The surprise flood

After the wonderful weekend of skating last week, we were ready to skate again this weekend. There had been a warm spell in the middle of the week where it got up to nearly 60 degrees F. There had been rain and obviously the snow melted but I had not anticipated that the Wallkill River would flood. As we drove up today we were surprised to see the fields covered with a layer of ice.

This interesting combination of melting, flooding and re-freezing caused a very unusual phenomena. The flood waters had frozen about half an inch and then the flood receded leaving ice suspended a foot or two above the ground. You could see this most clearly on our reed bed by the lake.

Suspended Ice

Ice suspended in bushes
Showing the height of the flood

Unfortunately since the pond had been under water the ice on the surface had been buckled and bent and broken in several places. Ice skating would be impossible. The 'flood ice' was all over the peninsula and we had lost a couple of our seats around the fire pit.

The peninsula

Ice rink destroyed

One sad moment was the discovery of one of our grey herons caught in the ice. Not sure if he died there or got washed there in the flood. They are such beautiful and majestic birds. It's very sad.


Grey Heron in the ice

I could not resist the immediate urge to go and explore down by the river. Last time the river flooded during winter it left massive chunks of ice on the riverbank. When I got to our bridge I was sorry to see it had uprooted itself in the flood. Thanks to the tether to the tree it did not go far.

Bridge moved

On the other side was a strange patchwork of thick blocks of ice joined together with thin flood ice. It was very difficult to walk on without falling through. Underneath there were layer and layers of blocks of ice. Some of the so clear that it sparkled in the sunlight.

ice patchwork

Thick on thin on thick

Ice jewel

I'm sad that there will be no ice skating this weekend. If it freezes even more we might be able to have the world's first skate-able assault course.

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Paradox farm

If you wander along Springtown Road, past DeJoux House, you will see our mailbox opposite the front door. It's not especially distinguishable except it is rather large and sits on an old tree stump. It's a rusty old thing but it seems to have survived the snow plows and drunk drivers of Springtown Road. It has always bothered me that on the side of the mail box you can see the vague outline of the words "Paradox Farm" which was clearly a name that DeJoux House was more recently referred to. Occasionally when wondering the fields I would stumble across some incongruity and wonder if that was indeed the "paradox" that the farm was named after. Yesterday morning, for some unknown reason, I decided it was time to resolve the paradox. I sent a quick email to the previous owner June Finer to see if she knew anything of the Paradox Farm ghost on the side of the mailbox. This was her reply: once upon a time we, (myself and russell gilmore---my ex), met a...

DeJoux House to be published

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A long silence broken

It has been over 18 months since I posted an entry on the DeJoux House blog. Why? I'm not sure. The renovations were held up for a while as we enjoyed a working, if unfinished house. Looking back there was frankly very little news of note. Lots of socializing. Lots of enjoying the bounty of the land. Lots of swimming in the pond and Ice Skating...but you'd seen all of that in the old posts. Today, I am inspired to write a post because I have uncovered some news about the history of the house. Since we bought the house we have always been told that the house was built in 1740. That's what the town of New Paltz have in their records. That's what the previous owners told us and well, we had little reason to disbelieve it. However, we have very little proof of when the building of DeJoux House started. This puzzle was further heightened when a gentleman from North Carolina contacted us with the following request. Mr. Flebut - I am a professor at the University of N...

DeJoux House

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