EarthNSky wrote:
...... My creek runs into it, but at the time I found the crawdad,Good question. When we lived in SW VA, we were above a local creek about 1000 feet or so, and below that, another thousand feet or so to
even Rock Creek had been dry for a year...so where the heck did
that little fellow come from if not an underground stream?
the New River. There were many springs in the area, one spring
about a quarter mile above the house where we had a springbox and
line that ran to the springhouse attached to the house, so the
outflow from that line ran through the house and excited below it.
Direct overflow from the springbox ran down the hill and came out
beside the house but that gully was dry most of the time, as there
were several splits above it.
But every couple of years there would be a storm and there'd be a
flash flow (fast, scary, 4-foot wall of water that could well have
washed an unwary person right to the New), and it never failed but
that when that happened the boys would bring in a half-dozen or so
giant crawdads (well, giant to us, 6-8" long) which they got crawling
up the banks of the suddenly-filled gully, away from the water. When
the water was down, they'd look and look for more, and we not only
found no big ones, we couldn't find any at all. Never saw one except
for when it was flooding. Never saw one of any size in the
springhouse. We finally concluded they were somewhere underground
in between floods and had gotten washed out in the sudden flow of
water. Wade was about 4 or so, and his question, when we finally
figured it all out "You mean we're drinking crawdad pee in our
water?".
Interesting, though, to contemplate how much/many live things there
are where we don't see them at all.
SJ, snug in her little house while it snows outside, and snows, and
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