What we did at 4am this morning. . .

What we did at 4am this morning. . .
Originally uploaded by Hotash

with the big storm coming in i was asked of me 'so is it worth living on the river?'

well, here's my answer.
YES!!!

yesterday after getting up and listening to rain bark (at what i figured were the fish in the river) i decided to let cali out and be sure there really was a 'bugger' out there-well sure enough there was (so she said)

i put on my favorite cerublu scart and pulled on my boots and headed to check with rain and cali. what we found was a man in his 30's or so, a younger man in his 20's and a small child. the older of the group was carrying a cross bow and walking along the river edge. the 20ish looking dude was thigh deep in hole with a long gaffing rod- i was FURIOUS!!!

i yelled at them 'you need to leave the river now! this is a closed spawning stream!!!'
they played deaf and dumb for a minute then when they saw me reach for the phone and i told them i was calling the cops :) the whole time rain and cali were just barking my support-the creeps took off up the river and hiked out the nearest little opening they could find-empty handed mind you. worst of all, i think they were neighbors!!!

anyway, after that we didn't see the fish the rest of the afternoon.
i went to work pissed. . .
then ended up even more upset when i walked in to work and found
this had happened

but, alas, i'm sidetracked here-what was the question?
oh yeah, 'is it worth living on the river?'

most of you know that we took a terrible hit in the 2005 storm we only lost trees and land so we consider ourselves lucky but it was pretty tough to take after having only just moved in 6 months earlier.

for me (and chris) the many happy moments we spend on the river, either in it or watching the river float by or the dogs enjoying a swim or tilting back a brew (or more), are moments well spent. in fact, our whole family LOVES the river

anyway back to the answer (story), this morning when i got off of work at 4am the wind was blowing strong and the rain still had not come. i made it all the way home, let the dogs out and the morning had become silently calm and a bit warm even. we were heading out to the field when we heard a terrible crashing sound down at the river. a slight regress here, when we first moved in, that first wet season i got so scared one night when i heard someone walking up the river in the dark. i ran in the house and locked the doors with the dogs- i told chris the next day and he laughed-told me, it's just the fish silly!

well, lucky for me, i just knew it was the fish again this morning so i took the dogs and two flashlights (just in case ;) and we walked down. this time there were the biggest fish i have ever seen in the river-ever! they were beautiful and about 8 of them all together. they were so big they were sticking out of the shallow water by about 3 inches or so. they were thrashing around and then would find a deep enough hole to hang out in for a minute or so, then do it all again.

one pair were pretty beat up and obviously tired, they were just calmly hanging out in one spot. rain and cali both waded out to check on the strange creatures in the water at night. i have never let them be in the river before when this is happening but everything was so calm last night. the tired pair did not care at all that they were being sniffed. cali left after just a few sniffs and rain stayed until one slightly flipped and scared her-it was funny!

the dogs came back and we all just stood there in the night listening to the fish. then another explosion of sound and thrashing around. i turned the flashlight on and there was a huge silver fish laying on its side on the side of the river. the dogs and i are up on the bank well above the river. i stand there and watch and wait for it to get the strength to flop back into the water. . .after a few minutes i realize it's not going back in the water-i can't stand it any more and i say to the dogs 'come on let's go save a fish!' and we all rush down the bank to the river. the fish is just laying there, gasping. i tried to poke it over with my hand-it's too heavy to move so i stepped a bit closer (not wanting to get my Alabama's wet) and tried again. nothing. it was desperate now. i took my shoes off and waded out in my socks into the cold water. i grabbed it by the base of the tail with both of my hands and dragged it back into the river. it hung out in the deeper water for a bit and then took off like a bullet! i can't believe how fast these fish are-it's amazing.

we trotted off to bed, well dripped up the river bank and then i tried to sleep-it didn't come easy but sometime after 6am i fell asleep. i woke up at noon-thirty and here i am again at work for another day:)

so my answer is emphatically "YES!" it's lovely living on the river