Logs, debris, trash

We have had a lot of rain in May and early June.  Now the dams are full and there's nowhere for all that water to go but past - and beneath - our house.  The high water washes a lot of debris off of the banks.  Sometimes whole, large trees will float by.  Today it is bank to bank with smaller flotsam. 

The rains have stopped and so maybe the river will start to recede now.

--Brian

Now here's something to give pause to those boaters who go fast at night:

The angle of this shot makes these look small, but they are actually some pretty big logs.  They passed us laying straight across the channel and the combined length of the whole aggregation was probably 60-70 feet.  They just rode over top of the buoys like they weren't even there.  Flotsam like this is not unusual in the spring, so take it easy - especially after dark.

--Brian

Hey, it's in the charter...

--Brian

The river has been going up all day and look at all the crap that is being washed off of the banks:

One interesting thing: there are Brewer's blackbirds all over this flotsam. They are quite the Huck Finns. You might be able to make out three or four of them in this poorly focused photo:

There are some pretty good sized logs amongst all of this flotsam:

The nearby buoy has been submerged by the rising water - up at least a couple of feet since this morning. We can now see over the top of the piling outside of our office. Not to worry, it will have to go up a lot farther before we float off the top of the pilings.

Now I guess I'd better quit playing and get my pike pole out there and push some of this stuff out away from the docks...

--Brian

Some days life just gives you flotsam!

--Brian

--Brian

See this little log poking up out of the water? It is actually about 10' long and is hung up on the 5 foot deep steel brace which keeps the opening of the boat well from flexing open/shut. Time for my fancy new pike pole to do its job...

--Brian

I think this is what Janet meant when she said to take pictures of stuff floating by...

It has been rainy, even with some thunder storms. I guess a rush of runoff washed this dead log into the river. Fortunately, there aren't many boats out. If today was Saturday, somebody would probably ram into this and mess up their boat, and their day.

--Brian

Looks like some flowers and a balloon (inset) from a wedding or birthday or something...

--Brian

We recently moved into a houseboat on the Multnomah Channel in Oregon. I setup a bench on the lower deck right next to the water. Last night Janet and I were sitting on the bench and we noticed interesting flotsam floating past us. Janet said "You should take a picture a day of whatever floats by and post it on a blog." So I guess that's what I'll do. I doubt that it will really be a picture a day, but I'll post them as often as possible showing interesting things that float by on the river.

Naturally, when I start looking for interesting flotsam, I don't see any. Here's a log that floated by:

...nothing special. We'll see how this goes.

--Brian