The middle of July

 Donna and Ron are high school friends of Jim and Carol and live on a little lake a ways away. Donna knew with our flooded lake that the 4th of July would be a wash so she invited all of us to have the 4th at their place. What a sweetheart!

 So we all (minus Shayne and Sarah and the girls) had a great time with our cookout and playing at the lake at Ron and Donna's.

 The lake is slowly going down and we decided to "get out of town" for awhile. So off to Bayfield, WI we went, a great three hour scenic drive along the south side of Lake Superior. We stayed in the "billard room" (top floor two left windows) of a 1890s mansion which has been converted into the gorgeous Rittenhouse Bed and Breakfast. We had a great two night stay.

A 20 minute ferry ride from Bayfield is the Apostle Islands National Park and we enjoyed a 3 1/2 hour narrated cruise around the islands. One of the highlights were the sea caves on Devils Island.

All in all it was a great diversion from the high waters of Big Sandy.

The End of June

We had 19 inches of rain in about three weeks and the lake went up and up. Soon the shoreline looked much like this--skeletons of docks and lifts.

Eventually the water rose to cover the steps by about three feet, much of the docks and posts were completely covered, and only the front portion of the lifts are above water.

Not only water, but a good wind storm gave us a scare. This nice clump of huge oak trees are on the hill above the motorhome, the red marked one naturally leaning above us. With the 60 mile an hour winds--or a twisting wind or a bolt of lightning--a six foot crack developed and fortunately the power company felt it compromised their power line. We moved the coach, they cut it down piece by piece, and we moved back in. We feel safer now!

Early on we sandbagged Jim and Carol's cabin. We had a nice wall about three feet high and they had two sump pumps going. As the water came up, we thought we might make it--and then one night a portion of the wall broke in and the basement filled with water. Since this picture the water has risen to about six inches above the sandbags.

The dock at our place is moved up the shore as far as it can go and the water is almost covering  the sections completely, hence no shallow water, no beach, no ledge, just cliff...no place to park the pontoon with its sealegs.

We moved it to the lagoon and for about a week moved it forward everyday. This picture is now in the middle of the road to Jim and Carol's cabin which is about two and a half feet under water.


The lake is closed to the public, there are "no wake" rules for those of us on the water, we can't swim in the water in many cases can't use it for drinking or washing. That's the bummer!

But we made the best of it by having a "bad water" theme meal as in a hurricane. So we drank hurricanes while we prepared some great Cajun food--red beans and rice, shrimp roumalade, okra and andouille creole,  oyster hushpuppies, and enough to fill us all!

This is not a picture of our smorgasbord, but Addy and Macy made this cracker and carrot feast for the chipmunks. I especially loved the little daisy Addy added for the centerpiece.