Day +22 "M" Day

The migrating ducks and geese continue to enjoy the accommodations of Lower Kroc Pond, They have a good source of swimmin water as well as natural food supply supplemented with a 100 pound bag of cracked corn. Each evening, at the designated time following sundown, the local rabbit harem also come out to feed on the lawn. They have become so "regular" that even "Mama Cat" perches in the window waiting for their arrival.

Although, I have not done much in preparation for the forth coming onslaught of summer guests to the HITW, I intend to start soon. Really, I do! spent a few minutes in camp today to survey the area. Looking real good, have not had to pump for the past 48 hours. Currently, 62.6 percent of the parking area is now dry and dusty. The sand hill is dry and just waiting for the first little foot prints to conquer the hill. Bronco Lane is dry except for the historical frost heave by the "Welcome Sign". No one stole the Bronco over the winter months. Messican Lane is still covered with about three inches of snow, the last of the seasonal snow berms that were stocked piled. The slope melt down of snow and glaciers is 90% completed. The cabin sites ground area is dry, after surveying the fall "mud slides" that encroached onto the Wolf Den, I have come to the partial conclusion that it may have been a good thing. At least, I have a concept that that does not involve shoveling and hauling by wheelbarrow, 10 yards of silt. Lot's to get done, but it always looks that way this time of the season when you look at the calendar.

Floods Of 2009

Following heavy rains throughout the past night and into the majority of the day, as could be expected that we have some flooding at the Hole In the Wall. The weather has cleared in this area and now enjoying an evening sun. The ole reliable Doppler Radar shows no significant moisture laden weather fronts in the area. The water expulsion units were not activated yesterday due to low water volumes. Upon assessment this morning, the expulsion system was activated and should have any flooding under control by Monday afternoon, dependent on the saturation point of Moose Meadows.

We do need to develop some type of enforcement system at the HITW to insure our few regulations are adhered to. It appears that the Raven Clan could be violating their day use permit, not to mention payment of their fees.

The high water on Lower Kroc Lake was inviting enough that a
flock of transients decided to spend a little ground time. It appears that there is a green headed goose that thinks it is going unnoticed by the other geese.

Despite the appearance of the untrained eye, this is a "controlled flooding" situation. As I mentioned earlier, the excess water seen in this picture should be extricated no later than early afternoon on Monday. Again to the untrained eye, the flood management plan calls for the accumulation of excess water in lower lying elevations and disbursed from those points. The accumulation points were strategically located away from all dwellings and easy drainage access into the outlet. Note how well all defined creek beds are controlling the run off. Grannies Gulch has never been under this much control.

The creek running out of John's Glacier is also well contained and draining directly into the cistern where it is then pumped out to the drainage ditch on the other side of the parking area. Currently, it is flowing a full rate of water.

Bear Creek has been tamed thanks to the masonry skills of those trained in rock structures and natural mudding techniques.

The drainage creek into Upper Kroc Pond is flowing full force. Enough water is now contained within this drainage that a Pink Salmon enhancement project should be seriously considered in the future.

Since Arnie's Mother Lode was not discovered in the excavation of the new "Duck House" project. Grannies Gulch should be seriously explored for mineral content and nuggets washing out of the overburden.

As you can see, everything is under control. My blood pressure is down this year despite the heavy rains because I know, we have it under control and it will only get better as we do a little more work on the drainage system.
However, a continued problem exists and has to be addressed. Again this year, we are seeing some erosion from the bluff behind the former site of the Wolf Clan. Last fall their new site was also subject to mud slides. I have a plan, which we can discuss around the fire pit.
The Seven P's never fail.

Posted: No Huntin

Please try to keep this a secret, I don't want no Lynx Cat sneaking around my yard trying to catch my "pesky little rascals". We have been seeing what we thought was a single rabbit in our yard throughout the winter. Over the past couple of weeks it has become more brazen and will come up to the house. Tonight, we discovered it was not just a rabbit. At one time, we had two in the front yard and a third in the back yard.

The sad thing, after I have been fortunate to get some great shots of Dall Rams, Stone Rams, Big Horn Rams, Moose, Caribou, Deer, Elk, and even Buffalo. I am now relegated to shooting pictures of rabbits!

The three highly trained retrievers that live with us were sitting on the deck watching the flocks of Sandhill Cranes passing overhead today. They looked, but basically ignored them since they were to high, except "Ruger" dog. He gave fair chase to the flocks despite the fact they were cruising at an altitude of 1,000 feet. We get invaded by rabbits and they show even less concern.

Guess, it must be time to break out the old Parker Double "10" and put in a fresh supply of meat for Memorial Day weekend. We always have some type of chicken, I think we can pass off rabbit to the little ones as chicken without them knowing the difference. Grannie might object, she has develop a fondness for her "bunnies", for some reason, I can picture us having a garden this year just for the rabbits. Yes, sad to say she has named what we thought was a single rabbit, "Roger", now she has to go back to her "Name a Rabbit" book and select some more names, I am sure in a month or so we are going to be seeing a lot of little bunnies.


I Wonder Why They Are Called Snowshoe Rabbits?

Could Get 50 Bunny Leech Flies Out Of This Pelt

"Ah, Green Grass"

"Yikes, It Is A Dog"

Day +29 To "M" Day

Over the past couple of days since my last posting, the remaining wood has been cut, stacked, and covered. Now awaiting for the next shipment from the "Woodman". This a.m., I could walk through the center of the parking area without getting muddy, it is drying up nicely, however, we can expect some rain to fall. Each day, I am prouder of the drain system. It is staying ahead of the inflow and has to be shut down in order to have water to pump out. Working great.

Water flow should slow down a little as a cold trend is starting to set in. This morning it was cold enough to freeze the "balls off a brass monkey". Is that vulgar of me to say? Perhaps, we should investigate that saying.

On the old war ships, it was necessary to keep a good supply of cannon balls near the cannons. Since the cannon balls were round it was difficult to keep them in place on a rolling ship. However, to keep them from rolling, the method devised was to stack them as a square based pyramid, with one ball on top, resting on four, resting on nine which rested on sixteen. Consequently, a stack of 30 cannon balls could be stacked next to each cannon. The problem was how to keep the bottom layer from sliding or rolling from under the others.
The solution was a metal plate with 16 indentations, called for reasons unknown as a Monkey. But if this plate were made of iron, the iron cannon balls would quickly rust and stick to the Monkey.
So brass was used to make the Monkey, however, brass contracts much more and faster than iron when chilled. Consequently, when the temperatures dropped to far, the brass indentations would shrink so much that the iron cannon balls would roll off the monkey. Thus, it was quite literally cold enough to "freeze the balls off a brass monkey".

The "brass monkey" should not be confused nor construed the same as a "trunk monkey"

Just a thought to ponder in the event that we ever decide to rig up a cannon at the HITW in case "Blue Duck" comes riding in.

Day +32 To "M" Day

Thirty-two days to the "M" Day (Beginning of Memorial Day Weekend). The de-waterization project is working amazingly good. During the night, the pump caught up once again with the inflow and had to be shut down this morning for a period to gather more water. It is having a very positive effect on the drainage and drying of the area. Bear Creek and John's Glacier is each flowing about the same amount of water. The small rock wall that I built along Bear Creek is very effective and forcing the water into the pit. And, you all thought I was wasting my time by playing in the mud and making a rock wall. Love the fire hose, makes it so much easier to rig.

Day +32 consisted of monitoring the "controlled flooding"

It is going to take at least two days of work to finish the "water collection pit" project. Going to be a lot of shovel work to clean up the erosion that has occurred, square the walls of the pit for preparation for the cofferdam. Once the cofferdam is built and installed, will need to back fill the inside of the walls and build the deck over the top. Will secure the trap door that will access the pit and the pump so little ones can't use it for a hiding place. Be a great place for Arnie to sit and watch what is going on under the gazebo and listen to the exploding firewood.

And, of course there was two truck loads of slabs stacked up to be cut. The only snow remaining in the parking area lies underneath the slab pile so it was a priority to cut them up. I am sorry, I know how all of you wanted to help cut firewood this year. Woodman Bill is loading another trailer for delivery. The "little lady" and I should have the reminder of the wood cut and stacked by Day +31.

In my last posting, I admitted I had made an error. Quite uncommon for me to make an error but I reported, despite my prediction, the river broke out without flooding. I judged this from the bridge. Tonight, I went down river and discovered where all the ice went. I knew I did not make a mistake!

This picture is looking upstream from the Picnic Hole. Ice jammed in tight all the way to the top of Gus's Run. Water level is to the top of the bank at the Picnic Hole, remember, that is the Hole where I caught that 16.5 Pound Silver Salmon. I don't know if I ever told you the story about that big fish.

Looking downstream from the Picnic Hole into the corner at the top of the Dudas Hole. As best I could tell in the dusk, it appears the jam, goes around the corner and into the Dudas Hole. How much of that is jammed up, I do not know since I was not about to walk down there in the dusk. Saw a brown bear in this area once.