Lake Champlain Flooding

I realize that it's not of the same magnitude, the flooding that we're having up here along Lake Champlain or the many rivers in the Adirondacks. That is, it's not of the same magnitude...unless it's your house that is completely surrounded by water. I took a ride around Willsboro Point and Essex today. The small coves and bays of Lake Champlain that surround the peninsula of "The Point" have heaved up onto waterfront property and completely consumed some homes. Many of these houses used to be vacation homes, but many of them now are peoples' first and only homes. And yes, Willsboro Point does have some expensive homes, with pools and tennis courts and, of course, most of those homes have been spared damage as they sit high above their cove or bay. But a lot of these houses are just houses, like mine, only far too close to the lake, at least they were this year. Lake Champlain is at historic high levels, drowning houses on both the New York and Vermont sides. The lake is supposed to grow even higher tomorrow. But we have a forecast of some relief from the rains coming up, and most of the melt is complete. I hope this is so, because even for those of us who aren't in danger from the high levels of the beautiful rivers and lakes up here in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York, we have had enough of the rain and the wet. Today was a lovely, sunny day...for most of the day.

Here are some shots of the damage along the lake.
















This horse seems completely oblivious to the drama going on a few hundred yards away.














A house, er, estate that is seemingly untouched by the lake nipping at its feet, though if there's a basement, boat races could be underway down there...it's something to do, inside, out of the rain.


My "Ghost House". It makes me want to cry every time I pass this house and watch it fall further into ruin. Sigh.










The Essex Ferry, just a 7 minute drive from my house, had only recently re-opened after a late winter closure due to ice on the lake. As you can see, there is no getting to the ramp that would lead you onto a ferry.






At least Mister Robin seems happy with all this wet.

Winter Weather

I have always been of the mind that there was little point to cold weather if you didn't get snow along with it. This was the frustration for me of living in southern New Jersey in the last few years. We really didn't get any snow. The last snowfall of significance down there I remember pretty clearly. It was our first winter with Fred, and it was an amazing storm. I lost some really large branches from some of the many trees in my yard; others were laying on the ground for days with all of the snow on them. This is Bailey wondering where this snow-covered branch came from.

I mention this because we have a fair amount of snow on the ground right now but we don't have a forecast up here in Willsboro for any significant snowfall for the next ten days. And there are some days in these coming couple of weeks when the daytime temperatures are heading towards 40. In fact, on Saturday when I took the boys out for their last walk it was 41 degrees at midnight. It was downright balmy.

I'm not complaining yet, but I like snow with my cold. I think we might be heading toward the end of the snow for this year. Maybe. Who knows, though. The one good thing about the warmer temps over the weekend is that most of the snow that had accumulated on the roof came tumbling down. That was a good thing.