Weekend Waterview: Down She Goes

Happy Sunday!

Here’s a weekend waterview from Lake Norman. . .

We’ve enjoyed some beautiful sunrises recently,

along with the ducks.

Our lake level continues to shrink with our drought conditions.

Lake Norman is the largest of Duke Energy’s lakes, covering more than 32,000 acres of surface,

spanning four counties, and 520 miles of shoreline.

Created for hydropower and flood control, Lake Norman also provides drinking water

for four counties, including the city of Charlotte.

There is rain in the forecast today with storms moving through

and we received a little rain yesterday,

but we need a boatload of it!

One of the benefits of living on the lake is lake-fed irrigation as we’re on a well.

Our irrigation pipe has been out of the water since September.

As of 12/09/2023 Lake Norman is at 94.1 ft. (with 100 ft. being full pond).

Duke Energy update:

On Nov. 1, 2023, the Catawba-Wateree River Basin entered Stage 1 of the Low Inflow Protocol (LIP) due to continued dry conditions and lack of rainfall in the area. The Catawba-Wateree Drought Management Advisory Group (DMAG), which consists of representatives from Duke Energy, large water users, and federal and state resource agencies, is closely following conditions in the basin. As these dry weather conditions continue, the community is asked to be mindful of its water use and to consider conserving energy which also saves water. Residents using water from a Duke Energy lake for landscape irrigation are asked to limit watering to Tuesdays and Saturdays. To ensure the safety of boaters and protect property, some boat ramps will close temporarily due to declining lake levels.

Our neighbor’s floating dock is sitting on the lake bottom.

Our Silver Maple tree was struck by struck by lightning two summers ago.

It’s been struggling and has had significant die back

on a main trunk where it was hit.  It had been breaking off in pieces,

and was finally time to take it down.

 The low lake level made the job a little easier for the tree crew.

It was fascinating to watch them work and also little terrifying . . .

I found myself holding my breath at times while I watched.

The maple tree predated us and we’ve been here for 22 years. We assume

it was planted when the house was built, almost 40 years ago.

Lightning’s extreme heat vaporizes the water inside a tree.

According to the National Weather Service, the average lightning strike carries about 300 million volts

of electricity. For a point of reference, the current that travels through the wiring in your home is 120 volts.

You can see the area where the tree was struck in the above photo.

35+ years to grow and a mere 3 hours to take it down and haul it away

with a skilled tree crew.

Join me for a moment of silence. . .

*sniff*

Before. . . .

After.

 A shout out to the excellent tree crew at

Stumpy’s Tree Service

If you need a tree taken down in the Lake Norman area, we highly recommended them.

This is the second tree they’ve taken down for us in 4 months time.

We’ve had a Red-shouldered hawk visiting lately . . .

A beautiful bird, but I’d prefer he didn’t look for his next meal at our bird feeders!

In the fun world of technology, ;)

WordPress was having technical difficulties and issues on Tuesday.

I apologize if you were having problems leaving a comment and got an error or ‘invalid’ message.

Everything was back to normal by late Tuesday.

I’ll leave you with another sunrise view from last week. . .

Thank you for your visit!