Monday -- December 11, 2017
Water Level at Little Falls: 2.9     Water Temperature: 40

The river is nice and low right now but the water temperature is also very low so be careful if you get on the river.

Attention: The stove/oven in the Clubhouse is no longer working. Well actually, it works but it is unusable. When I turned on the oven last Sunday the entire kitchen began to smell like stale urine, like under the bridge type, strong urine smell. When I turned off the oven, the smell went away and I knew then, what the problem was. Obviously some mice were nesting in the stove somewhere. The next day I took the stove apart, thinking I could remove the nest and all would be OK. Unfortunately, when I opened up the stove I found that the mice had made tunnels and nests all though the insulation of the stove. I began to clear out the soiled insulation but I soon realized that it would be impossible to make the stove sanitary enough to want to use it again. It was decided that we will need to buy a new stove/oven. It's too bad that we have to buy a new one since this one was working fine but I think we got our money's worth out of our existing stove since it was over 25 years old, before they had digital clocks. The funny thing is that even though the stove was a mouse hotel we don't seem to have an infestation of mice. There are no droppings or other evidence of the mice chewing into the food containers. I set up some mouse traps and I caught two mice the first night but none in the week since. The mice that I caught were white-footed mice, not the usual pest, the house mouse. That might explain why there are no other signs of infestation. These mice live on hickory nuts and are looking for lodging and that is all.

We had a nice snow cover here on Saturday. I'm so glad I was able to get up all of the leaves before our first snowfall.

I've also been working on installing the lights along the trail down the hill. I ran a new cable across the canal and I installed a junction box and three new light fixtures up in the trees. It was a lot of hard work, setting up the ladder on the steep hillside and fighting all of the branches, but the lighting has been restored on the trail! It's been a long road back to having lights on the trail and I'm quite proud of the professional-like job that I did reinstalling them.

I have some generous donations to report. First of all, The Potomac Conservancy was cleaning out the cellar at Lockhouse 8 and offered us a canoe so I went up there to retrieve a nice little Mad River 12 footer. Then, Club member Marc B donated two decent canoe carts and I went and picked those up at his house in nearby Mohican Hills. Finally, yesterday I drove out to Arlington and picked up a donation of two kayaks and some other gear from long-time Club members Amanda and Peter. Thanks people, I'm sure that this new/used gear will be put to good use.

I just learned that the Potomac Conservancy is abandoning their interpretive center at lockhouse 8. They had a nice long run of welcoming visitors to the Park, the river and the canal. Many thanks to the Potomac Conservancy, we will miss our upriver neighbors.

Tuesday -- December 12, 2017
Water Level at Little Falls: 2.9     Water Temperature: 40

Good news! There is hope that the canal will be rewatered along our stretch of the towpath. The C&O Canal Park received nearly $2.5 million for rewatering a stretch of the canal in Montgomery County. Construction to fix the locks and waste weirs is anticipated to begin on or about December 4, 2017 and extend until spring 2019 (weather dependent). Project work will focus on eight different areas between Little Falls and Swains Lock (Milepost 5-17). The exact time frame for work will be determined soon.

Friday -- December 15, 2017
Water Level at Little Falls: 2.8     Water Temperature: 35

The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes this morning was a sharp-shinned hawk perched on a branch outside my window, just above the bird feeder. It flew away when I went to the window and all the other birds, woodpeckers, doves, wrens, etc. returned to begin feeding again. I ambled into the living room to look at the river and there I saw a dozen hooded mergansers, also known affectionately as hoodies, one of my favorites. I love seeing our winter visitors on the river and it's so cool to be able to see 8 varieties of birds even before I have my coffee. Winter life on the Island isn't so bad after all.

There is a bit of ice on the surface of the river but I haven't turned off the water to the Clubhouse just yet. It's supposed to warm up next week so I decided to hold off for now.

Tuesday -- December 27, 2017
Water Level at Little Falls: 2.9     Water Temperature: 35

It is about to get real cold and soon the river will freeze and I will have to close the ferry. It will probably be tonight, right about the time that the wind stops blowing.

I turned off the water to the clubhouse and the ladies room. I winterized the men's room and it is now the "Winter Restroom".

Sunday -- December 31, 2017
Water Level at Little Falls: 2.7     Water Temperature: 32

Happy New Year everyone! The Island is keen, in 2018!

I may decide to abandon the Island for a couple of days and wait for the river to freeze nice and solid, coming and going has become an issue. And judging by the frigid forecast it looks as if we'll be able to simply walk to the Island before too long.

The canal and towpath are popular places when it gets this cold and we see a lot of people walking down here with their skates. The canal above lock seven is a good place to skate but you can also skate all the way from lock seven down to Sycamore Island. They'll be skating right on the river soon, if this cold continues.