School buses are rolling...

Did you notice all of them out there practicing yesterday?

A bit chilly this morning!
At 9 am, it is 57 degrees
78% humidity
Barometer is steady at 29.91 inches
Fire danger remains LOW
We never got any of that rain to speak of yesterday. Here's hoping the fish hold out!

The excavator next door fired up at 7 am today and has been busy. There's a rumor going through the neighborhood that they don't intend to build out the property, perhaps only building a few of the houses for family. We'll see...

Of Bounds and Impounds

Ok, so dig this...

We get a call this a.m. from a woman who is sure that the pond is still draining.
We promise to go and look for ourselves as I saw the guys close the valve, and saw the flow stop days ago (Saturday).
(In the back of my mind I wondered if the release pipe had gotten undermined somehow, if her story pans out.)

This afternoon I go out to the Olean Street frontage and the water looks more or less the same, and then I turn my head and look north and it looks drier.
Drier?
I go up to the north end of the pond and it sure does look drier.

After making a call another person goes out, but this time to the south end of the pond by the dam.
There is no outflow (good), and the water level seems to him to be rising.
Rising?
Huh, how's that?

I go out to the dam myself, and sure enough, no outflow (good) and the water level is rising (also good). Heck the fish are jumping all over at the dusk light for insects!

So what gives?

Here is my guess:

Pools were left behind to the north on Saturday, which is the shallower end of the pond and the part of the pond that was clearly flooded by the dam to make the pond as big as it is.
The pond had only recently gone down and everything was still wet.
While the flow did stop, the pools were nevertheless on higher ground, even if they were cut off, and over time water sought its own level.
Thus, drier to the north, but overall the pond is reflooding.
Or I am just plain crazy.

Weirdest dang situation.


And then there is the continuing land clearing on our southern flank here at the Lodge.
To date the guy in the forwarder has been great about leaving a buffer on the conservation land of some 8-10 feet. Nevertheless, step away to grab some groceries, come back and decades of tree and understory growth can disappear. So we posted the bound line on the southern and western flank with Greater Worcester Land Trust Property Boundary tags.
Theoretically this, in addition to the operator's caution, as well as the project's own site flagging, should ensure that the project doesn't creep over and accidentally undo what nature has been hard at work at.
This was also a great chance to look carefully at the trunks of numbers of trees, and to look for yard waste dumping (yeah there was some), and trash (not so much thankfully.)

And so ends another busy day here at the Lodge.

Presently it is 8:38 p.m.:
the temperature is 66.0 degrees F and falling,
the humidity is 82% and steady,
the pressure is 29.80" of Hg and steady,
and the USFS Fire Danger Class is LOW.

By the way, unfortunately those rain storms never materialized, so the refill continues in slow trickle mode.

The Case of the Disapearing Pond

Last Sunday I noted that the Cooks Pond across Olean Street was really low.
On Tuesday I spoke with one of the owners of the pond who was at a loss as well.

But the water level seemed stable, and there has to be a reason for the drop I thought, besides I was distracted by the Asian Longhorned Beetles even in my sleep.

Friday things 'seemed' a bit lower.
This Saturday they were clearly even lower and folks were calling.
After some scrambling we all worked together to stop that.

Finally I have an answer to the quandary: where did the pond go anyway?


The pond is controlled by a dam, and the dam has a release valve.
The valve assembly had unfortunately been messed with earlier, and in an effort to fix that vandalism up and protect the mechanics of the dam the owners of the pond decided to lower the pond level slightly to better access things.
When they opened the valve they discovered that the flow was obstructed and the water wasn't being released.
They opened the valve wider, but still not much flow.
They opened the valve all the way.

Well, over the week the blockage slowly was working its way out, and by Saturday morning the valve was fully open and the flow was going great guns draining the pond away.
Problem was that the sudden change wasn't immediately moderated by a judicious closing the valve. Alas.
Thankfully the neighbors were observant, persistent, and concerned.

The valve was re-closed, the water flow was stopped, and now the slow process of refilling begins as the Cascades Brook, the Tatnuck Brook, and the Moreland Brook all work to raise the water level.

Some interesting observations from a neighbor on the extreme draw down:

There are pretty large tree stumps typically submerged that have tops that look to have been chopped by beavers way back in the day to the eyes of Brendan.

There are some amazingly large bass revealed that live in the pond regularly avoiding being caught by decades of folks persistent trying.



Watch Cooks Pond as it refills.
Thanks to all who noticed and called or dropped by to get things figured out.