Yesterday when Skye and I walked down to the pond I noticed something in the water. From a distance it seemed big and brown and my first thought was that it was a moose, but as we approached I saw that it was one the duck islands I had made that had flipped upside down. That seemed really strange. We did have strong winds yesterday, but I didn’t think they were so strong that they would have overturned the island.
This morning I decided to deal with the overturned island. It was a coolish and not very attractive day, but I figured the water was going to be cold anyway, so I decided to do it. I got all of my water-gear out of the shop (partial wetsuit, shoes, and gloves) I usually wear a pair of pantyhose, but couldn’t find them, so I substituted a pair of long johns.
You might wonder why I was wearing all this stuff just to go into the pond, but in the past I have come out of the pond with leeches and swimmer’s itch all down my legs--not a pleasant experience, so I wear the layer of clothing as a preventative. Once I had all my water clothes on I walked down to the pond.
The water wasn’t as cold as I had expected, but the bottom of the pond was incredibly mucky, I sank about 8 inches (20 cm) into the mire with every step I took. By standing on the submerged edge of the island and using my weight to pull the other end toward me, I was able to right the structure.
When I got it right side up I could see why the island had turned over. There had been sapling trees growing on the island and some of them had gotten so tall the wind easily pushed them over. I got a pair of wood clippers and cut all the trees and bushes back to lower the center of gravity. One piece of tree I cut off was 12 ft (4 m.) long. I hadn’t noticed that the trees on the little island had grown so tall.
When I got back to the carport I stripped off all of the wet clothes and took a nice warm shower. I never know what kind of adventures will happen next around here.
When I am not fixing islands I paint: www.davidmarchant.ca
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