The Campfire Trail: May 2 - Resort Adventures

May 2, 2019

Day 122 - 243 Days to go

Base Camp Coffee of the Day: Lost in the Dark (Colombian Dark French Roast)

We awoke to a cloudy and slightly drizzly day this morning but thankfully, the lake is back to normal levels and seems to be staying there. It's still quite muddy but that will pass eventually. mornings like this remind me of a rain forest. Yesterday's flood was a minor one and it really does amount to about a two day glitch in the routine. Yes, it's a mess and, yes, it requires time and energy. But mostly it's just an inconvenience. We made the decision when we purchased this property to make flood events as low impact as possible. We know that the engineers certified maximum flood stage for the lake is about seven feet up the basement wall. It's come close to that twice in the hundred years since the Dam at Powersite was built and the nearly 70 years since the Table Rock Dam was built. We simply decided that trying to maintain finished space in the lower level was not worth the risk of flood damage every other year or so. Our philosophy is, empty the lower level back to concrete walls and concrete floors and simply let the flood water (when it occurs) flow in and flow back out. And it works. We do use one of the spaces for a laundry, but it's still basically concrete once the machines are moved out which takes about 30 minutes to accomplish. SO...….. That's our "Flood Secret". So today, we will move the machines back in and our laundry will be back in business.

Does flood events qualify as a "Resort Adventure"? Sure. It's not necessarily a positive experience, but it's certainly part of the adventure. And part of the trade off you accept by living literally ten feet away from the lake. I'm good with it!

The Last Resort Project: I started moving tools back to the Last Resort to begin working on cabin 6 early next week. I suppose that's something to report.

“You never discover the unexpected if you always stick with the familiar”
― Jeff Dixon