Sunday-- July 22, 2018
Water Level at Little Falls: 6.1     Water Temperature: 75

THE FERRY IS CLOSED!!

I guess that it isn't surprising to most of you that the ferry is closed today, considering the epic rains that we had yesterday. I'm not surprised either, but the sudden rise in the river did catch me off-guard a little bit. I didn't want to rush home last night and deal with the ferry in the dark and the rain so I waited until this morning and I paid for it.

I woke up at Mary's at 7 am and the river was already at 6 feet. It's not fun when your first thought of the day is imagining having to jump off the ferry onto a dock that is two feet under water. I jumped out of bed, skipped the coffee and headed straight down to the river. By the time I arrived, the bell rope had already been torn asunder and the river was creeping very close to the ferry rope. There was the usual, huge pile of branches and debris all tangled up with the ferry chains and being pushed hard against the ferry. Using the pole, I freed up the chains and braced myself for the high-water ferry-trip across the river.

I reached the dock on the Island, but I was reluctant to jump into the river and onto the submerged dock. I grabbed a cinder block off the ferry and stood it up vertically on the dock so that there was still a couple of inches of it above the water. I balanced myself on the block and placed another block two feet closer to the Island. Then I grabbed the bench off of the ferry and, while carefully balancing myself on the teetering blocks, I managed to slap the bench down, and voila, I was on the Island and my feet were dry. Amazing! I'm glad I made it over but I have to make sure that I continue to balance my dedication to this Club with my own personal safety.

Everything seemed alright on the Island. I had to rush over to my mini sailing dock to secure it and to drag the duck boards away from the shore. I also had a canoe down there that needed to be rescued. The biggest hassle might be that there is a lot of stuff collecting on the swim float that we launched last Sunday. There is actually a sixty-foot tree stuck to it right now.

Since the ferry is closed today, (speaking of dedication) I thought that maybe I could go off and do something off-Island but I think I better stay put. There is still so much water headed this way and they don't seem to have updated the predictions yet. The Monacacy River is in flood stage and the gage at Edwards ferry has already surpassed the earlier predictions. Thankfully, most of the rain fell in the east, so that the gages above the Monacacy are actually going down. But we can't relax, there is still more rain predicted all week, bummer.

Friday-- July 27, 2018
Water Level at Little Falls: 5.9     Water Temperature: 75

The ferry is closed and will be closed again tomorrow.

Sunday-- July 29, 2018
Water Level at Little Falls: 4.8     Water Temperature: 75

The ferry is running again! Yeah!

There is no bell rope up right now so you might have to yell or ring the phone.

The river is still very silty and brown and the visibility in the water in nil but it's a nice day with low humidity. Plus, since the water was high, I was able to push the captains float back into the river. I placed it upriver of the arching silver maple so it's kind of stuck between two low-hanging trees, but it's nice to have it out in the water for a change.

Tuesday -- July 31, 2018
Water Level at Little Falls: 4.8     Water Temperature: 75

There is so much to catch you up on. It's been a great month down here with lots of Island activity. I'm especially happy to see the kids enjoying the new paddle board. Normally, July can be a slow month but not this year. I guess there was a lot of pent-up demand after we were closed for so long.

It's great to have all of these kids here but all of this ferry pulling is making it hard for me to stay ahead of the chores. I had to order parts to fix the lawn mower but it's working fine now. We had another tree fall, that makes five this year, so I had to get the chainsaw out again. I've been working on painting the new stanchions for the ferry and I put a new shower head on the outdoor shower.

We had yet another week of high water last week, which is so weird for July that I can't tell you.

We were able to get the swimming float launched two weeks ago but right now there is a telephone pole-sized tree snagged on it.