any tips on cleaning out the cowl?

I guess i got lucky my car spent its whole life in west texas. So not too many rust issues there, However i dissassembled the whole car for its redo. With both the left and right air inlets in the cowl accessable with everything removed i kept reaching in on both sides and digging i got a pile of leaves and dirt out. I then rolled the shell outside, and used a 2 foot long thin tube air blower to go inside the cowl drain out holes and blow the remaining leaves and dirt around. I had leaves and dirt coming out the cowl vent, inlet tubes and such. Kept working with the air blower for about 30 kinutes until i got no more dirt and leaves to come out. At this point i swept up all the dirt and leaves. Almost 10 pounds of red clay texas dirt. I then rinsed the cowl out with a garden hose till i got clear water.