Wet, cold, Earth Day festivities

The rains of this past week have swollen the Iroquois River to its highest level in two or three years. Weston Lake has reappeared, which is my way of saying that the field east of Weston Cemetery has flooded. In a month or two it will dry up again and we will see how many fish and tadpoles are in it as the water disappears.

The river gauge indicates that we smashed the old highs for yesterday and today, with the river flow topping out at a little more than 1800 cubic feet per second. The old highs were in 1969 for these dates. The Lafayette news last night said that the Wabash River would be hitting levels higher than any in the past 55 years. We must have gotten less rain. Though the river is a bit above flood stage, it was was not high enough to cover College Ave or Bunkum Road, which happens when we get really high water. It crested at about 13.3 feet, which is more than two feet below what it was in 2009.

 The high water caused the cancellation of river floats planned for the Earth Day festivities. It seems that whenever there is a river float scheduled, the river will either be too high or too low. But other events went on despite the very cool temperatures. (Did you find some snow on your lawn this morning?) The kids enjoyed the inflatables from Party Town.

 There seemed to be fewer booths this year than in the past. I missed the electric departments bicycle that demonstrated the efficiency of various types of light bulbs and the folks from Nature Conservancy. A new feature this year was a performance by the Irish band, Kennedy's Kitchen. John Kennedy teaches economics at SJC and did a bit of the music included in the documentary film, Everglades of the North.

Among the booths there, the Master Gardeners were giving away trees, Kiwanis Club was giving away children's books, the Jasper County Library was giving away adult books, the Lion's Club was selling food, and Willow Switch was popular with hot coffee and cocoa. Jasper Junction was collecting recycled clothing, books and household items. Until the end of the event their truck was mostly empty. But as the event wound down, it suddenly filled up.

I was told that I really should go out and see the crowds at Jasper Junction on the first Thursday of the month, when everything is half off. I will have to make the effort to see what is happening.

Update: It was winter storm Yogi that gave us the rain and the bit of snow during the week.