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COMMENTARY
Favorite Person of the Month – June 2026
I found myself the other day admiring and watching my almost 80 year old neighbor doing six things at once! Part of me urged me to offer my help and lighten the load that my neighbor was carrying, but the other part of me knew better than to interrupt pure poetry in motion. Any help I would have provided, would only have only slowed him down and taken away from the sheer joy and pleasure that he was receiving from a job that he loved doing.
My almost 80-year old neighbor has almost single handedly taken care of a small private lake in the woods that we frequent for over 25 years. The creek that feeds our lake has slowly brought in sediment over the years and our lake isn’t as deep in parts as it used to be. With the build up of sediment, certain weeds and millfoil have started to invade the shallow parts of our lake. For over 25 years, my neighbor who is a retired science teacher has researched ways to rid our lake of these invading weeds and millfoil to keep it pristine and enjoyable for everyone.
We don’t have the funds or permission from the State to dredge our lake and make it deeper, so my neighbor annually applies a weed killer, at just the right time of the year to effectively lessen the impact and spread of the weeds. Evidence of the effectiveness of his efforts were on display one particular year when he was traveling and not in the area to apply the weed killer and our lake was overrun by weeds and millfoil which took away from the joys of kayaking, fishing, swimming and the beauty of the lake.
Anyway, back to watching my nearly 80-year old neighbor … let me see if I can briefly summarize what I was witnessing … he was standing on his homemade boat that he had made out of empty barrels and wood … he was mixing the weed killer at just the right concentration with water in a barrel on the boat … he was holding and using a hose duct taped to a long stick to lengthen his reach and to spray the weed killer out of the barrel … he was navigating the boat around the various parts of the lake and using a big oar to unstuck his boat from the shallow areas … he was unclogging the filter on his pump and hose periodically … he was studying the weeds that were on the bottom of the lake and putting the weed killer where it would do the most good. There were six things requiring his mental and physical attention at any given moment!
Aside from the physical demands of the task he was performing, he had spent multitudes of mental hours researching, emailing and talking with a Ph.D. who specializes in the management and treatment of lake weeds and plants. The weed killer that he applies has never hurt the fish in our lake, adversely affected the beaver, the otter, the osprey or eagle who live at our lake. Our dogs swim and drink from the lake and the chemicals are only affecting the weeds that are swamping and invading the lake.
There are about ten families who own property around this small private lake and we all gain incredible joy, pleasure, entertainment, sport and fun from weekends and time spent at the lake. There are also birds, animals, fish and all kinds of wildlife and critters who frequent and use the lake every day. Our retired science teacher has single-handedly kept our lake from becoming a swamp and he has done all that work for over a quarter of a century out of love and appreciation for nature, wildlife and a lake that he loves. I hope that the lake keeps him young, able-bodied and active forever.
