Tag Archives: water
The Standoff
The flames closed in on the ranger. The fiery net constricted on him, forcing him to take shelter creekside where Rifle Creek flowed through a meadow. The fire blasted him with windblown smoke and ash, and consuming the free oxygen. Ranger Searles lay creekside, looking out at the fire encroaching on the edge of the [...]
Under the Lake
During and following a winter rain, water flows down from the surrounding mountains and collects throughout the floor of the Sink. Puddles form everywhere. It doesn’t take much water to result in a puddle with a great deal of surface area. Once the storm clears and the sky opens, the earth’s warmth escapes heavenward. In [...]
Pineapple Express
Soundtrack: Bob Dylan, High Water (for Charlie Patton) The fire burned down from heaven upon the vast, white wastes. When stone burns, it is like burning iron: it becomes a red and yellow liquid. So it was with the white wastes. They liquefied in the sun, but their lava was blue; a deep, absorbent blue. [...]
The Catch
“Look—”, started Mehrzad, freeing a hand to point forward into the water. “Yeah …”, Peter replied, keeping both hands on the net. They saw flashes of blood-orange in the murky water before them. Mehrzad stumbled in the muck of the ditch bottom as they hastily pressed toward the opposite net. They dragged one net between [...]
The Water Lantern
Sam approached Peter at recess with the eternal question, “Did you catch something?” Peter replied with a slanted nod. Sam continued,”I think I might need some fertilizer for my garden. Do you think I could fish on your canal?” “It’s not my canal. .. Sure.” “Great. I’ve been saving up for a fishing pole. … [...]
Fishing for Fertilizer
After that first walk along the ditch, Sam would sometimes take that way home. He might not if he had to pee. He often had too, since he didn’t like using the school restrooms, there was so much teasing and bullying there. One afternoon he encountered a boy he knew from school, sitting on the [...]
Fish In Irrigating Ditches
THE CARP BECAME A NUISANCE TO THE CALIFORNIA FARMERS. SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 17.—Samuel Page, who owns a farm east of Hanford, states that the introduction of carp into the streams of the valley has fastened one of the worst curses on the irrigated section that the farmers have to contend with. Kings Rivers and the [...]
Hidden Valley
There’s a very special place in Slough City called Hidden Valley. It’s not far from the elementary school that Sam attended. He’d heard of it a number of times before he ever saw it. He imagined that it must be in a deep, narrow ravine, easy to miss because of the overwhelming flatness of the [...]
The River
Sometimes in late Spring and early Summer, the Sink people would go to the river to swim. The Dorah family was no exception, and Huck and Sam enjoyed the trips to the river equally. One time, Sam borrowed an inflatable raft and floated down river. Huck eagerly followed along, flipping along with his webbed feet. [...]
Ditch People
Huck and Sam sometimes played fetch in the irrigation ditches. The nature of the game varied with the flows. Sometimes they played along the dry ditch bottom, and sometimes sending Huck plunging after a tennis ball into the cool mountain runoff. They lived in a land of ditches, in; a land of ditch people. After [...]