Communicating with someone today, I was asked how we were doing with the flooding. I looked out the front Landfill window at a dry yard and street and lots of sunshine, la la la. I started to say, “No flooding.”

Immediately I knew I needed to back-pedal. Okay.

Planet Ann Arbor? No flooding in my neighborhood. Some people on lower ground and closer to the river may have had some issues. Not us. Dry as a bone. Except that the tub would not drain quickly yesterday. That has nothing to do with any area flooding, it’s a bad drain part. The GG put a “band aid” on that until he gets back and can do a more permanent fix. My personal plumber.

Then. “Well, we have two cabins,” I said. At the Houghton Lake cabin we spent most of last week dealing with flooding. The Houghton Lake area is in the middle of various complicated watersheds and there are many dams in the area. If there is too much water for any reason and the dams are not set up exactly right and the wind is unfavorable, water comes over our seawall and we get flooded. The cFam boys set up pumps that kept that from happening and also helped save some neighbors.

What about the “other” cabin? Oh, this person is on the ball and remembered that I had said “two cabins”. Most folks would already have moved on to whatever else is on their mind. The “other cabin” is on the shores of Gitchee Gumee and it is several feet off the ground and there’s a big beach, which makes it almost impossible for the water to get high enough to flood. Now. Our 2-track road can get pretty darn fugly but it is regularly maintained so there are never any water holes big enough to swallow a car. Even my little Ninja could navigate its biggest puddles without a problem. (I love that a first cousin twice removed called the moomincabin “the other cabin” a couple years ago when he visited as a toddler. He won’t be saying that the next time and will probably not be fixated on the doors.)

The Great Lake State is large and has a HUGE variety of terrains and eco-systems and habitats and what have you. So flooding can happen here and there but usually not everywhere.

P.S. It’s a deer rib cage. When you encounter these out in the woods, you HAVE to slam on the brakes and take a pic. We were on the Scenic Trails at Houghton Lake.

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