LL Buchanan Lake
Floating islands
Betty's Island - 4, a floating island...
The ongoing story of a floating island.
Spring Report, May 2008
July report: The island level in the water is maintaining tree root contact with water. Trees doing well. The island popularity with the geese has facilitated heavy goose fertilizer which obscures the green color of the screen-protected grass a bit. It will take a couple years for the trees to get big enough to make the island look green all the time.
Betty's Island First Year Status Report: Two of the 32 trees on Betty's Island survived the year. Not bad. If we can maintain such sterling success, in only 16 years the island will be a forest. Well, the Weight and Balance Engineer got the balance correct but goofed up the weight calculation so slaunchwise that the soil dried out during the hot summer just enough to reduce the island weight just enough to lift the bottom of the soil off the water just enough to then toast the dry soil entirely enough in the hot sun to parch the seedlings right down to crispy. How the two trees survived is known only to the fish. The grass under the anti-goose hardware cloth survived, and thrived with the goose fertilizer. The grass exposed to the grass-eating geese was reduced to its roots.
Patiently waited for the Canadian goose nests on each of the three islands to hatch, and the goslings to paddle away with their parents. Then towed Betty's Island to shore.
Floating Island Towing Rules:
1. Do not disconnect the island from the anchor cable before you
are ready to immediately tow, because a stiff wind may immediately
start, in the wrong direction.
2. Have a tow rope attachment centered behind the boat motor,
not sitting in the middle of the boat, laughing.
3. Have a larger boat with a larger motor.
4. Failing the rules, have patience and a superlative sense of
humor.
Finally got the island to shore.
Straightened the osprey perch snag. Added a few more yards of soil. Planted 30 more trees. Various varieties of juniper, spruce, fir, cedar, pine, a couple giant sequoia, and two Katsura trees of course. Oh, and a cluster of Serviceberries, or some foofoo shrub like that, by the goose nest. Added grass sod from the good folks at WestTurf in Yakima, and put protective screen over most of it so it survives the geese.
Betty's Island now has a Nanking Cherry tree. Is that not snappy or what? Ask your favorite presidential candidate if his or her yard has a Nanking Cherry tree. Well, that is about as useful a question as news journalists ask politicians and other government sorts. You will never hear a US news journalist ask a politician... "Does the office you seek (or hold) hold any power? Is there any power that does not corrupt?" Would that not be amusing? Of course there is a process to not be corrupted by power, but that process is unknowable to anyone, such as news journalists who obviously hold greatly corrupted power, and politicians, who cannot ask or answer the obvious questions of power, by design of power. Power never allows itself to be effectively questioned, for fear of the mind learning its controlling contradiction thus easily resolved.
The bare root flowering crabapple finally came out of dormancy (buds opened), and one was planted on the island. That was the last new tree to be planted on the island this spring.
The surviving flowering crabapple from last year is in full bloom and beautiful.
Tobi at Macy's said that when people walk out of the store carrying a naked mannequin that such stores sell on rare occasion, the people walking into the store always smile or laugh. I looked at the door, waited until nobody was coming in, and walked out of the store carrying a naked female mannequin the very moment that most of the world suddenly appeared at the door, looked at the mannequin, looked at me, smiled or laughed, and walked past turning to their friends with a new conversation that caused yet more laughter.
And therefore Betty was one process (of many) closer to sitting at her computer on Betty's Island. Trying to be economically frugal after learning the hard way how much work it is to make a mannequin from 2x4 boards, as shown on the Barney's Island web page, the best deal on a mannequin was not one in a sitting position working on a computer. So the torso with straight arms and no head or legs, turned out to be more work than making a mannequin with 2x4's. I found a hair stylist's mannequin head online, quite fortunately. The straight arms required some sawing and duct tape, several times to get the computer keyboard typing position perfect.
Yes, that is a resident domestic goose on her nest by Betty's desk. She patiently endured the upgrade project.
A well appointed duck nest was put under Betty's desk, in case an internet-savvy duck wants wifi for the ducklings.
If you are driving by on I 82, and you notice that Betty is working all night, because of the light coming out of the screen, she will be networking with international gravel and concrete market analysts, gravel mine geologists, Dubai development project intelligence reports, and a few current waterfowl habitat studies on gravel pit ponds, while Barney is still just goofing off over on his nearby island, as usual.
If you do not notice a light in the screen, it means the light battery is dead. Maybe next year we will get the photo cell on the island.
EfCom, the cool Apple computer dealer in Yakima, set Betty up with an old style appearing iMac stuffed with all the latest tech linked to the center of the Galaxy and beyond. Might be a few inter-galactic games on there too, for when business gets boring. Well, with an island of her own, Betty is her own boss. Oh, there might also be a small bird nest in the computer, just in case a computer-savvy warbler shows up.
The cool adventure sorts at Pacific River Sports assisted with the project. Those guys have fun.
Cool plans for next Spring's upgrade, if the schedule stays on schedule.
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