Tuesday, August 11, 2009

100 cubic feet per second!

Well the rain trickling down from the area has finally shown up on the USGS creek gage. I have been checking the website all night since the rain started with only minor increase in flow rate and gage height. Then all of a sudden at 1:30am, it spiked to over 100!

We had a good spike in June and one in July... and I think one in May too. But we needed it. I have been trying really hard to keep a flow running through the small creek to keep the big hole under the bluff clean and clear. I was digging rocks out just after the first rain to make sure if the water went up it would clear. Now that water where I was digging out a channel is now at least six inches. On Firecracker Island the chairs were in water! So nice when the creek goes up.

And a bonus - Tom has cleared the land between the blue house and the small creek (and even across Snake Island in one part), so I can see the water from the blue house!

Monday, August 10, 2009

Three Days and Four Pallets of Rock

I feel like my list is stagnating.... I have spent so much time on one project this trip, the items I wanted to get done are not getting crossed off my list.

The first two days were spent fighting with our new pressure washer - only to culminate with a return of said pressure washer and a race to a different store to rent one - and pressure washing the remnants of dirt left behind by Mike's rockstar efforts digging the bluff rock out. The area cleared off by the blue house is now three tines as long and at least twice as deep. Plenty of room to have table and chairs and a nice dirt free path all the way down past the putting green. The next three days were spent laying rock artisticly to create a natural looking retaining wall the whole length. Fortunately, I had Mom and Mike chasing after additional pallettes of rock.

A couple hours before nightfall, the rain finally came and we tucked everything away that was out and Mike finished unloading the last pallette. After the rain subsided and I was already soaked I continued the wall further down the bluff until it was too dark to do any more. I was amazed to find out it was only 8:30. Wow... feels like at least 10:00!

And... I was still able to cross off a few other things on my list today - a pure bonus!