Drove South to a class early this morning and the fire was as intense as the reports I heard. The old post office that I remember from my first trip down that road when I was five years old, is a crumbled ruin. And the nice brick house just South of that is the same. I could see how the heat came in fingers that engulfed some places and went around others. This morning the wind was intense again and there was a dust storm starting at the beginning of the burn that continued along the entire burned out area. That was strange because the grass that burned was so pale and drooped that it was barely visible to begin with, but obviously even in that condition it was very important. This afternoon on my way back, enough sand had been moved that in large areas the burned appearance had disappeared.
When I got to the house I finally went to work on the pond. It wasn't nearly as hard as I expected but I couldn't get the boat out of the water after I filled it with plants. I couldn't even row it back to the usual docking area. That has happened before but I thought I overcame it. Have decided to just clip the dead reeds that are hanging over the berm. And also, The penny wort was creating a kind of island. The main roots are actually anchored to the side of the pond and some of the tendrils are 20' long. Anyway they are all interconnected and the space between the shoots has been filled in with moss and algae topped by leaves and twigs, forming a kind of mat that other things were starting to grow out of. I used a long bread knife and cut long strips that I rolled up and pulled onto the boat. It only took a few hours and was way easier then when I tried to cut them out with clippers. I did that too many times and ran out of energy, and then there were those high waves and strong currents coming right at me, so I just had to crash into the first shore that came along and tie the boat off for the night.