ON DOUGLAS LAKE

click photos to enlarge


This is my office at work

My office on the boat has everything I need to safely complete my duties.  I can radio for assistance or report invasions from foreign countries.  I also can pin point submarines that may be lurking below.  Navigation is a snap with the great sonar and GPS unit.  Accessory power can be energised with the flip of a switch.  Charts and navigational aids are hidden in--well--somewhere.  Thought I was kidding when I said the sky is my ceiling, the shoreline my walls and the water my floor, didn't you?  Only thing missing is heat.


I had been on the water for two hours looking for fishing boats and hadn't found a one.  The morning was cold and I'm sure the anglers were waiting till things warmed up.  As it turned out I only interviewed two fishermen during the whole shift.  It happens that way sometime.  I just let the boat idle along slowly and tried to enjoy the views. 

It's amazing how difficult it is to find a beautiful scene to photograph on this lake.  The low water and resultant baron shorelines of mud and rock do not beg to be photographed as does Calderwood or Chilhowee.  I had to really search hard to find a view that I felt had some photographic merit, and then they were few and far between.

It's slow, chilly mornings like this that a dog makes great company.  This would have been a good time to beach the boat and explore an island for awhile with a dog.  I had none of my family with me today.  I could not bring Falcor because of his recent disobedience.  He's become most difficult lately.  I could have brought Shade but she appeared content laying on her plush pillow under my desk.  No;  I decided to go it alone today.  Still;  I miss them.

Every time I see scenes like the one above;  I imagine it to be the Sahara Desert suddenly flooded with water.  Strange imagination.

In the Spring, when the water rises in the lake,  there will be great flocks of shore birds of many species.  I'm looking forward to photographing them.  There will be many species that are not on the lakes West of here where I'm from.

I will be involved in some additional work this month to help out the agency in a couple of jobs where they are short handed.  Monday and Tuesday I will be working with another reservoir employee setting fish attractors in Boone Lake which is North of here.  They use old Christmas Trees.  We anchor them to the bottom of the shoreline with cement blocks.  They are then covered with water when the lake rises.  These old Christmas trees provide cover for fish of all species.  In short;  we are providing habitat for them.

Then, around the 23rd of January I will assist in an operation called gill netting where nets are used to capture fish for species identification and counting.  I'll get some photographs of both operations I'm sure.  It will be a much needed change in image posting.  I'm really getting tired of photographing barren shorelines.  Check out the house below.  It's a mansion on the water.  I'm sure that's how it was sold anyway.


Yep; she's right on the water.

Well;  it's on the water for half a year anyway.  It's someones dream home I'm sure but, if it were given to me I'd sell it for half it's value and put a tent up on Calderwood lake.
I was nearing the end of the shift and decided to run home and take the kids up the the Wildlife Management Area at Buffalo Springs.  The photos above are the best I could do in the area I was in.  This lake is a piece of work!

"Happy;  are we getting close yet?"



"I can't wait.  Squirrels, rabbits!  Oh boy.  I wish he'd hurry and get us there."



"You two pipe down.  You'll get there when ya do."



"I think it's right around that corner ahead.  What do you think Happy?  We there yet?"



"Hey dad;  we there yet.  Hey;  over here!  Dad;  are we there yet?"



And, here is where they were going to today.
"Yes Chestnut;  you are here now."



They know how to live life to it's fullest.  We need to watch them and learn.

Chestnut wouldn't stand still long enough for a good picture.  She splashed and splashed.

Whoopie!

"This is so much fun I can't handle it!  Thanks for bringing us dad."

"You are welcome little one."

And, thank all of you for caring about my little family and for looking in.