April 16, 2011 by Gildas Paradis

Well spring has arrived but thankfully it is slow in coming, as a fast thaw woud have caused some major greif. As it were we had a major river running through our yard at our newest location Valley Riverside. The river breached the bank on tues night and surrounded the lodge which was protected by a 2 ft sandbag wall. It was my first experience with such a powerful force of nature. By Wednessday noon i was not sure whether i should stay and keep fighting it or bail out as our road was under 2 ft of rushing water and risked washing out, leaving me stranded there. It did calm down that afternoon and stabilized at a level which still concerend us but left me enough ground to drive in and out at least. It has turned out to be the worst flood many have seen in many many years and happened to be our first as we only purchased the property in January. We knew it flooded in spring but wholly smokes this is a bit much! We have plans to build a permanent dike around the property as we aren't excited about that ever happeneing again. I have included a picture but unfortunately i was too busy to snap shots during the worst time, we flew over the next day when all was calm.

Now it has subsided, but the Duck Mountains and Riding mnts are still full of snow, and warm weather on the way. This could mean another rush of water, but maybe it won't be too bad, wait and see i guess.

I now get to move my equipment up to our Duck Bay Lodge and get ready for the flood there. The water today is higher than i have ever seen it there, and it is still ice covered! Lots of water coming down that river soon too should make for some interesting days and nights.

So far this flood has cost me 2 full weeks of my time and several thousand dollars, and it isn't over, possibly just begining.

All i can say is that, I HOPE WE HAVE A DRY SUMMER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!