When It Rains in the Finger Lakes

When it rains in the hills around the Finger Lakes, water hits the ground.

When water hits the ground, it runs mainly along the rocky surface of the steep hills surrounding the lakes until it finds one of the many pretty little ravines that feed the lakes every few hundred feet.

Then it splashes in lovely little cascades down from the hills, and into the lake.  

Tempting to sip if not for the agriculture going on above.

Most of the time.

Every once in a while, an especially strong storm dumps its load of rain directly into the watershed of a few of these streams, but even then, all is well since the water is contained in streambeds more than adequate to handle the volume of water.

Unless, of course, the highway that passes above the places of merriment below has a culvert that gets plugged with sticks and stones and even broken bones (bones not so often, but they could certainly plug the culvert).

The opening to the culvert is supposed to be just to the right of the puddle.
The stream is still flowing, so this small volume of water is getting through.
I hope there is no rain coming before the people we pay with our taxes
get back here to fully expose the opening.

When the culvert plugs, water no longer runs downhill for awhile.  It backs up and then flows over the highway and finds new unconventional paths of least resistance.

A rather disorienting view of the downhill side of the highway.
I'm surprised there was not more damage to the roadway.

I got a note from our neighbors.  "You're not going to like what happened to your beach."  So I had to investigate.

You may be thinking that dealing with damage on vacation property is a nice problem to have, and you'd be right, but such things are problems, nonetheless.

This is where we prefer the water to flow.
The log is new, so you can tell how much water was flowing even here.

I missed the beginning of the cleanup.
Here, some of the gravel washed down from above has been bulldozed
out of the road into a currently unusable parking spot.

You might ask, "Where did the gravel come from?"
Let's just say I would not park here now.

This back yard was never "lawn beautiful,"
but it was never a rock wash before.
Note that Hillbillies must have snuck in after the storm 
and placed that other stuff.
 

Water moves some pretty good size rocks.

I'm very happy that the water did not enter or undermine the building.

Like it did the driveway.

I commend David and Chaz for the work they did on these steps.
While much of the backfilled gravel has moved on,
the step-defining 4-by-4s did not budge.

While the steps did well, I can't say the same for the driveway down to the lake.
From the newly established ravine, it looks like a river ran through it.

Ferocious guard dog surveys the new rock garden that used to be a lawn.

It's great to have a new set of stepping stones to the boathouse.

Boats all still in place, but the post-storm water is full of debris.

We'll be happy if the stream stays in this channel in the future.

I took advantage of this new vantage point
on the newly formed point to make the following point.
A week ago, I'd have been standing here in water at least knee deep.

There were more leaf bags here before the storm.
Also, the raging water has provided me with a new opportunity for improving this parking spot.
Or perhaps I'll just leave the big hole beyond the cones
as a secret passage to the beach.

The beach has receded a bit, but that generally comes and goes.
The next storm may push some of it back up.
Do you like our "Man on Cellphone" statue near the back?

That little point out beyond the willow tree is new.
Perhaps it will stay, and the place will have more land!
And then I'm sure the taxes will go up accordingly.

Not great, but could have been much worse.  But I do wish I'd been there to see it happen.  There would have been great pictures, if I didn't get washed away.

AND NOW, 

A BONUS PHOTO WITH NO LINK TO THE NARRATIVE!

A really lovely stone house on a back road somewhere between Branchport and Canandaigua.
(OK, maybe the stones are a link.)

How To Doctor A Dock

First, you need a dock that needs doctoring.

What do you think?  Does my dock qualify?

Then you need some friends.  Quality friends.  Friends who not only have ambition and capability, but who are willing to use their fine qualities to help you out.  

Maybe that's the definition of "friends."

High quality and thirsty friends.

And if they're a little arrogant, it's no big deal.
It's a fine line between what is perceived as arrogance
and competent confidence.
I'll make no comment on lineage.

And tools.  You need tools.  Lots of them.  You can never have too many tools.

A small sampling of tools at the ready.

Tools are even more important if you use them.

And for doctoring docks, you also need specialty garments.

Gotta have waders.
Suspenders are not a bad idea either.

As evident from the initial dock photo, another key point in doctoring docks is that the water is low. The DEC (Department of Environmental Confusion) failed to close the dam on the advertised date, so the water level had not risen nearly to the MHWM (Mid-summer Happy Water Mark).  The spring runoff was pretty much over, and there had been no rain, so a semi-dry opportunity presented itself, even though we were in month #5.

The snow was almost gone.

With the planets properly aligned, it was time to commence work.

Hmmmm....
What to do...what to do?

Unassisted manual reconfiguration proved unsuccessful.

Perhaps a more-or-less level string for reference would help.

And a jack to take the weight off the posts
while you remake the supports.

Contrary to appearances, the design of the the dock is actually quite good for situations where the support posts will be moving due to shallow insertion depth.  In other words, it's a great design for a situation where shoddy work has been done to pound posts into the ground.

Steel pipes slip into the aluminum uprights.  Brackets welded to the top of the pipes are bolted to the dock.  In effect, the dock "floats" on top of the aluminum supports.  We just had to make a few "minor" modifications by shortening the supports.

The Dock Doc at work shortening a support.

Always good to have one of the crew who can fit into tight spaces.

Hope the jack is well situated.

Grinding off the unnecessarily high portion of the support.

Next one!
The added dynamic of water and muck made this much more fun.
If you stand in any one place for a time,
your feet get stuck in the muck.

I'm not sure that Cut Boy is enjoying the beautiful surroundings at this point.

He's looked at posts from both sides now.

Be sure to remove all debris from the water.
Don't want to make a casualty of an obvious observer.

Success in the shallows
means it's time to mess with the deeps.

Already looking much better.

"Better?  What are you talking about?
You've ruined my home."

A new challenge.
The upstream post is too short.

Crazy man with an electrically powered reciprocating saw
up to his waist in water.
He is not called "Cut Boy" for nothing.

And he also does finesse work with a hammer.

Do you think there is anything wrong with the closest post?

Using the jack, part 2.

Using the jack, part 2.5.

Some confusion here.
Perhaps we don't know jack.

More finesse, this time with a splitting maul.

Maybe the jack is better applied to the other side.

Yeah, this is better.

Then the jack fell of the the jury-rigged tree-trunk-support we had constructed.  For the fourth time.  After a sufficient amount of cussing and the required cooling off time, and after Mr. Homefries (unfortunately not pictured here) solved several previously insoluble physics problems, the jack went back into the water to perform its mission.

The jack is lag-screwed to board, and the board is screwed to trunk.
Disembodied arm and hand cling to dock.

All positioned more-or-less correctly,
the offending post was winched to a new position
and bolted in place.

A wonderful improvement it was, and it became even better the next day, when Plumb Bob (also unfortunately not pictured here) joined the crew, assisting with the search for a welder, and with corralling the rogue post in support of the dock.  

The repositioned dock became a sight to see.
"Behold, for that which was crooked is now straight,
and the unruly curves have been put asunder!"

Yes, this was another great weekend in the woods, working and carousing with friends.  Cue "Ya got to have friends," by either Bette Midler, or perhaps more appropriately, the Muppet version.

Chainsaw sharpening school.

How much wood would a wood splitter split...

Installing some naughty pine.

The Loonatics, May 2015

Good time had by all, and an incredible amount of work done, of which this account documents only a portion.  

Looking forward to doing it all again.