Monday – December 3, 2007
Today I put the finishing touches on our new ferry-landing project, a matter of installing the new bolts that were needed. I'm also very happy about finally fixing the wobbly and dangerous metal railing at the ferry landing. Some of you, I hope, will appreciate this. I used a hacksaw to cut off the old bolt and replaced it with a new, shorter bolt that allowed me to make the railing more sturdy and secure. I don't know why it took me five years to realize that I could fix the problem, but I finally did it.

The wind was blowing madly as I tried to return to the Island today and I found that holding the chain to the ferry was like trying to hold a bucking bronco. Once I was on the ferry it was like riding a bucking bronco as I held on to the rope in the fierce 30 MPH plus winds. This is a great time to visit the Island, no snakes!

Tuesday -- December 4, 2007
Never underestimate the power of the wind. Not only did the ferocious winds tear the ramp from the Captain’s float, but they were also washing away the Island! The constant wave action of the last couple of days had removed at least two feet of shoreline on the Virginia side. The poor plants growing there were left with bare, white roots dangling in the river.

Friday -- December 7, 2007
I was going to tell you about all the leaves that I raked up, but then we had this wonderful snow. I didn't expect the snow to keep falling like it did Wednesday night, we actually got four inches of snow on the Island. I came home at about 3:30 and shoveled all the walks and the ferry and both bridges. I finished around five, at eight I couldn't tell that I'd shoveled at all. I shoveled everything again and headed back to the Island. I wanted to get back so I would have time to look for animal tracks in the snow.

It was strangely bright out with the lights from the CIA compound reflecting off of the snow and the low-lying clouds. I didn't even need a flashlight as I went looking for tracks and it didn't take long to find some fresh prints. They were deer tracks less than an hour old, probably a large male. I followed the tracks backwards to their origin and that led me toward the head of the Island (upstream). Weaving between the snow-covered paw-paw trees and climbing over fallen logs, the tracks led me to an obviously disturbed spot in the snow where the roving buck had emerged from the river and struggled to the shore. With this new information I turned around and followed the prints in the direction that they were headed, toward the bottom of the Island. Next, I walked with one eye on the trail and one eye looking for the deer that could still be on the island. The fresh tracks kept going, past the clubhouse, across the field, and all the way to the end of the Island. I saw an obvious trail cut through the snow-covered weeds and right back into the frigid river. Incredible! The snow gave me a rare chance to record the travels of the deer. I wondered how many deer traveled through here every week.

Monday -- December 10, 2007
It looked like there was some water headed our way with all this rain. I noticed that a few of the streams in the watershed were high enough to paddle. That meant that a river level prediction of 4 feet here on the Island by Thursday, the highest river level since May 5, 2007. That was seven months ago!

Thank you to Gerry Barton. He came down today and installed much needed, new planks at the ferry landing on the Island side.

Thursday -- December 13, 2007
Banshees on the towpath! It's always a little unsettling to hear strange howls and screeches that you can't identify. It's worse still when you're alone in the dark. The sound I heard was like a strange mix of a squawking bird and a catfight. It then morphed into a rapid howl that started to fade as I walked toward it. I heard soft yelping that seemed very close, right on the other side of the canal! Then it was quiet. I shined my headlamp toward the sound of rustling leaves on the other side, but I saw nothing. Was it a fox? Was it mating foxes? Maybe it was just some raccoons. Or maybe it was COYOTES!

Sunday – December 23, 2007
I have another thrilling animal sighting to report. You’ve heard me talk of circumstantial evidence of river otters living near the Island, but now I have an eyewitness account. I was boarding the ferry from the Island after dark, maybe 8:00 p.m. when I noticed something different on the water. I thought at first that it must be a small log bobbing in the river, about 2 ½ inches in diameter. Then, these two little logs began to swim toward me! I was standing on the ferry next to the Island and in the dim light I saw these crazy, curious otters swim right up alongside the ferry. Then, to my shock, they started making cute little chirping sounds, that’s how close they were! They were not logs at all, but two charismatic otters coming to greet me in the moonlight.

-- Joe Hage, Sycamore Island Caretaker