Saturday -- November 3, 2018
Water Level at Little Falls: 5.3     Water Temperature: 53

The ferry is closed today because of high water.

Monday -- November 5, 2018
Water Level at Little Falls: 4.8     Water Temperature: 55

Update, as of 1:30 today the ferry is closed. The river is 5.1 feet now and rising to over six feet later on. That was a lot of rain last night and it looks like Sycamore Island will not be the place to go on your election-day holiday. Sorry.



The ferry has re-opened, at least for the time being. The river is predicted to go up again tomorrow.

Saturday -- November 10, 2018
Water Level at Little Falls: 5.9     Water Temperature: 55

The ferry is closed and oh yeah, the work-fest has been postponed. Sorry that there was not an email notification but the work-fest is not happening tomorrow. Please plan to be down here on next Sunday, the 18th on November. Thanks!

Thursday -- November 15, 2018
Water Level at Little Falls: 6.3     Water Temperature: 55

It's snowing! I sure wish that we had the workfest last Sunday, then we could have gotten all the leaves before the got wet.

Sadly, the workfest will have to be postponed again since the river will be swollen for a few more days. No workfest this Sunday.

The plan now is to have the work day on the Island on December 2, since many volunteers will be away on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. That happens to be the first day on Hanukkah, so I hope that doesn't interfere with turnout. Workfest in December, oh brother.

Monday -- November 26, 2018
Water Level at Little Falls: 7.4     Water Temperature: 45

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. It's sad that no one was able to visit the Island yesterday, Sunday, it was such a nice and sunny day, for a change. I didn't expect that arctic blast that we got on Thanksgiving night. It got down into the twenties that night and, even though it was not part of my holiday plan, I had to paddle over to the Island to make sure that the pipes didn't freeze and burst.

Yes, lately, for the last three weeks in fact, I've been coming and going in a canoe. It's not unusual, these days, to see me by my van at the top of the hill, changing into my river boots and putting on my life jacket before I trudge down the hill.

It doesn't look like we are going to have any kind of meaningful workfest this fall. We hope to have everyone here on Sunday December 2nd, but that's a big maybe at this point. We are also looking for someone to run the grill that day since I don't think that George can make it. The good news is that some of the heavy work of bringing in the docks has been done. Since the river was high this morning, I had a solo workfest and I was able to haul the docks all the way on shore with the help of the rising river. So now, two of the four docks are in. The canoe dock is going to take some work and we will have to wait until the river goes down before we can free it from the driftwood and bring it ashore. The swim float also needs to come in.

I've been working on the leaves as well and I've been using our new leaf blower to keep the gutters clean and the decks and roofs cleared off.

I'm almost done hanging the new screen doors. They look awesome! What an improvement.

It has been pretty lonely and quiet down here and not much wildlife to keep me company either. I don't have any birds at the bird feeder since I had to quit putting out the bird seed. The seeds attracted a rat that got washed up here during a flood, so we had to put a stop to that. There was a large doe here one afternoon, and there is evidence of a beaver coming here at night. (the beaver cut down the small willow tree that was just downstream of the ferry) Most of the cormorants have departed and so far not many wintering birds. Strangely, our local geese have not been on the Island lately either.

Wednesday -- November 28, 2018
Water Level at Little Falls: 6.3     Water Temperature: 45

There is no rain expected between now and Sunday, so we hope that the river will go down enough by Sunday so that we can have our work day. I think we are going to have it even if the river is a little above the cut-off of five feet. Sometimes you have to make exceptions.

We have been working on bailing out the Club canoes and kayaks and many boats got put away by various members that pitched in and volunteered back in October. There are still over a dozen or so canoes that need bailing so hopefully we can tackle that job on Sunday. I tried Richards idea of siphoning the water out of the canoes with a piece of garden hose, like the way we used to siphon gas out of our dads car back in the seventies. It worked pretty good but it's kind of slow compared to the other method of dipping a five-gallon bucket into it and bailing it out gallons at a time. Plus, when you siphon, you can't help but get some of that nasty water in your mouth.

Friday -- November 30, 2018
Water Level at Little Falls: 5.4     Water Temperature: 45

HEAR YE! HEAR YE! There WILL be a workday here on Sunday come hell or high water! The river is high and so are we but we're having the worfest regardless. The fun begins at 9:00 am. Bring a rake, bring a dish. See you Sunday!!