A Cool Thing About Elevation

With Lower City Park flooded this year we couldn’t get our usual shelter to cook out then watch fireworks. Iowa City decided to move the fireworks to Hubbard Park and to set them off after the last Jazzfest concert, with a scheduled start about 10:30. That would be too late for us. Lisa heard from one of the neighbors that you could see the Coralville fireworks from Finkbine golf course, near our house.

We packed up popcorn and drinks and rode the two tandem bikes to the driving range a little after 9:00 last night. No one else was there and we settled in on the bench above the range. Thirty seconds after we sat down the golf course sprinklers went on and doused us. We moved.

After half an hour of younger daughter asking if it was dark enough yet, we finally saw a tiny glow barely above the tree line off to the north. “IS that IT?” screamed the six year old.

“No, I think that’s the North Liberty fireworks.” I said. We watched them for a few minutes Then we saw tiny flares, barely above the tree line to the west.

“IS that IT?” screamed the six year old.

“No, I think that’s the Tiffin fireworks.” I said. We watched between the two for a few minutes. Then another set of fireworks started, barely above the tree line to the north, but east of North Liberty’s.

“Is THAT it?” screamed the six year old.

“No, I think that’s the Lake Macbride fireworks.” I said. We watched between the three places for a few minutes.

Suddenly a big firework explodeed MUCH higher in the sky. “Those are Coralville’s!” I said. We oohed and ahhed appropriately. Older daughter was very disappointed that being so far away we could barely hear the explosions.

After 20 minutes of watching there was suddenly a VERY LOUD explosion BEHIND us (to the east). We looked back and realized we could see the Iowa City fireworks too. Our heads were on swivels going between Coralville and Iowa City.

I told the girls, that’s the cool thing about being at the highest point in Johnson County, we could see 5 community’s fireworks all from the same place. Younger daughter commented on the way home that, “I will never ever forget this night!”

On the Cutting Edge

"Always take the short cut; and that is the rational one. Therefore say and do everything according to soundest reason."

-Marcus Aurelius, Meditations ix 33

On Saturday I finished nailing down the porch floor. I got out the trusty pneumatic floor nailer and had at it.


Since the threshold of the door extended over my ledgerboard i got to go "old school" and hammer in nails too:


I told Lisa I would have the whole thing done in an hour, but it really took me two and a half.


That was where I left everything on Saturday because we had guests coming in the afternoon to swim with the girls and stay for dinner.

On Sunday afternoon I snapped a line along the edge of the porch to even my boards up. I had let them "run wild" because I couldn't be sure how tightly each would butt against the house.


I put a new blade in the circle saw and with as steady a hand as I could muster I sawed the edges. Hence today's title:


I then sanded the the top of the cut edge to round it off a bit. Then I hit all the end grain with wood hardener. It looked so good, I did the entire porch with hardener for good measure. After waiting 4 hours I used wood filler to plug up gaps since the tongue never completely fills the groove. I didn't want little openings for water to migrate into.

After that was set up I hit the edge with 220 grit sandpaper and put a final coat of wood hardener over what I had just sanded.


This morning I got up early and put a second coat of stain over the whole porch. Tomorrow we should be able to walk on it.

Like Marcus Arurelius I have sound reasons for everything, but it certainly doesn't lead to the short cut!

I'm FLOORED By How it Looks

Yesterday, in between rainshowers I was able to attach the 1 x 8 sheathing over the porch frame. I had cut it to fit already and had painted it in the garage.


Then I took my porch flooring and started to sand. Every board got hit three times with the random orbital sander. First with 40 grit paper, then 80 grit and finally with 120 grit. By the time I had done that all the old varnish and stain was gone from each one. I took a few boards and hit them with the exterior stain I'll use on them. It is a semi-transparent oil based stain. The color is "Cedar" which was the closest to amber shellac color I could find.

When they were pretty dry I got out my pneumatic floor nailer and got the first few boards down, it took a lot of measuring to make sure they were cut and lined up correctly. I'm leaving the board ends to "run wild" as it will be easier after they are all installed to go and cut them all even at once.

I screwed the first board into place so it would hold firm when installing the others. When I went back to fill the holes. I tried cutting plugs from some extra fir I had, but it kept falling apart. I went down and got a scrap piece of maple from the kitchen floor. It worked fine for plugs.


Then I went and stained the rest of the boards and let them dry overnight. I'll install them today.

On the Straight and Narrow

Yesterday I started going through my salvaged flooring that I'll be putting down on the back porch. I will be using vertical grain fir tongue and groove flooring, just like was originally on the porch. I weeded out boards that either were missing the bottom groove or a tongue, or had surface damage.

I had Rowan use her calculator to see how many boards I would need by dividing 115 (inches of porch length) by 3.25 (width of each board) Her answer was 35.38. I said that meant 36 boards, plus two more for the overhang outside the edge of the 2 x 8 frame. That meant I needed 38 boards. I got a sharp glance from the ten year old who said, "Dad, just make sure you have 40 boards."

I used 53 inches as my rough length, finished length should be 51.5. Many of my salvaged boards were over 9 feet long so I was getting two shorts out of each. When I had finished with what was good, I had a total of 42 boards.

Here is what they looked like when I was cutting them to length:


I started to clean them by using my mixture of denatured alcohol and lacquer thinner with steel wool and realized this was going to take a LONG TIME.
Pete stopped over to drop his saws off to me and help with the 1 x 8 sheathing that goes over the porch frame. He suggested that I call Taryl to see if I could use his planer.

Since Lisa was at an administrator workshop I took the girls with me and went to Taryl's last night. The planer was sweet. For most boards I took off about 1/64th of an inch. Here is an example of the "after":


I will hit the places that aren't clean yet with a random orbital sander today.

But was even better was that the girls got to swim for an hour in Taryl's pool AND feed his horses.

So the upshot is that my kids have volunteered my labor for any project Taryl needs help with in order to get pool time.

And the way this all ties into today's title? The reason for using vertical grain fir on a porch is that with the grain running up and down rather than horizontally the boards are much more resistant to rain and cupping since they will be outside, even if they are covered by a roof:

Runner Up!

Yesterday was the 3rd Annual University Heights Chautauqua. The new wrinkle in this year's event was a baking contest. There were four categories: Cakes, Cookies, Bars, and Pies. I don't like to brag, but I took second place in the pie category:


And as I said to elder daughter, the fact that there were only two entries does not diminish the prize in the least. Every other category had at least 5 entries, prizes were awarded to top three in each. The winning pie was a multiple berry pie with strawberries, blueberries and raspberries. What was really fun was that after the contest everyone got to taste each entry. Everyone that is except for those of us who were performing as part of the program, since the band was on stage at time. The girls and Lisa said that everything was very good.

For the record I made mulberry-rhubarb pie. We had seen several mulberry trees on our Ride the River bike tour last Sunday. Saturday morning I got up early and went out with a very large bowl and a tarp. I spread the tarp out under the tree and shook the branches. Then I carefully shook the berries on the tarp into the bowl. Here is my bowl when I got home:


It is a big bowl, I had over 8 cups of mulberries after I washed and picked through them. Sadly I didn't take a picture of the finished pie! Here is the recipe:

INGREDIENTS

• 2 1/2 cups mulberries
  
• 1 1/2 cups finely chopped rhubarb
  
• 1 1/4 cups white sugar
  
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  
• 1 tablespoon butter
  
• 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie
  

DIRECTIONS

1. Mix together mulberries, rhubarb, sugar, and flour.
   
2. Pour into unbaked 9 inch pie shell. Dot filling with butter or margerine, and add top crust.
   
3. Bake at 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
   Bake until pie is done, about 30 minutes.
   

MY SUGGESTIONS TO CHANGE THE ABOVE:

• add at least 1/2 a cup of flour, mulberries make a runny pie, I think that contributed to my second place finish!
  
• I baked closer to an hour rather than 45 minutes.
  

On Saturday after I picked mulberries, Pete came over and we built the frame for the porch over our new footings:


Next will be working to get ready to put the decking back down.

Look Who's in the Media

Today's Iowa City Press Citizen contains a little guest opinion written by yours truly regarding other major floods in Iowa City history. Here is their published version of what I wrote:

Is this the worst flood in city history?
MIKE HAVERKAMP • GUEST OPINION • JUNE 21, 2008

While we have been horrified by the images of devastation, the 2008 flood may not be Iowa City's worst flood in the past century. While the media rightly notes that this flood is much worse than 1993, if you trace back just slightly more than 150 years, the flood of 2008 may rank as only the fourth worst to hit Iowa City.

In June 1918 there was no Coralville Reservoir to hold back the Iowa River. After an exceptionally rainy spring, major flooding struck Iowa City on June 6, 1918. According to an 1985 article by Irving Weber, Iowa City was without electricity for three days: In the same article, Weber goes on to say:

"During the 1918 flood the lower area of City Park was 12 to 15 feet under water. At its crest, water flowed over the wood planking of the iron arched Park Bridge.
"Probably the greatest disaster of all was the fate of the three large Englert Ice Houses loaded with 9,000 tons of Iowa River ice. It was the first time in history the Iowa River was filled with ice in June."

Weber also gives the reminisces of Madison Street resident Fred Gartzke, whose boyhood home was at the site of the present Iowa Memorial Union:

"I recall paddling a canoe down Madison past the Water Works plant, which had been sandbagged to the first floor windows to keep the flood waters out. A mark on the west door shows the height of the 1918 flood."

That high water mark on the Water Works door was also recalled by University of Iowa Facilities Services Group Assistant Director Al Stroh in an article commemorating the 10th anniversary of the 1993 flood: "Although the flood of '93 was bad, the water level was still almost four feet below the flood of 1918 -- as marked on the west side of the old city water plant."

Current Iowa Citians often forget that a large part of the area along Capitol Street -- from Benton Street to the south and the Iowa Memorial Union to the north -- were residential homes until the 1920s. Many of these homes in this 10-blocks-long and two-blocks-wide area were subject to frequent flooding.

So which was worse, 2008 or 1918?
It depends on how you count.

U.S. Geological Survey records for the Iowa City stage south of the Burlington Street dam as follows:
• June 6-8, 1918: Maximum gage, 19.6 feet; maximum flow, 42,500 cubic feet per second.
• June 15-16, 2008: Maximum gage, 31.5 feet; maximum flow, 41,100 cfs.
Gage is difficult to compare over time because the bottom of the river does change. So 2008 had a higher gage but at 42,500 cfs, 1918 may still rank as worse.

What about the infamous line on the old Water Works door?
Sadly, last week a group of Iowa City School District teachers and I went to the Water Works to get a picture of it, but we could find no line anywhere. When I walked down to the Water Works at 1 p.m. Monday, I could see that the water was up to the sills of the first floor windows, so it may be best to say that 1918 and 2008 are tied.

What of the two floods that were worse?
In a 1975 article, Weber describes how he tried to find out what the record floods were:

"Sam Mummey of the U.S. Geological Survey has provided figures showing the river stages since records were kept annually at Iowa City, beginning June 3, 1903. In addition, the years 1851 and 1881 are recorded, though the 1851 figures are qualified with the notation "about."
• July 10, 1881: Maximum gage, 21.1 feet; maximum flow, 51,000 cubic feet per second.
• June 1, 1851: Maximum gage, 24.1 feet; maximum flow, 70,000 cubic feet per second.

Weber concludes his article with the statement:
"Indians still in the area in 1851 indicated they knew of one other flood which their mark west of the Old Capitol showed was one foot higher than the 1851 flood. The year of the 'Indian Flood' is not known."
As we face the daunting task of repairing our community after this tragedy, I hope my neighbors will take some small solace in "it could have been worse..."

Mike Haverkamp is an Iowa City School District teacher and amateur history buff.

A companion piece that ran with it was written by local history expert Bob Hibbs:

Measuring water flow vs. human misery
Bob Hibbs • Iowa City: A Sense of Place • June 21, 2008

If Mike Haverkamp claims the 2008 flood at Iowa City is the fourth worst on record -- behind 1851, 1881 and 1918 -- I suspect the claim fairly reflects reality. On the misery scale, however, 2008 is without doubt the tops because far more people are affected.

Some interpretation is needed when Irving Weber writes that, during the 1918 flood, "City Park was 12 to 15 feet under water" because much of the park has been filled substantially during intervening years. The river also has been moved west of its original historic location that was much closer to the site of today's Mayflower Residence Hall.

Many City Park areas have been elevated by four feet, while others are as much as eight or 10 feet higher now than would have been the case during the 1918 flood. The Normandy Drive neighborhood -- a.k.a. "Mosquito Flats" -- also has been filled substantially. These fills at City Park and Normandy Drive without doubt have added substantially to the flooding of Coralville along Clear Creek, making comparisons far more complex.

But is it the water level or the misery that should be measured? Far more people affected today, so this is worse -- right?

Consider this photograph showing the old and new Park Road bridges beside each other in 1961. The decks seem to be at similar elevations. Given Weber's comment that "water flowed over the wood planking" in 1918, and given the Press-Citizen's reporting of water at the bridge deck in 2008, could it be that water levels may have been comparable during 1918 and 2008 at that site?

Gage levels in feet rarely provide comparable data, often are misleading and often misinterpreted. On the other hand, the cfs flow data might be good, depending on source. Any hydrologist from ancient times could figure the area of a river cross-section, determine incline and from those data compute flows. They are always "about" or "approximate," although those words are rarely used. The "Indian Flood" is prehistoric, and there were no doubt many floods during that era that far, far exceeded anything that has occurred during historic times. Prehistoric times should not be mixed with the historic record.

Of course this leads to the questions about whether we should be building at all in floodplains. Has our Athens of Iowa demonstrated adequate leadership in floodplain management? Oh, watch out, we could get into a serious contemporary discussion.

Bob Hibbs is the author of "Iowa City: A Sense of Place," volumes one and two, published by the Press-Citizen.

We'll see if anyone comments on their online site:

Haverkamp Article

Hibbs Article

It Was Uplifting! (Not the President's Visit)

Yesterday Pete and I raised the back porch roof. It was an excellent example of the "mushroom factor" so common in old house projects. In this case, the porch floor was bad and needed to be replaced. In order to remove the floor, we needed to first take out the columns sitting on top of the floor, in order to take out the columns we had to first lift up the roof and support it some other way. In brief the mushroom factor is: "To do project 'A' you must first do 'B' which means you must first do 'C' which means you must first do, so on and so on up to 'N' which is a VERY LARGE number.

To start we put blocks along the porch roof, and then screwed a 14 foot long 2 x 12 onto those blocks:


We then measured the distance from the bottom side of the 2 x 12 to the ground. We notched out 4 x 4 posts 1/4 of an inch HIGHER than that distance. We got John's 30 ton hydraulic jack and started to lift the roof:


When the roof was just high enough to slip the notched part of the posts under the 2 x 12 we slid them in and screwed the posts to the 2 x 12. We then lowered the jack and took it out. This height allowed the columns to be free from the bottom of the porch. We cut the nails at the bottom and twisted the tops out. Here is one column removed.


At this point we had to stop and look at the presidential helicopters that were flying overhead as George Bush came to look at flood damage. We gestured appropriately (at least we thought it was appropriate) at them, and got back to work.

This pic from today's Iowa City Press Citizen website was too good to not include:


Bush is kissing Iowa City mayor Regenia Bailey. In the background is Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, and Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff. Baily was my senior high school prom date.

After the excitement of the helicopters flying overhead, we could finally remove the back porch decking!


Here is the frame for the porch. The porch was only four feet deep and six feet wide.


I have decided to add two feet to each side of the porch. We then measured and dug footings for the new portion of the porch. Today we will fill the footings with cement and get ready to increase the frame.