Early Preparation

011111: We are just beginning to think about our upcoming season and all the start up preparation necessary to complete in the next few months. I seriously need to write down my "Need To Do" list before my head explodes with all these thoughts!

If you like useless fact about Topaz Lake's water level read section #1 below first. If not, skip to section #2:

1. I just checked the lake level and it is 10 vertical feet higher than it was one year ago on the same date. To clarify, vertical feet is synonymous with elevation feet, not shoreline feet, which is incomparable due to changes in the lake bed year to year. However, for a visual comparison sake, last year after Memorial Weekend I wrote about the rising lake level due to the melt off (you can read about that here) and right now - on 1/11/11 - the lake is as high as it was on 6/4/10. The runoff that supplies the lake occurs mostly late May, early June. Last year, the runoff was record breaking, (which I wrote about here) And a few other interesting facts, (that is, if you find this interesting to begin with!) the current 10 ft difference is equal to about 28% of the total lake storage. And the lake will be considered full or at its' maximum in another 11 ft which is equal to 39% of the lake storage. Yes, the last few feet is a huge part of the total water storage.

2. The lake is usually high for this time of the year. There is about 90 feet of beach left, which believe me is a lot when you have two docks that the water is creeping up under already. Though we fully expect the lake to fill this year, if that happens and how long it would stay full depends on when and how much the farmers use in the spring.

So, in closing, I just checked my calendar and we open 8 weeks from today! Yikes! If you have read any of my previous posts about time flying past us, by my calculations 8 weeks already occurred 3 days ago. I've barely begun the year and I'm late already!