Rain Rain, Go Away!

It was another rainy day at the park. After almost 1/2" of rain yesterday, it rained all day today with only a short break in the afternoon. It forced me to get to some projects that I have been avoiding, but I don't like being stuck in the office. I tackled the quarterly Manpower Augmentation Report. It really kind of sounds scary, doesn't it? It is just a record of volunteer hours served at the park. There were 533 hours donated by volunteers this quarter. Thanks volunteers!!!!! I really would not be able to keep the park staffed without their assistance. I also tossed around budget figures to get the schedule figured out... no comment. I tied up some other loose ends and finally the sun came out for a little while. Maybe it was Mother Nature's reward to me for completing unpleasant tasks.























I was able to take a walk around and see the progress that the spring has made with flood recovery. The spring was pushing out into the river even farther today than it was yesterday! You can see the clear water meeting the tannic river water just outside of the buoy line. I was also able to see Madison clearly for the first time in a while. Madison was a paddle wheel steamship that ran on the Suwannee in the Civil War days. I will be sure to give you all the full story of the Madison another day. The short version is that it was sunk intentionally in the spring run to keep it out of Union hands. The ship has been there ever since and the bottom ribs of it are still visible today. Look for the straight lines under the water that run almost parallel with the branch in the photo. Also, the v-shaped disturbance on the top of the water is one of my favorite water bugs. It is a whirligig beetle! They act like their name and they skate around in wild patterns all over the surface of the water. They are very small, but easy to spot because of the wake that they leave.
The only thing that I did today that made me feel that I had accomplished anything was when my co-worker and I removed 60 feet of chain from the floating dock and a tree. During the flooding, there was some concern over whether the floating dock might come off of its pillars and float away. The chain was put on the dock and fastened to the nearest large tree just in case. Fortunately the water stopped rising just before we found out what happens when the dock comes off of its pillars. I have two photos for comparison. The one with giant pillars behind the dock was taken today. The one with a dock and no pillars was taken in April at the peak of the flood.
After we finished that project, the rain started again. At least we got a little break. Keep your fingers crossed for a dry day tomorrow... the grass is tall enough!