Fast Forward to the FLOOD

July 10-13, 2024                                                    Most Recent Posts:
Moose River Campground                                  The Fairbanks Museum
St Johnsbury, Vermont                                       Summer Solstice was HOT here too

I’m interrupting my chronological flow to jump to the present days.  Hurricane Beryl paid us a visit on Wednesday in the middle of the night.  The clean up and especially road repair is on going.   Here’s what it looked like.

My “backyard”  at 10am on Wednesday July 10.  River is seriously rising.  But this sort of thing happened last year.  No one was too concerned.

You can see a 30 second video of the river just beginning to over flow,

Here’s the campground road and Gracie parked in front of Winnona.   Things look fine.

And then the rain started up again – heavily.  The brown spots are ducks on the shore outside my dinette window.

The rain lightened up a bit.  I went outside and got pictures and this video of the mallards who were non plussed about the whole thing. 
The water had not gotten to my neighbors picnic table or firepit.  Luckily for them, they had left yesterday.   These are all the “early on” pictures for comparison.

The ducks of course thought this was fine for swimming and wading in the “shallows” up over the grass.  Not as much current.

Water is moving  up by 4 in the afternoon.  Notice the edge of Winnona on the right.

The neighbor’s site and picnic table by 6 pm.

My site by 7:30 pm

The rain stopped, the river started receding, everyone thought we’d be OK and then buckets of rain fell in the middle of the night.

Moving rigs off the river front at 3:30am

They are moving all the rigs but two, me and the one on the upside from me.
These are the two highest sites on the lower part of the campground.

At the moment, the water is only an inch or two deep under Winnona.  They thought I’d be fine but said they’d move me if I wanted to.  Moving is a lot of work especially packing up in the middle of the night.   So I elected to stay hoping I would not have to move.  By the time I decided, it was dawn and I could see my situation.

In the morning on Thursday the 12th it looked like this at about 9 am. The river is freely moving over its banks, through campsites and out to the road which it is washing away.

My neighbor’s site and the ones next to it had become a cut through for the river to the campground road.

I’m site 15, slightly higher than this one next to me.

Time for Gracie to move to higher ground.

Campground road, water pretty deep for Gracie.  Glad I moved her.

By late afternoon most of the sites further down from me were at the mercy of the river and the campground road was getting seriously washed out.

At 6:30 my mat was under water, not deep, but the river was washing the road out.  I could probably have stayed.  My site never became a river pass through, but I elected to move because if the road got worse and things changed, I might not be stranded.

They  moved me to the middle of the campground where the sites are long enough to double up.  I did not have electric or water there however.
Once I moved to this site in the middle of the campground, I was safe but muddy and the road was too deep to get any more good video of the river unfortunately.  I would have had to wade through the water and I’m not quite that dedicated.  I don’t carry rain boots.

Saturday the 13th, I moved again to this site even higher up with both water and electric.

Here was the view out my window as the road repairs continued in earnest. Luckily Gary is also the owner of an excavating company and has all the equipment he needs to repair what the river has done many times to the campground.
In the distance, you can see the white caps on this usually lazy river.

The road in front of the campsites under repair Saturday.  The only rig that did not move was a rental that Mary and Gary own.  It is in the site next to me.  They were more confident than I.    And they were right.

Mary had to call everyone booked to come in on Friday or Saturday and cancel and refund their money.  A serious financial blow given the costs of repairing the campground.

And still, the planned Mexican Potluck went on as scheduled Saturday night.
Of course less than half of the campground had to move.  Only a dozen sites were impacted.

Since I am parked so close, I got a shot of the decorated pavilion before every got here.  Notice Winnona beyond the Mexican flag banners

Some folks came really prepared with icy margaritas.  Ole!!

With the forced cancellations we didn’t have as many people but there was still a lot of food.    Though not one person attempted a Mexican dessert.

and today, I moved back to my original site 15.
An amazing job of road and site repair by Gary and the men who helped him.  As you can see from the larger rock, the road is not completely finished but enough that we can all get in and out.
The repairs continue.

Here is that same picture from the rear of Winnona taken an hour ago. 
Yes I was sitting out in my chair watching the river.
It still has white caps but the rock banks are more visible now.

You can see them in this final video of what the river looks like now.
Or at least until the next rain.

Next post, back to June as I try to continue my catch up.

The Fairbanks Museum

June 19-June 21, 2024                                                   Most Recent Posts:
Moose River Campground                                 Summer Solstice was HOT here too
Site 15                                                                     Molly’s Pond State Park
Saint Johnsbury, Vermont

Being primarily an outdoors person, I have never been to the Fairbanks Museum here in St. Johnsbury.  There are other reasons why I have not come but I decided today was the day to visit.

The Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium is a combination natural science museum, history museum and planetarium.

It was founded in 1890 by businessman, politician, naturalist, and collector Franklin Fairbanks.  The museum and its beautiful building are on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

Notice the lions guarding the entrance.  Children like to climb on them and ride.

The town of St. Johnsbury had a long history with the Fairbanks family.  It was the location of the Fairbanks Scales headquarters and factories since the 1820s, as well as several other mansions and estates owned by members of the family. Before founding the museum, Franklin Fairbanks had served as president of the company, which his father and uncle had founded.

The museum was expanded in 1894 to house the entire growing collection, moving from its previous location, Fairbanks' own house, Undercliffe Mansion, where the items and artifacts had been kept beginning in the 1870s.  Much of the main collection in the museum comes from Fairbanks' own pre-existing collection.  The museum was built specifically to contain and display the collection which numbers some 175,000 objects.  Storage and archive spaces are maintained on site for many of the items when not on display.

I’m normally not a lover of Natural History museums.  I have seen both of these bears in the wild and much prefer to see animals in their natural habitat not stuffed and on display.   So the Fairbanks makes me a little uneasy and I spend most of my time with the history and archeology collections.  I find I can’t even begin to scratch the surface.

I do love the seashells and particularly the way they are displayed here so that I can see the inner amazing design.

Most of the main floor is occupied by animal displays and the very interesting museum store.  Up the wonderful curving staircases in the corners I can reach the balcony.

The inside of this building is as gorgeous as the outside.  Golden oak is my favorite wood.   The stair treads are oak with brass air panels below.

In this shot you can see the amazing wooden curved ceiling and look over the balcony to the floor below.   Orient yourself by finding the two bears.

The two long balconies on either side of the railings have glass display cases along them as well as exhibits in alcoves to the far sides.    It’s an amazingly designed wonderful space.  There are two stained glass windows at either end.

Many of the displays in the alcoves are archeological.  This one is entitled Armor and Helmet from the late 1800’s, which is just over 100 years ago.  It was brought from the Gilbert Islands, a group of coral islands and atolls in the west-central pacific Ocean 2800 miles northeast of Australia.  How in the world did Mr. Fairbanks get it?  I hope it was a gift. 

The armor and helmet are made of woven coconut fiber, porcupine quills and fish skin.  It is just amazing.

The weapon is made from coconut wood, sharks teeth and human hair.

Aren’t they just incredible.   How could we ever think any native tribes were unsophisticated?

There are so many alcoves and so many displays that it is nearly overwhelming and it is clear I will have to return many times in order to see and read everything here.   And like most museums, what is on display at any one time is a fraction of the entire collection.

Below is a Butterfly Mosaic.  I have mixed feelings about this exquisite art.

Butterfly mosaics are created by cutting and arranging the delicate and colorful wings of butterflies and are produced in few places in the world.  This one, the plaque below it says was acquired from the artist by an important official in the Central African Republican government and given to Allen and Carolyn Grass of Rumney Vermont.  I couldn’t find out who they are or why they would be so honored.  But they donated this piece to the Fairbanks in October 1999.

On the other side of the balcony I found this collected common dobsonfly.  These are the largest aquatic insects in the world with a wing span up to 8.5”.  Dobsonflies are large, nocturnal insects that live in and around freshwater streams in North America including Vermont.  They have large prominent pincers and long antennae.  Boy am I glad they are nocturnal.  I’d hate to have one fly up to me in a kayak.  

Equally amazing was this created metal dobsonfly.  That’s the collected one in its case on the lower right for a size comparison.

This thing was amazing and huge.

Within 90 minutes my mind was a whirl and I could not take in anything else. 

I am much more impressed than I expected to be and will return multiple times to try again to see and understand just a handful of all the amazing things on display here.   The next post I do on the Fairbanks will include the Planetarium.

Summer Solstice was HOT here too

June 20, 2024                                                                   Most Recent Posts:
Moose River Campground                                             Molly’s Pond State Park
St Johnsbury, Vermont                                                   Early June-Nearby Hiking

MORNING

The summer solstice this year was on June 20th.   It was a very hot day pretty much everywhere including here in the Northeast Kingdom where it reached 92.  Thank goodness those temperatures didn’t last here the way they seem to have everywhere else.

To beat the heat, I was out early to get some nature time in the Town Forest.  I love the fact that many towns in Vermont and perhaps in other states in New England have a “town forest”, land set aside in its natural state right in town for people to hike and in some cases bike.

The Moose River, which flows behind Winnona at the campground,  is much larger by the time it flows past the town forest and I could see it on the blue trail. 

Although I hiked a total of nearly 5 miles, the blue trail is the only one I’m writing about.  From the parking lot you head down hill.

It can get very muddy after a rain.  But the recent heat has dried things up.

I’m so surprised that I took no videos of the lovely sounds of the water rushing along.

As I walked down from the trail to this rock ledge over the water for some pictures, I wondered what this large ring anchored into the stone was or had been for.   Any ideas??

I walked out to the end of the ledge to take some shots of this beautiful river.

At current higher water levels, it would be a nice kayak if it weren’t for obstacles like this.

I know, a lot of water pictures.

Another save you from the mud boardwalk.  Glad there wasn’t any but I’ve been here when it was very muddy indeed.

At this point the blue trail heads up up up away from the water and  leads into the pink trail whose sign is green.  LOVE IT!

AFTERNOON

I had hoped to have a whole day celebration outside where a Solstice Celebration belongs, but it was just too hot and humid.  So I opted for an airconditioned movie and its popcorn. 


Problem was, these were the 4 movies available at the local St J. theater where I had happily seen Oppenheimer last year and unhappily seen Barbie.

The Bikeriders-R (crime drama about a motorcycle gang),  too violent for me.

 The Watchers-PG 13 (supernatural horror film) not my cup of tea,

Inside Out 2-PG  (animated follow up to the original) hadn’t seen the original

The Garfield Movie-PG  (animated adventure based on the comic strip) how bad could it be?

If you’ve seen any of these, please comment and tell me what you thought.

I’m sure you know which one I chose.

Garfield it was and that should tell you all you need to know about how hot it was given that I’m not a movie goer in the first place although the senior matinee  price of $5 here at the Starlight takes away my main objection to movies and concerts too for that matter.  (I won’t do my soapbox on why so many are willing to pay so much for movies, concerts and sporting events when if they would not, prices would go down.)  I did pay more than that for the popcorn. 

My other objection to movies is that there isn’t often anything worth seeing.  Garfield was not horrible although having my grandchildren here to watch this with me would have made it much more worth while.  

But the poster was orange and yellow and this is my Summer Solstice Celebration.
One of my less remarkable ones for sure.