A dark and angry sky this morining, and a tempestuous wind. Giant whitecaps out in the bay, and lots of pitching and rolling in the marina. Sunny, breezy afternoon.

All boats safe. But this evening a scene from a fantasy film along the shore. Thanks to the phase of the moon, atmospheric pressure, the big floods in Detroit and points north, the IJC dumping lots of water out of Lake Superior, and who knows what else, the water here is the hightest it has been since 1986, I do believe. The pier has been re-arranged once again, and anything that could float has been washed ashore.

Today we cut the grass and dropped a medium-sized poplar formerly growing up by the garage. It had succumed to some poplar disease (anthracnose most likely, certainly not ebola) and was beginning to throw branches onto the driveway. Dropped, chopped and shredded all in a few hours, with enough fuel to heat a cabin for a least a month of chilly weather (once it dries and is split—which with the new splitter will now be a piece of cake).