There are lots of places on our land that she's scared to visit by herself, but on my shoulder she quite enjoys exploring new territory. The above photo is awesome because I've always wondered what her facial expression is when I carry her around.
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Praying hard to fix that edge now.
Meow said: can't touch this
Yes, the main problem at the moment is that it is still raining enough to make the ground too soft for trucks to enter and leave without getting stuck. Usually by January things are pretty dry and hard, so we'll hope to dump more dirt at that time.
Oh no,a riprap must be needed on that area, that could be lots of works, I also think bamboo can be grown at the side of the river to hold up soils. Hope for the best.
I thought about riprap, but the river is so violent I think it would be destroyed in one season. There is an old bridge upstream made from concrete and rebar, and every flood we get a motorbike to car-sized piece of concrete and rebar washed down to us. I've even seen boulders the size of small house roll down the river, so scary.
I do think bamboo would be a good temporary solution to help, and despite not having deep roots, they can grow fast, and that is most important at the moment. Thanks my friend.
I can relate to that, living near the stream is good only when the weather is good, but the flooding. We have a hut near the river, and when there would be typhoon, we had to pack things up to our other house at the hill. That is the way we live, we had to build one house just because the storm is frequent in our place. The hut at the stream still survive up to now but the river is now very close. The flood nowadays are scarier than before.
Oh no, sounds similar. The landslide is within a meter of the cabin we are staying in at the moment, so we are hoping and praying for the dry season to begin.
Never great to have power of water pushing through the garden, suggestion I hope is useful DIY Gabion Walls should be available anywhere in the world.
Have a great day, love the addition to the family and have fun making the home your own.
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We've thought of several cost effective options, but we fear everything we could afford could be washed away in an evening. Even the highway here can lose house-sized chunks in one storm, boulders the size of small houses even roll down the river and smash into things, very scary. We did some concrete work above normal river levels, but below flood levels last seasons, and now it's 50% destroyed, the might of the river is incredible. Thanks for stopping by my friend, Meow says hi.
We lose a lot with heavy rains, building close to rivers always a nightmare. Hope you find a way to overcome the problem.
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That looks like a very troublesome situation? Have you considered putting some wooden poles in the water near the shore? These could simultaneously break the water flow intensity and hold back some of the land, I think, I'm definitely not an expert. It also depends on if it's even possible to keep anything in the ground, depending on what the state of the bottom of the creek is.
I have been pounding scrap wood into the hillside a little higher up, and it has helped to stop and/or slow down the slides. All wood too close to the river is always lost, so the best idea we have is to have an excavator push boulders to our side of the bank during the dry season. It's a bit of a triple problem, our land doesn't have enough rocks in it like the forest because our property is mostly backfill. The landslide area is also located on the outside bend of the river, and to make things worse, last year's flood created a chokepoint in the river just after this turn, about three truck sized boulders impeding water flow. It makes a beautiful rapid to look at, but also causes more flow to be directed away from the main channel during flooding.
We're gonna try with a lot of bamboo this year, and although the roots really aren't strong enough, they drink a lot of water and create a canopy quickly. I suspect a portion of the problem comes from the rain directly hitting the hillside, and a bamboo canopy would allow the rain to reach the ground more gently.
I see, so the best time to solve the problem is before the rainy season with lots of preventive measures, but then there's still an amount of unpredictability.
Good thinking. I like that the approach is a natural one.
Living next to a river like this seems like a fusion of two extremes. Extremely nice views and peace of mind when it's quiet, and then extreme upkeep and stress levels. Lots of luck to you guys!
Because we are at the headwaters the river can go from clear and peaceful to a deadly torrent of mud and trees in about 20 minutes. It certainly is extreme, and I can imagine how awesome this would be for a visitor who has zero responsibilities here.
Oh there are a few types of plants that you can plant to prevent landslides, they are usually from the coconut family. The tree is only about 1 meter tall and grows very quickly. you can refer to it
We planted some trees last year, some from the forest, bamboo, coconuts, lost half of them. The problem is trees will take up to 10 or 15 years to provide the kind of roots that will hold the hill together. For a short-term solution we are going with bamboo and bananas, hopefully this will improve the soil because it is pure clay and almost nothing will grow. After a season or two of bamboo and bananas, perhaps the trees can start building strong roots, and eventually one day cut away the bamboo to allow the trees to take over.
I really like dwarf coconut trees, we have a few, but they are hard to find here.
You can find businesses that sell forestry trees, I think they will have a great way for you. In my place, in addition to planting coconut trees, people often create steel molds and then put stones in them and plant them on top of each other to form a high wall. This prevents the soil from being eroded.
The river gets so violent that only industrial things last more than one season. They've rebuilt a small bridge made from rebar and concrete already two times in two years, only a kilometer from our house.
We made the mistake last year of planting trees to close to the river, lost many but still have all the ones on higher ground.
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STOPAwww! Meow looks so cute and did I tell you that you don't have to worry? Because Meow is doing amazingly well on your behalf.☺️
Well thanks, sometimes I fell guilty to be a cat's vegan human. The only thing that makes me feel a little better is that she chose us instead of us forcing her into our vegan house. She does seem to get enough protein though from all the lizards, mice, and butterflies she eats.
Oh, i thought you had gotten the landslides under control!
I guess that's a yes and a no. I think there is no more sliding for this season because the rains have become less violent. However, I thought I had things under control three times, reinforced the week areas, ect., then it slid again. Our second rainy season here has taught me that the microclimate here is nothing less than extreme, perhaps extreme enough for a Mountain Dew commercial.
Landslides are very dangerous and cats are also scared because of landslides like this. It's dangerous if landslides like this, you have to find a way to prevent landslides, friends.
Yes, I think it would be a scary sight to see. We heard two of the three slides, ran out to look at it probably seconds after it happened. Shame there is no video footage of these slides, would be incredible to see despite how much of a bummer they are.
very true but maybe a nice view friends, I hope you are always healthy and your family friends.