We rise and fall with the river levels. Portland has a Mediterranean climate, warm, dry and sunny in summer, and the river level drops accordingly. I see it when I paddle, the shoreline constantly changing. Now, the ramp to get from our parking lot to the walkway leading to our floating homes is steep and it's hard to believe that a few months ago it was flat. When the water rises again I will add another photo for comparison. The steepness makes it difficult to go up and down -- everything seems heavier -- especially for those of us with bad knees and a bad back. Sometimes I divide a load in two and cart it up half at a time so it doesn't pull on my body so much.
The first time I had a heavy load to bring down the ramp I was terrified that it would get away from me and crash into the house directly at the bottom. I've heard stories of the "agua" man, maneuvering a cart of 5-gallon bottles of water to people, who did just that.
When I moved some things here last April to stage my forest house for sale, the ramp was flat. When I finally moved here in November the river was rising and kept rising through the winter. This April, when with great relief I finished the last bit of room-painting and other work I wanted to get done -- "out of the headwind" was how I described it to friends -- literally the next day we got an email from the moorage owner telling us that the river level was at 17 feet, and if it rose to 18.5 feet, the parking lot would be flooded. We would have to park our cars on higher ground, and depending on how high it would get, we would either need boots or boats to get to our vehicles. I was especially groaning because I had quite a supply of firewood I'd bought from the previous owner up in the field adjacent to the parking lot and I could imagine it all floating away, or a weary me having to try and move quite a bit of it to the wood racks on the houseboat. Fortunately the river started dropping.
Today when I wanted to take a photo of the river gauge on the walkway dolphin, I couldn't find it. I walked back and forth looking for it, sure that I'd seen it there. Silly me. One of my neighbors pointed out that I needed to look up -- the painted-on gauge was far overhead -- that way up there was what we were watching at eye-level when the river ran fast and high.
While I'm enjoying the summer sun, I can look forward to the rains that will raise us, and our ramp.
I am one of Donna's neighbors on the Mayfair Moorage and I love this blog! It's like seeing my home place through new eyes - thank you Donna!
ReplyDeleteMary
Im returning to Portland after being in Eugen for twenty plus years. I have a new job in Scappoose, and looking for a new small home or a rent situation, or a boat slip for something more than 27 and less than 40 ft.
ReplyDeleteIm a professional artist/designer so finding shop space is important. I am called Al on the movie sets because I can use nearly any tool and know how to build stuff. Once my tools are here if you need something done but the project is too small or specialized just drop me a line, I have been a autoshop and woodshop instructor and the senior center, i like helping people complete their projects.