May’s rainfall. Despite the clouds, drizzle and cool weather, May has produced surprisingly little rainfall. Through the morning of Tuesday, May 27, I had recorded 2.79 inches at my place near Milanville, about a quarter of which arrived on Memorial Day.

Prior to Memorial Day, our vernal pond had shrunk to the dimensions of a large puddle, swarming with tadpoles and smaller organisms that we’ve kept alive artificially. It’s about 100 yards to the pond, but by joining hose segments and tapping an outdoor faucet for two hours a day, we’ve maintained a small pool in a corner of the pond basin.

Heavy rains last spring broke the back of a prolonged drought. From March 1 through May 31, 2002, I recorded 15.99 inches of rain, while this year’s figure between March 1 and Memorial Day is 8.57 inches, a little over half.

	TRR photo by Ed Wesely Skinners Falls in late March, swollen by snow melt. (Click for larger image)

The rafting rock. Despite prolonged spillage from New York’s Cannonsville and Pepacton reservoirs, the Delaware River is rapidly subsiding into summer water levels. From the Skinners Falls Bridge, for example, a fabled “rafting rock” at the head of the Skinners rapids now juts several feet above the river surface.

When the rock was covered by the river flow, as it was in late March and for much of April, old-timers knew they could run Skinners Falls with their 120-foot-long white pine rafts, and that Foul Rift and Trenton Falls far down river were navigable too.