Top of the Hill

It is terrible to be so happy about the constant and continuing alerts about bad weather. We are so behind on rain that I will take this deluge. Not that getting to much rain at once fixes everything. It mostly will run off and thus the potential for flooding. But some will soak in, especially on the flat places.

My friend from college, Doug, always told me what his father told him, “Buy on the top of the hill.” It’s not for the view, but for the safety of having the water run downhill.

When we built the addition on our house 25 years ago our fabulous contractor who was all about water management. He ran drain pipes thirty yards away from our house for the runoff water in the down spouts. When we get big rains like this I am thankful for Joe.

I have a neighbor who lives on the downhill side. She complains about her driveway getting wet from runoff from property up the hill. I have tried to explain to her there is no stopping water, but she thinks there should be. She wasn’t friends with Doug, nor did she have Joe as a builder.

So pass the lesson on to all younger people. Water runs downhill. You can’t stop it. When it comes all at once, like it did today, you can get flooded. So live at the top of the hill. You are not being elitist, you are being smart.