Devils Day 6

Wednesday July 13^th, 2005

Another calm, warm morning but lake has stirred up a bit, waves <1’.  Spent most of the morning lopping aspens in the field N. of quarters and perimeter of lawn.  Then I mowed for the first time.  Just a section between the tower, the fog-signal building and the woods.  Visitation was light so I cleaned up the quarters a bit.  Then after hours, went kayaking and went south of W. landing to greet 5 kayakers who have the campsite for tonight.  They had just paddled the caves and were going for a second pass.  When they got to the east landing, I invited them up for a tour.  I gave them the full tour which included wild flowers and rocks along the north shore.  In the tower they were just speechless and stood for several minutes looking out over the lake.  Finished with a plate of brownies.  They were here for about an hour but were a fun group and laughed at all my lame jokes.  Quiet night reading but heard a hooting in the woods.  At first it sounded like teenage boys and I even walked to east landing to check  A fairly high pitched single: “whoo” at 3-5 minute intervals.  On another note… I did not kill a single fly today.  I try to stick to the Buddhist principle of “harm no living thing" but draw the line at mosquitoes.  Another principle is moderation so not to be extreme in 1^st principle is OK, to my thinking.

 

Note: I think I was really just getting used to all the flies by that time.  The outer islands are notorious for miserable insect infestations.  They are particularly harsh when weather is hot and winds are calm or from southerly directions.