Monday -- April 7, 2003
Water Level at Little Falls: 4.8     Water Temperature: 56
This rain is expected to cause the river to rise with a level of over 6 feet predicted on Wednesday. Lets keep our fingers crossed that it goes down again before the workfest day. We did, however, have some great weather yesterday. I haven't heard how the wild flower walk went, it must have been a success judgeing by the number of flowers I see on the island.

I decided to drive out to Seneca Rocks W.V. to do some climbing. It's good to get away from the island on my day off. The climbing was great but the drive home was startling. The beautiful, winding country road, that is state route 55 W, is being replaced by a highway where hill after hill is being leveled and valley after valley is being filled in. A shocking feat of engineering. It will reduce the driving time to the mountains, but we decided we liked the old road better.

The geese are busy incubating their eggs. Two of the nests have 4 eggs one has 5 and the pair closest to the house will have 6 chicks to look after. Theres a nest on top of the canoe shed, we'll have to wait to see how many she has. I watched a sharp-shined hawk feeding on a female wood duck. The hawk, hoarding the catch with its wings spread out, quickly plucked and ate the breast of the duck. The hawk ate all it could and flew off. The hawk generally will eat where it makes its kill especially since the duck might be bigger and too much to carry. The raccon must have gotten the left-overs because the next morning all that was left was a pile of feathers at the head of the island.

Wednesday -- April 9, 2003
Water Level at Little Falls: 5.3     Water Temperature: 50
The rising river should not be a problem for the meeting tonight. It may reach six feet by tonight but I'm still confident I can get everyone onto the island and off again. It will be good to see everyone back on the island. I'm also due to attend a meeting since I haven't been to one since October when the meeting was last on the island.

I'm busy preparing for the workfest, and my vacation of course.

Correction, no meeting on the island tonight.

Tuesday -- April 8, 2003
Water Level at Little Falls: 5.2     Water Temperature: 56
I finally fixed the tiolet in my bathroom. I knew it was going to be a big can of worms so I've been putting it off. The floor below the tiolet was rotted, making it very unstable and wobbly. I removed the tiolet and laid some new plywood down for a new floor. I replaced the tiolet and now I have a sturdy throne. I also did some cleaning in the mens locker room, removeing a thick layer of mildew really helped brighten it up in there.

Wednesday -- April 9, 2003
Water Level at Little Falls: 5.3     Water Temperature: 50
The rising river should not be a problem for the meeting tonight. It may reach six feet by tonight but I'm still confident I can get everyone onto the island and off again. It will be good to see everyone back on the island. I'm also due to attend a meeting since I haven't been to one since October when the meeting was last on the island.

I'm busy preparing for the workfest, and my vacation of course.

Correction, no meeting on the island tonight.

Thursday -- April 10, 2003
Water Level at Little Falls: 6.8     Water Temperature: 48
Wow! The river rose a foot and a half in one day. I've never seen it rise so fast before. The meeting last night had to be moved to Tryon's house since the river was so high. The high water could be with us for a while, which puts the work fest in jeopardy.

Friday -- April 11, 2003
Water Level at Little Falls: 7.4     Water Temperature: 48
The work fest has been postponed until Saturday the 19th because of high water.

Today I fly to Italy and I will leave all my river/island problems behind me. Well, for ten days anyway.

Wednesday -- April 23, 2003
Water Level at Little Falls: 5.7     Water Temperature: 57
I'm back from my vacation in Italy and I had a wonderful time. The weather was perfect as I traveled from the mountains in the north, down to the riviera and then back to Rome for a couple of days. I saw many bird species to add to my "life list" as we hiked near the the snow-covered peak of Mont Blanc and along the coast at Cinque Terre. I also saw many SYCAMORE TREES! They are everywhere in Rome, in the parks and along the Tiber river. They look the same as the trees we have here, except there they keep them closly trimmed and so they have that sculpted look about them, like alot of things in Rome.

I was thrilled to return to the island and find it so green and the river so peaceful and the beautiful flowers everywhere. Even after an exitic trip to Italy, its great to be able to call a place like Sycamore Island home.

Thursday -- April 24, 2003
Water Level at Little Falls: 5.8     Water Temperature: 56
I jumped in the river yesterday and I can tell you first hand that 56 degrees is still very, very cold! Too cold, in fact, for swimming.

We have a pheobe nest under the shed and a house-finch nest under the livingroom. I pointed out some mushrooms to Gerry Barton and he identified them as Driad's Saddle, edible but not great eating.

Friday -- April 25, 2003
Water Level at Little Falls: 5.7     Water Temperature: 57
The spring weather and the bluebells are bringing me many visitors here in my first week back. I've seen more people here in the last three days than I saw the entire months of February and March combined. No complaints, its fun to visit with everyone and have the time to do so. I'm trying to learn a lesson from the Italians by slowing down and taking time to enjoy life. You'd think that that wouldn't be difficult here on the island.

Monday -- April 28, 2003
Water Level at Little Falls: 4.4     Water Temperature: 60
What an amazingly beautiful day! It was nice enough to lure some visitors down to the island, and one brave couple even went for a swim! It looks like the fish are beginning to bite as well, I saw strings of catfish by the towpath on Sunday, and you can hear the bass jumping in the river and in the canal..

Speaking of fish, we saw swarms of shad down at Little Falls! We rode our bikes down along the towpath past lock # 4 to a paved kayakers path down to the falls. I don't want to minimize our encounter with the snapping turtle, but the migrating fish were an incredible site. Thousands of these ardent travelers pushing thier way upstream all the way from the ocean. From the rocks above the eddies you could have easily netted buckets full of fish at a time. This is in fact what people were doing, and it was great to see the joy on their faces as they took part in this ancient ritual of havesting from the river, taking advantage of natural cycles that have been taking place for eons.

Tuesday -- April 29, 2003
Water Level at Little Falls: 4.3     Water Temperature: 62
The work on the well has begun. The men from Easterday Wells flushed out our old well and removed the large amounts of silt that had been building up over the years. Looking down into the well I could see it quickly filling up with water (a good sign). The water was contuniously pumped out until the silt was gone and the water contained only coarse sand. Today they plan to lay down a bed of gravel and install the well screen.