The Calm Before The Storm

Last Friday I decided that I would set up my shelter along with my hammock. I noticed some clouds to the North east around 11, but the wind quickly pushed them along. Still I can feel a storm coming; humid air and the way the birds are chirping are chirping were the thing that made me sure it would strike eventually. 15 minutes later some rain falls and I had to stop writing for fear of the rain damaging my notebook. But I close my journal and enjoyed the rain, even though it ended promptly. Now I started putting the paracord on the edges and middle points of the tarp. I got it form ACE hardware along with the paracord. There’s nothing too special about it, just like some tarps you could find in a garage, blue with paint stains. With the help of my brother, we cut the paracord to be about 10 feet long and cauterized the ends. If there was some of the inside sticking out farther, when it burned it reminded me of a jelly-fish or an octopus, wrapping its appendages around their prey. Around 11:25 the sky is completely clear. It is so sunny that it hurts a little to look at the paper. I also heard a red winged black bird. They make very distinct calls, sometimes a “bee-eep” and others something like a “Onk La-ree”. There are also some storm clouds to the North West. Now I’m sure it’ll rain. As we finished tying the las of the paracord on I felt a rain drop. For the past week or so the morning has been really sunny, warm, and humid. But around 11 or so it would start raining. As soon as I felt a water droplet I put everything in my pockets and lifted the tarp with my brother. When we got inside of the woods it really started raining. When we reached my sector I ran inside to get rain jackets while my brother stood there under the limp tarp. We struggled to tie the knots high enough because to the tarps size. A good size for a tart is about as long as hammock, so maybe 8 or 9 feet. The tarp that I had was easily 1 and a half hammocks long. Another challenge was tying the knots when they are completely soaked. Your hands get wet by touching them, which makes your hands cold, which means you can’t tie knots as well. From the waist down we were drenched, but since it was so humid out our shorts dried quickly. Later I noticed from my window that the creek behind our house had started to overflow. Recently we made a mountain biking loop for a school project and made a ramp out of wood. I didn’t want that to get swept away or weaken from being waterlogged, so I tried to get it out before nothing could be done. I grabbed the bottom and since I would have fallen in if I reached over to get the higher end, I grabbed the lower end and dragged it. The higher end came down and collided with the water, soaking my shorts but more importantly, my sock. I put the ramp in a safe place and walked back to my sector. However, after a few moments, I barely noticed any water in my boot. I also checked on my tarp. I had made it so that one edge was high so I might have something like a patio, but it didn’t work out so well. The tarp was fine. Yeah, there were some spots where the water would pool but it was only a little. The patio didn’t work out so well because I could see very well out of it. It did make there be more space, which was nice. A more major problem was that somehow water was on the ground in my tarp. I had moved the leaves so that it would be less dirty, and must have swept some dirt away as well. The water must have been moving underground to the creek. Instead of coming out at the eroded parts of the river, it spat out of the ground under my tarp and made it all muddy and slippery. I’m not sure how to fix it though. Putting Dirt on it should be my best option. Anyways, here a picture of a red bellied woodpecker I drew earlier in the week. Males have an entire red head while females only have a red neck.