TCC 12/17/09

Ghetto temp. 37 F. and rising.
Island temp. 18 F.

Current conditions:
Sunny, wind from the NW. about 10 mph.

The Caretaker has been on a bit of an unplanned hiatus, to make a long story short (for now), things happened, the Caretaker did stuff. In the meantime, here are a few photos from ice-out of last spring, enjoy.

--The Caretaker


3/26/09



3/27/09


3/30/09

TCC for 1/9/09

The Caretaker recorded some of the noises made by the ice, unfortunately he could not upload the audio clip to the blog, he'll work on getting out tomorrow.

1/9/09 Early Morning


1/9/09 Afternoon to Evening

TCC for 4/13/08

The Caretaker's Concern 4/13/08
Lake Temp. 37 F.
Ghetto temp. 43 F. and dropping.
Island tmp. 40 F. Yesterday's L/H: 39/60 F.
Current conditions: Mostly cloudy, North wind, 5 to 10 mph.

It has been a rather blustery day, the wind started out coming from the South, then it shifted to the East, eventually shifting to the North. It snowed for a little while in the morning, but there was no accumulation. The Lake is continuing to rise, with the wave action some water splashed up through the dock at the back of the boathouse. So far the tin-boat is still secure, but the Caretaker will be keeping it in the back of his mind so he can be ready to keep it from floating away.

The Lake is at a height were the Boathouse starts to keep rhythm. The boathouse docks have some open ended steel beams in them that when the water gets high enough and with the right amount of wave action, the covering and uncovering of the ends with water creates a sound sort of like the sound of a rototom that is being turned when hit, it is a deep slow sound that follows the random rhythm of the waves on the Lake. If the Caretaker had the time, he would have spent some of it meditating on the sound, perhaps next time.

--The Caretaker

TCC for 4/11/08

The Caretaker's Concern 4/11/08
Lake Temp. 37 F.
Ghetto temp. 40 F. and dropping.
Island tmp. 38 F. Yesterday's L/H: 41/59 F.
Current conditions: Total cloud coverage with low lying clouds along both shorelines, little to no wind.

The morning was covered in rain, but by the afternoon the rain clouds washed away from the sky. At some point during the day, the Caretaker doesn't remember exactly when, he saw a Blue Heron fly up the Lake towards the Narrows. That is the first Heron the Caretaker has seen since last Autumn. With long broad wings flapping patiently, their wings paint upon the sky a flight of grace rare amongst most all of the other area birds. However, the call of the Heron is in sharp contrast to their majestic flight and their graceful walk amongst reeds, the call of the Heron is... disgusting on the ears. Not that it takes any of the beauty away from the bird, for the most part they don't seem to give call all too often, thankfully. If you think the caws from a murder of crows in your tree is bad; if there was a flock of Herons on your lawn making constant calls to each other it wouldn't take long for you to either quickly depart, or let fly with some buckshot.

In the evening the Caretaker went for a paddle over towards Clay Island just to take in the sights, the water being calm, why not? The water is also high, it is about 5 to 6 inches from the top of the South dock, hopefully it won't go much higher, a few more inches and the boathouse will begin to flood. The boathouse flooding isn't so bad, it is more annoying than anything, mostly because the tin boat will float away. That would be bad.

--The Caretaker

TCC for 4/2/08

The Caretaker's Concern 4/2/08
Ghetto temp. 50 F. and rising.
Island tmp. ? F. Yesterday's L/H: ?/? F.
Current conditions:

No report today, top photo is from today, photo immediately below is from yesterday, other two photos are from the archive.

--The Caretaker

TCC for 3/28/08

The Caretaker's Concern 3/28/08
Ghetto temp. 49 F. and steady.
Island tmp. 30 F. Yesterday's L/H: 27/39 F.
Current conditions: Blowing snow, wind from the East, 10 to 15 mph.

The snow began last night, it has been off and on through out the day with an occasional mix of sleet and rain, but mostly snow. Accumulation on the Island is about 3 inches with drifts up to 6 or 8 inches. The wind has been blowing from the Narrows since the dark hours of this morning. It has not exactly been early Spring weather today. As a result of the constant wind, the Island is currently encircled with water. The gap between the ice and the Island is now wide enough to completely rule out the use of a board to reach the ice. The Caretaker could use the extension ladder, but that would be stupid and the Caretaker already knows an awful lot about stupid. Instead he will return to using the canoe to get to the ice to get off of the Island from here on until ice-out is complete.

The day was cold, windy, and snowy, the Caretaker spent the day inside the Ghetto working on his taxes, or at least tried to, and rewriting his letter to the Judge regarding his traffic violation. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny, a bit windy but sunny, the Caretaker is hopeful that he will be able to get out and about. If not tomorrow, most certainly Sunday. Not to say that a day inside the Ghetto is all bad, he does have the means to cook tea to drink, but the Caretaker is looking forward to a day or two outside, after Monday these may be his last.

--The Caretaker