Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, your popular host, Mani the purebred border collie, here today to bring you a partly scary post. You may remember me from such similarly-themed posts as “A Different Kind Of Scary”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose.
That’s me, trying to talk the guy I live with into giving me a biscuit. You might have to embiggen the picture to see me.
Things have been mostly scary here lately. One thing after another. There were very loud explosions last night until one in the morning, even though fireworks are illegal here. And there was a terrific thunderstorm, as well. Two of them, in fact.
This is mostly what’s been happening.
And today, the guy I live with was up on the ladder, cleaning out the gutters, when his neighbor hung her laundry on the deck, and the smell was so “insanely strong”, as he put it, that he got so dizzy he almost fainted and fell of the ladder onto the concrete patio.
I wouldn’t know what to do if that happened. But fortunately the guy I live with has a lot of experience working on ladders (he even took a ladder safety class), and so was able to stay on the ladder. He finished cleaning out the gutters.
He took pictures of the lichen growing on the wood of the patio cover.
The patio itself has a green film on it. This has happened before, in years past.
Last night he took some houseplants outside so they could get rained on. Like this cactus.
Then it started to hail, so he took the plants back inside. The hail stopped, so he brought the plants back outside.
Not much gardening is going on, for obvious reasons.
Here are some Ratibida columnifera:
And the one plant left of Penstemon cobaea.
These are both self-sown, if you needed to know.
The milkweed along the canal road is starting to flower. Big healthy colonies, this year.
You can see how green the field is. That wood is leftover from the flood.
The creek has had water in it almost every day for a few weeks now.
Okay. So now for the ultra-scary part.
Some time last week, I forget when, the greenbelt was mowed, early in the morning. Well, early for us, anyway. We don’t get very early because we stay up until midnight. The guy I live with has done this for over thirty years.
Now if you remember the picture of the creek flooding, from a few posts ago, you can imagine how much water went into the culvert that goes under the canal. Some of it cut past the culvert on that day.
So on my morning walk, the day the greenbelt was mowed, I discovered this.
A sinkhole. It’s really deep.
The guy I live with called the sheriff’s department, who sent out the fire department.
The firefighters had a probe and stuck it into the sinkhole, but couldn’t see how deep it was. Then they suggested calling whoever manages the greenbelt, and so the guy I live with called that person, since he’s talked to them before, and also the company that manages the canal.
The sticks were a kind of feeble attempt to prevent people from falling into the sinkhole.
A couple of days ago this happened:
I guess we’ll see what happens next. Maybe someone needs to talk to an engineer to see what to do now, because maybe it’s not just a simple matter of pouring extra dirt into the sinkhole.
The culvert goes under the canal, and on the north side it’s at least ten feet below the level of the canal road.
Pretty scary, if you ask me.
So that’s what’s been going on around here. Lots of scary things, and it isn’t even Halloween.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
Oh my; that IS scary! It could be much bigger than it looks from the surface, and collapse elsewhere! A big sinkhole opened up in the main road at work, and someone I work with almost drove into it. He came to the yard to get barricades so that no one else would drive into it, but there were a few minutes when he came to the yard that the hole was unattended! Fortunately, no one fell into it. Goodness, with the explosion and two thunderstorms and a sinkhole, it is very scary there! By the way, I could not see your characteristic pose in the first picture. Are you in the background behind the bunny’s tail?
Yes, I’m behind the bunny.
The sinkhole is pretty scary. As is the weather. Three more days of severe thunderstorms in the forecast.
There’s the power of flooding water for you! A dangerous situation alright.
It is. The guy I live with said that “back in the last century” the creek flooded so much it went over the levee of the canal and tore away the one on the north side.
The second time it flooded like that the smell of weedkiller was overpowering. The guy I live with said there isn’t a weedkiller factory nearby, so he never knew why the smell was so strong. That was in the 1990s.
We are close to the banks of a large river which occasionally overflows and it is such a powerful event when it does with an amazing volume of water moving at great speed. Fortunately, our house is above the flood level but the water has come into the garden on occasion.
The guy I live with said that the creek flooded so much, back in the last century, that it almost came into the garden here. That sounds pretty scary to me. Our house is above the hundred-year floodplain level, too.
(The back fence is about a meter lower than the level of the patio; maybe more than that.)
My goodness…as if those super annoying fireworks weren’t bad enough (in my neighborhood the knuckleheads kept setting them off until 2 am) and extra loud…i.e. terrifyingly loud claps of thunder. Poor Mani, so very sorry. Wow, that sinkhole is quite surprising. If something like that happened in my neighborhood, I’m not sure what to do or who to call. Eek! Stay safe Mani and keep an eye on that man you live with so he doesn’t hurt himself on a ladder or something. The hail has pretty much destroyed the few veggies planted. Not sure I want to replace and restart over this year.
The guy I live with said his sister told him there was a big sinkhole in Littleton, and there were others around the metro area.
He gave up growing vegetables years ago, after seeing gardens totally wiped out in the 1990s. There have been a lot of “safe” years to grow them here (relatively safe), but 2018 wasn’t one of those years, and it looks like this year won’t be either.
YIIIIIIIIIIKERSS!!!!!!!! Mani an Guy that iss a scarey sinkhole inndeed!!!
Wee are reeleeved that peepell came out an put a propurr barrier up. Wee wunder how THE peepell will fiz such a sunk hole!
Wee just had a full day or rain an Funderstormss today!! Man did mee ‘book it’ outta THE Livin room when Funder sounded!
Iss still rainin butt quietur 😉
Yore flowerss look so purrty……
An Guy wee sorry THOSE fumess allmost knocked you off THE laddur. Guud thing you new what to due!
Stay safe deer frendss….
~~~head rubss~~~BellaDharma~~~ an {{{hugss}}} BellaSita Mum
Thanks. It seems like all we have is thunder, all the time. Not as much rain as before, though.
It will be interesting to see what they do about the sinkhole. It’s pretty scary.
Right now it’s raining a little, almost at midnight, and there’s a lot of thunder, but the guy I live with says the storm is to the south of us.
Mee, like you Mani, does NOT like Funder! Did you go to yore Fort? Glad storm was to South of you.
An yeah mee an BellaSita Mum await what will happen to THE sink hole two!
We had a bunch of thunder yesterday afternoon, and the weather radar looked very scary, but the only thing that happened was that it poured rain.
The guy I live with says we’re supposed to have a bunch of hot, dry days before another weather system moves in. Having the highest part of the Continental Divide just west of us (it’s only an hour from our driveway to the summit of Guanella Pass on the other side of Mount Evans) has an effect on our weather.
YIKESS! Youss’ gotted more rain an Funder! That Contynental Deevide sure DOES have an effect on yore weather Mani! Wee gotted more rain over nite two…
Heer’ss two no Funder an sum nice sunny dayss fore you an Guy!
Now it’s hot again.