Forecast: water

We made a trip to the site yesterday to see the result of a few days of persistent rain. Wet "barely" describes it.

There was evidence that the water had risen well over the bridge, at least enough to float a lot of leaves, twigs, branches and a part of an old stump onto the bridge and leave them there. The drive on the south side had a large puddle still, and was muddy enough that we had to open the gate to get a running start to back a front-wheel-drive car back onto the road.

The north side of the bridge had a large pond where the road should have been. It was possible to walk around it, but not without ducking under branches and through the woods. The four youngsters with us, from 3 1/2 to 6, thought the openings were just the right height. They just walked right under most of the branches. Of course they didn't understand why we didn't also just walk through the water like they did!

It was obvious that a whole lot of water had been there and gone. Rows of pine needles and small twigs were lined up like stationary waves where they were left as the water receded. And in the hour or more we were there we saw the creek level drop from just below the bridge, maybe only 3 or 4 inches, to more than a foot. It doesn't appear that the bridge was ever so far under water that it would not have been passable, but it's obvious we'll need some gravel soon unless we plan to park along the road on subsequent rainy visits.

We wound our way along some wildlife trails that avoided most low branches and stayed on the least swampy of these paths to consider routes that the road we plan to build might take. The idea is to plot a new road from bridge to barn that is more direct while still not allowing a view into the clearing straight from the road. This will reduce the amount of stone we'll need to purchase, reduce the cost of burying the power line, and leave the existing "road" for a walking path and possibly access to parking. (The burried power line will run up the middle of the road.)

Though we will not decide the barn site until our meeting on the 26th of March, we did mark the edges of a route half way into the trees that can be cleared even before we mark the barn site. That site will become the "target" for the second half of the road.

The task of clearing between these tagged trees now gives us something that needs to be done eventually and that anyone who wants to help at the site can work on now, when the weather allows. In the few hundred feet that we marked there is only one tree larger than three inch diameter that will be taken. We will make brush piles for wildlife cover back from the new right-of-way, and transport any large branches and trunks to the clearing for firewood and possible construction use.

The second leg will run through the pine stand and require more trees to be removed, but all of these are in the area that will eventually be garden and orchard, so they will have to be taken down in any case.

The entire new route of the road runs through woods younger than 30 years which were once farmed. The trees to the north and east, and those to the extreme southeast between the road and Raccoon Creek, will not be cut.

If you are anywhere near central Indiana and have an interest in visiting the site, especially on our once-a-month Staurday tours, I encourage you to join the RaccoonCreekForum discussion list where our activities are announced. Just use the fill-in box in the colume to the right and click on the purple "Yahoo! Groups" button.

What a lift!

Yesterday and today I had to drive to the Raccoon Creek Community site for two different reasons. Yesterday I met with a fellow from the power company, and today I met a class from Indiana State University. Both meetings were fruitful, but that's not the lift I'm referring to.

The "lift" I'm talking about is seeing cranes, sandhill cranes, lots of sandhill cranes.

As we were about to leave the site yesterday we heard the cries of the cranes from as much as a mile away. There were "strings" of them flying nearly overhead. Strings are my term to describe what a line of them looks like from a distance, not quite the same as the "vee's" that geese form. There were about a dozen strings and a large mass of them that had no apparent organization. The larger flock began to circle south of our site, maybe a half mile. They reminded me of a large, shallow, poorly formed tornado.

Cranes fly at very high altitudes, but some of the strings dropped down a bit to see what was going on. In the end, none landed. Instead they eventually formed into larger strings and continued flying to the northwest. We could hear them for a total of maybe ten minutes. What a sight!

But there's more. Today, as I was driving to the site, on a long straight stretch, I looked left to see a few smaller groups flying rather low. Since I had the road to myself I slowed to about 40 miles per hour to watch them flying alongside the car about 50 yards to the south. It was like the documentary about training the cranes to follow an ultra-lite.

Looking out a bit farther I saw about a hundred of them landing in a field, but I couldn't stop on the road to enjoy the sight.

Finally, later today, on the way home, a few dozen more flew overhead about 10 miles southwest of Indianapolis. Kind of makes me want to drive down there again tomorrow.

I found a few pictures of them on the web. Here's one: http://sdakotabirds.com/species_photos/sandhill_crane_1.htm.