When we bought the place there had just been a lot of work done to repair the levee. It has an amazing man made lake, and we are told there had previously been a swale half way across the levee and it had washed out along with a good chunk of the contents of the lake about six months prior to our purchase. Our delivery drivers tell us stories of driving across the levee and their dually tires hanging out in space on the sides.
On levee closest to the house there are 3 culverts. At least I’m sure two of them are culverts as they tunnel through the levee to the other side while the third is actually a pipe that drops vertically down about six feet and then cuts over through the levee. I don’t know if that qualifies as a culvert or the proper name for it is something else. As part of the repair when everything washed out the swale was removed and another culvert was added at the top side of the levee furthest from the house. This has worked really well to keep it draining during some of the heavy rains we have. I think I calculated that when we drop 3 inches of water out of the lake, we are sending over 1.5 million gallons downstream. The reason we from time to time drop about three inches of water of the lake is our bane, the beavers. We have a den of them on the opposite side of the lake. I am amazed by how much destruction they can cause in a small amount of time. It’s either chewing down trees or pushing the mud up to block off the culverts. I had half-heartedly tried to trap them last fall, but I think there is going to be more effort in that direction this year. We are also hoping that Ix, our new coonhound, will help us do battle with them. They are fairly awesome critters, I would just really like them to be awesome somewhere else.