Chapter 51

During thaws, snow melt that doesn’t immediately run off sometimes seeps into cracks in the rocks. It might pool. If it does, along about the wee hours of the morning, when the temperature drops below freezing, that water is now ice and ice expands in that anonymous crack and acts as a wedge. The wedging acts to split the rock a little wider and deeper. Eventually the wedging reaches a tipping point and a piece of that rock peels off and goes crashing down the cliff side. On its way it might upset the delicate balance of other rocks and if upset they tend to join the first rock in wild career assaulting multiples of rocks and boulders. Such are the consequences of gravity ... Instant landslide.

At the bottom of most mountain cliffs is a stream. It may be intermittent or it might have a better source than snow melt run-off and is a constant stream.

Water is an amazing thing. It can be the source of life ... for without water we surely die ... or it can be the author of death ... for too much of it is a bad thing. Water in flood sweeps all before it ... trees, trash and boulders. If there’s enough water moving fast enough it lifts houses off foundations, tears up trees by their roots and tumbles boulders. Physics presents mathematical formulae that tell a scientist how much water moving at a what given rate will float how many pounds of rock. Lots of water moving very fast can float big ones ... house sized. Those smaller boulders take less water but they bang and crash rounding off sharp edges just like their bigger relatives.

The two boulders that took out the Wolf Creek bridge were a physics lesson in action. As effective a throwing a watermelon off a five story building to demonstrate mass meeting an immovable object ... such as a car striking another car ... and the occupants become watermelons. The sudden onslaught of water washed out a goodly section of the high bank and sunk my neighbors house.

I was busily explaining that physics lesson to my insurance agent when my phone rang.

After ignoring the incessant ringing the agent said, “Answer the damn thing. You have flood coverage ... we’ll pay.”

“I had my furnishings covered too.”

“Make me a list ... answer the phone.”

“Post residence.”

“Speaking.”

“Cleveland Engineering?”

“I have no idea ... we’ve had an event here and I haven’t had time to look.”

“What kind of an event?” I said, “ ... a flood ... a big one. The government is calling it a once in ten thousand years event.”

“My house is fine ... my renter lost everything.”

“Call me back in ... oh ... say ... a month and I’ll tell you what I think.” I hung up.

A parting shot from the insurance adjuster as he was leaving. Rolling down his window he paused to say, “I know the physics involved ... I wanted to know if you did too.” Up went the window and he was off. Off to the next insured, to explain why their policy didn’t provide coverage because they had no flood clause. To explain why Miss Post down the road was covered and they were not.

The foundation for the new house was going to be dug in the field east of the driveway south of the apple orchard.

I didn’t want my sunrise interfered with.

The excavator and his machine pulled in just after the insurance man pulled out.

He dismounted his toter and surveyed the prospect. I could see him shaking his head as he plucked a straw and chewed it. I moseyed to his vicinity.

“Where’s the owner?”

Okay, I’ll admit I’m still a girl ... and I don’t look any older than most high school sophomores ... still ... it’s insulting to be dismissed out of hand.

“I’m the owner,” I said.

“Can’t put the house here.”

“Can’t?”

“Nope, ground is wrong.” He turned to the north. “D’ya see the fork in the drive across from the the little house? It can go there. Either side, don’t matter. South facing to take advantage of the sun.”

“The county planners approved the site across from the old orchard,” I said.

“Those guys,” he snorted, “Approved the golf course, approved casing Goose Creek to run under the block of stores, approved building on the north side of the mountain ... and who knows what they’ll approve next.”

We all know the story of the golf course ... mis-management of federal funds. Casing the creek led to foundation collapse. Building on the north side led to warming the dirt ... led to massive land slips. The south side of hills have already done the warming by the sun ... south side subdivisions don’t slip.