A Disappointing Ending
Ken and I experienced a pretty big disappointment this past week. Nothing that was life and death, for sure, but in the space of an hour, we went from being giddy with joy to being crushed when a big landscaping project in our backyard got washed away less than 24 hours after it was completed.
Our landscapers brought heavy equipment into our backyard last Tuesday and by the end of the day, we could begin to see our vision come to life.
The landscaping crew worked for three long days building a dry creek and a stairway designed to become a waterfall when it rains. The crew finished their work on Thursday evening and less than 24 hours later, it began to rain!
Ken and I hardly got any work done the entire day! We were just giddy, standing out in the rain rejoicing at how perfectly our dry creek ran as the water came down the hill as it always does when it rains.
After a few minutes, the water began to cascade down the stairway, just as we’d planned…
Everything was working just as we’d dreamed and planned. But a few minutes later, our joy turned to trepidation as the rain fell harder. In the span of only 55 minutes, almost four inches of rain fell—a gulley-washer like our neighborhood hasn’t seen since we moved here! The water quickly breached the banks of our new creek, but worse, water gushed down the hill, and the flagstone stairway waterfall, built into the hill where rain had already washed a gulley, all but collapsed as the rain carried away the new soil that had been brought in and packed around it. It was pretty sobering to see the power of water, even against several tons of massive rocks!
When the rain finally subsided, we could see that the damage was pretty severe. But as disappointed as we were, we also had to acknowledge that there was a good chance our short-lived landscaping project had kept the water from getting in our basement. This video shows the power of the water.
The grass seed and straw mulch that finished off our project mostly washed away and we’re not sure yet whether the beautiful stairway waterfall can be salvaged. But the dry creek isn’t too badly damaged. Just some river rock that needs to be put back in place between the flagstones. We absolutely realize that this is a first-world problem, and pales in comparison to everything else that is going on in the world. I would say easy come, easy go, but there was nothing easy about the work our great landscaping crew did!
Saturday morning we cleaned up the patio, washed down the furniture, and counted our blessings. Several times, we said, “The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord.” Yes, we’re sad and disappointed that our big project was wrecked almost before we could enjoy it. But in the whole scheme of things, we know this is small potatoes. We are blessed and grateful, and unlike so many other problems, this one is fixable. Things like this help put everything in proper perspective and teach us to hold material blessings with an open hand.
