Wednesday -- September 5, 2018
Water Level at Little Falls: 3.9     Water Temperature: 86

Holy Cow! Another unexpected storm hit yesterday afternoon, around 3:00, and what a doosie! It was like a mini derecho.

I wasn't here when it hit but when I got back here I knew something big had happened. The first thing I noticed was that there were fallen branches and leaves littered everywhere. When I looked across the field, every chair was on it's back as were the Weber grills. Everything that was on the shelves in the screen porch was scattered all over the floor and, it's hard to believe, even the screen was ripped by the wind. All of the jewel weed and even the stout pokeweeds were laying flat making it easy to tell from which direction the wind came from. I walked down to the swim dock to discover that the large branch that had fallen last month had blown across the field and destroyed one of the Adirondack chairs when it landed. Walking further toward the top of the Island I realized that we had lost another big tree. This one was a hackberry that was about 40 feet tall. It fell toward the Maryland shore and damaged a couple of other trees on it's way down. It is now blocking the trail near where the old mulberry had fallen.

If you weren't here on last Monday. Labor Day, you missed a great event. Mia and Steve really know how to bring it and we are so lucky to have them and all of their positive energy here on the Island on Labor Day. It was so fun to see all of the kids and how excited they were. Lots of kids means lots of dirt in the bathrooms but I didn't even mind the extra mopping, knowing how much fun they had. I didn't count the number of children that were here but I would guess over fifty. This year we had a bonus at the regatta in the form of a live band. Club member Geoff brought his electric band and they set up in the Clubhouse. Their drummer was late so I got to sit in with them for a few songs. Wow, what a talented bunch of guys. I think everyone loved having the music.

Monday -- September 10, 2018
Water Level at Little Falls: 6.4     Water Temperature: 70

The ferry is closed.

Well, here we go again. The river is climbing and I'm crying. I will spend today moving the canoes off of the lower rack of the canoe shed, and tying them down along with the club canoes and kayaks. I started some prep last night but I still have to tie down the picnic tables and move all of the chairs. We're expecting ten feet by tomorrow morning. I just hope and pray that we don't get hit too bad by hurricane Florence. That storm could eclipse all the other terrible rain storms that we've already had this year.

Some new dam warning buoys were installed last Wednesday. They installed seven new buoys and left the old rusty one there. Thanks to Gerry Barton for contacting the Corp of Engineers and pressing to have these buoys installed. The river is a slightly safer place thanks to you.

Wednesday -- September 12, 2018
Water Level at Little Falls: 9.0     Water Temperature: 65

The river is receding now and there doesn't seem to be too much damage, although it looks like the ramp to the swim dock took a hit. It was nice to have Mark, our editor down here on Monday to help me move all of the boats from the bottom rack and to help tie everything down.

The river crested yesterday at about 2:30. Sadly, that was right when I had to leave the Island to go to the dentist. Under any other circumstance I would have just rescheduled but this was different. This appointment was to finally install my crowns for the teeth that I have been missing for over a year. I didn't want to cross the river when it was so high but I didn't want to put off getting my teeth any longer, especially since it's only a week until my wedding.

I pushed off from the island and paddled upstream until I was past the low-hanging bell rope and then made my dash for the opposite shore. My main fear was that i would get hung up on the bell rope and get flipped, so I had my pocket knife ready to cut the rope if need be. All of the lower steps and the landing were submerged. My hope was to shoot right into that opening without getting bashed into the giant sycamore there at the steps and land at the upper steps. It was a thrilling ride but it was over in an instant. I took a deep breath and started to lock up the canoe when all of the sudden, I heard a load rushing sound. I turned to look and saw a small whirlpool right behind me as the water rushed past that big sycamore. Freaky. The awesome news is that I got my crowns done and I got my old smile back!

So now we're in hurricane prep mode. All yesterday I was busy packing up my store room and moving all of my stuff up to the living room. I decided not to wait and see. I think we'll just plan that the river will reach 20 feet, like in '96. I'll probably organize a hurricane prep day on Friday and Saturday. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.

Friday -- September 21, 2018
Water Level at Little Falls: 6.3     Water Temperature: 65

The ferry will be closed all weekend due to high water, and maybe Monday too.

Wednesday -- September 26, 2018
Water Level at Little Falls: 6.6     Water Temperature: 65

The ferry is closed and could possibly be closed until after the weekend, again.

Friday -- September 28, 2018
Water Level at Little Falls: 8.9     Water Temperature: 65

The ferry is closed and will be closed for the foreseeable future.

The river reached close to 11 feet on September 11, but we got lucky and did not get a direct hit from hurricane Florence. I was really preparing for the worst and I had already cleared out the lower tool shed and moved my dressers before we realized that the flooding was only going to be minor. Thankfully, I did not spend any time moving things back because there is another minor flood headed for us right now, 11 feet by Sunday morning. This is not what I signed up for, constant flooding. If this is the new normal I'll have to re-evaluate my living/employment situation, especially if the flooding continues into the cold months ahead. The rope holding the swim float to an anchor broke under the pressure of the rising river, but luckily I had it attached with a second cable to a tree, so it did not get away. And the anchor is not lost either, the yellow buoys are still there attached to the sunken anchor.

Speaking of buoys, the new buoys that were installed a couple of weeks ago did not fair well during this last flood. We started with seven new buoys but they are all drifting downstream. They are spread out all over and all but two of them are very close to the dam.

I set up a little painter's workshop up in the clubhouse behind the drum set. I've got all of the brand new screen doors lined up in there ready for my assembly line of priming, painting and installing hardware. Sadly, with all of this flood prep and recovery, I haven't been able to work on them too much. Plus, since I'm coming and going in a canoe, it's darn near impossible to deliver the supplies I need.

And finally, this was a really big month in my life, Mary and I got married at the Bumper-Car Pavilion on last Saturday, the 22nd of September. It was a spectacular time and I'm so thrilled to be able to introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Towpath!