LL Buchanan Lake

Yakima, Washington

A lake with floating islands.

Barney's Island
Betty's Island-1
Betty's Island-2
Betty's Island-3
Betty's Island-4
Betty's Island-5
Pebbles Island
Aerial Photos
Consulting
Neighbors
History
Swans
Birds
Trees
Trees-2
Trees-3
Lake
Links

Three Trumpeter Swan cygnets (young) on the lake a few years ago.

(Main info below the 2010 section)

2010 August - The wet spring produced major vegetation growth. The August effort primarily involved cutting brush and some larger native trees that had started to crowd better nearby trees.

Among other things, the tree guy decided to cut a couple large branches on one of the really old black locust trees on the south shore, that were over-shading and stifling the growth of a couple black walnut trees that the tree guy planted. Renting a man-lift to reach the branches high in the tree would be the normal process. Renting equipment involves money. The DemocanRepublicrat Regime, federal, State and local, have seized nearly all the private money for useless government boondoggles, presidential ego gratification wars, stimuli for more government bureaucrats stifling more private enterprise, bailouts for multi-millionaire bankers paying themselves additional millions as bonuses, and the lavish lifestyles of the privileged government elite. Obama hired over a dozen hand maidens for his wife, at over $100,000 tax money salary per year, each, plus millions of dollars in expenses. And the voters just keep voting for DemocanRepublicrats, fooled into believing that they oppose each other.

So the tree guy, lacking the money that the government took, borrowed a tall ladder, laid it on the roof of the borrowed 1973 Karmen Ghia, hung on to it with his hand out the window, and drove to the tree. He used the ladder to climb up to a crotch in the tree, pulled the ladder up and set it in the crotch, climbed the ladder again, tied it to a branch, stood on the absolute top step of the ladder, tied himself to the tree, leaned back and swung the chain saw up over the higher branches on the other side of the trunk, and let the weight of the chain saw cut down through the branches. Sunshine streamed down onto the grateful walnut tree, while the tree guy very carefully climbed back down to avoid any opportunity for the locust tree to extract revenge.

If government were assigned to that task, they would still be engineering the committee make-up to insure the inflated contract went to the crony of the mayor, governor and president, probably the Haliburton war machine who would first hire Xe (Blackwater) Corporation to hire armed mercenaries, approved by Homeland Security Gestapo, for "security" of course, and pay themselves millions.

Barney's Island got more anchor weights, to stop the wind from blowing it around.

The rapidly growing brush and willow were cut away from around the many yet small trees growing slowly in the rocks around the old gravel pit lake shore.

2010 May - Spring spiffy-up the shore and islands report - -

The trees on Betty's island are flourishing, a bit too much. Those pesky local slippery elms sprouted in profusion. But because they are not protected from the beaver by wire fence, the beaver chomped them as soon as they got noticeable, which left all the lesser sprouts to look brushy. I promptly whacked the remnants. But they will be back. However, soon enough the evergreens will shade them out of competition. And eventually the two Giant Sequoias will become the entire island forest, much to the dismay of the 26 other conifer trees that will look nice for the next several decades. The tall flowering plum and flowering quince are taller, and flowering.

The Canadian goose nest produced a gaggle of goslings while the tree guy was there. The parents stood by their nest and honked at him while he worked on the island. A duck cleverly hid her nest under a giant sequoia.

Working on the island entails pulling the weeds, whacking the slippery elm, hosing most of the goose poop off the otherwise green astro-turf areas, and adjusting the wire protection fencing that the beaver try to chomp-through. The grass under the hoops of wire mesh grew up to the wire mesh where the geese managed the growth from there. The grass under the flat wire mesh covering the walking area grass was goose-trimmed at the flat level. The wire mesh prevents the geese from pulling out the sod grass roots.

Betty's computer screen saver program crashed. Apparently cheap plastic table place mats (this one with apple pictures on it) are not made to withstand direct sunlight (UV). We will get the computer tech to find another plastic cover for the screen. Betty's solar cell desk light is working well, according to people who ask about "that light out in the middle of the lake".

There were a few minutes, maybe an hour, while the tree guy and two colleagues sat on the spiffied-up island, enjoyed a fine bottle of local cabernet sauvignon, and discussed profoundly needed improvements for the American public education system, if you can imagine such lolly-gagging around for the work crew too far out in the lake to be noticed by the boss. Wait, the boss was among us. Obviously bribed with fine wine.

Pebbles and Barney's islands each produced a gaggle of goslings. Barney got a new face lift (new mask). The old one deteriorated with the sunlight, as usual. If anyone knows of a good Barney Rubble mask or head that can withstand UV light for at least a few years, please email the web slave. He will tell the island manager. Barney mentioned that he had not caught any fish for the last few years because his half of an old fishing pole did not even have a reel. He got a complete old fishing pole with a reel. He will get tired of catching carp.

The shore trees are growing slowly in rocks. The Sea Buckhorn, planted last year, apparently like growing in rocks. One otherwise tall deciduous tree, planted in 1999, a favorite of the tree guy, is still doing well, the same 3' height it was in 1999. Some of the rocks apparently offer less nutrients than the other rocks. One giant sequoia has the thickest trunk a giant sequoia has ever grown for a 5' high giant sequoia. But other trees, notably some of the maples and walnuts, are growing fast and tall.

The beaver, not content with the abundance of willow and slippery elm, maliciously attacked and chomped through the wire fence around a couple good trees. Better tree fencing, limited by the greater cost of the "horse fence", is being added to more trees. The tree slave, who lives in Alaska most of the time, and often gets out in beaver country (all of Alaska), saw the largest beaver he has ever seen, by far, in Buchanan Lake this spring. That tree bully will continue to slaughter good trees when he gets seriously mad at the lesser tree protection fences. A local tree whisperer said the trees are asking us to plant the lake with alligators or sharks, to attend to the beaver. The resident lake monster is too friendly with all the animals.

This is the FLOWER YEAR. The tree guy mentioned that there were almost enough various species of trees planted for a good shore arboretum when the trees grow tall enough to be impressive. That caused a certain person to suggest planting flowers this year, and defend her suggestion. Flowers. The tree guy is a tree guy, not a flower guy, but he spread a few hundred thousand various flower seeds on the poor quality dry soil at the shoreline. Well, there are areas of weeds and grass, and the lake does keep a sliver of shore wet, so some of the flowers may grow. If you see a few flowers of various colors and types, in addition to the profusion of beautiful wild yellow iris that grow along the water lines and throughout Swan Pond, the tree guy passes the credit to the person who suggested flowers.

The tree guy noticed a greater variety of dickey birds in the shore vegetation this year, so the variety of new trees may be benefiting a more varied bird habitat, or the tree guy looked around to notice more birds this year. The goldfinch are always a delight. The lake and shore hosted the usual gaggle of goose gosling and duck duckling families. The osprey nested in the osprey nest.

This spring more soil cover was added to the rocks, and the soil surface better contoured. The Buchanan Lake shore arboretum and wildlife habitat project is a joint effort with the Buchanan Trust tree guy and Central Premix Concrete Company (CPM). CPM provides the topsoil, a good part of the heavy machinery time and other efforts. They planted many of the trees and constructed Barney's Island. CPM personnel enjoy improving the working environment and habitat around them, like other good private managers of land.

The private efforts to methodically and affordably improve this gravel pit pond and concrete production area, to enhance wildlife habitat and public viewing, are in noticeable contrast to our dear friends in government who manage public land poorly, and squander tax money on the comparative lavish lifestyles, perks, benefits and boondoggles for government officials. The increasing taxes and bureaucratic burdens that the government sorts (notably the Yakima City Council members) are imposing on private land owners, are reducing the ability to improve private land, down to the dismally low standards of government. The story of the increasing government maliciousness toward the private management of this land (and most American private enterprise) is being written for another web page. The Yakima City Council sorts are miffed at private land management that exposes the tax-costly, stagnant old management practices of Yakima's environmentally sterilized city parks. Not mentioned by the government-compliant mainstream US news journalists is the increasing number of highly productive, innovative, well educated American business owners who are taking their businesses, money and families to certain other nations that offer more freedom and more environmentally advanced land management standards, leaving Americans with their increasingly costly government detriments. The ancient wisdom of productive business - "The bad (government) chases away the good (private enterprise)", is in full blossom in Police State America.

That is the full annual spiffy-up the shore and islands, and political rabble rousing, report. Now flee the computer and get out there to plant more trees (flowers, for the flower people), if you wish to do so to brighten the social attitude for that benefit to yourself and others.

Oh, and the rarely changing main information........

This website offers an ongoing account of a private gravel pit pond. Its shore is being affordably planted to an arboretum. The lake and shoreline waterfowl habitat are being enhanced. Floating islands drift around in the middle. The benefits are for waterfowl and trees. The effort is also for the visual enjoyment of people who drive by on the adjacent freeway, and walk by on the adjacent public foot path.

LL Buchanan Lake is a wholly private 50 acre lake located within the east side of Yakima Washington, along the Yakima River, at 2000 East Beech Street (end of the street). It is Yakima's largest lake. Its unique nature and location adjacent to a beautiful city offers a superlative economic opportunity. (If you remember the previous 60 acre claim, well, we got the water acre measuring crew out there with a better square feet ruler, and came up with 50.64 acres of actual water surface this time.)

Yakima, located in sunny central Washington, is an irrigated valley of diverse agriculture, including a variety of fruits and fine wine grapes. The Yakima River valley divides the forested Cascade Mountain Range, with its glacier-clad mountains and alpine lakes, from the agricultural fields and sage lands of the Columbia River Valley and eastern half of the State. The diversity of opportunity is magnificent.

Some number of years ago the lake area was rocky land with scrub trees and brambles, next to the Yakima River. LL Buchanan, one of Yakima's early businessmen, fed livestock there. The area where he fed waste fruit peelings, cores and seeds from the local fruit canneries, facilitated the peach pits that kept spouting into trees. That area was later amusingly referenced as a peach orchard. A concrete company leased the land. The gravel was handy. Time went by. Yakima grew. A lot of concrete was made. The gravel pit got bigger. It got to be about 50 acres big and a hundred and twenty feet deep. It was a uniquely deep deposit of high quality rocks. That was all the bigger it could get, so they took out the last load of rocks and turned off the water pumps that were keeping out the water.

Nice lake.

Geese and ducks like it, a lot, especially its floating islands. Trumpeter swans resided on the lake awhile. Bald eagles are often in the area. A pair of ospreys nest at the lake. Herons, pelicans, cormorants, loons and other such birds enjoy the lake. Redwing Blackbirds, Goldfinches, and other small birds thrive in the vegetative habitat of two old settling ponds beside the lake. The fine folks in the Yakima Valley Audubon Society have a lot of great bird information for the area.

Beaver enjoy the lake and the willows, much to the apprehension of the better shoreline trees protected by wire fence skirts. Rabbits hop among the bushes. Mink, otter and other critters are occasionally seen. The local skunk is friendly, and so is the lake monster.

The depth of the lake maintains a cool thermal mass with a number of advantages, including the upper strata sustaining a beautiful clear green-blue color, often mentioned by viewers.

The adjacent Swan Pond, with its beaver house and beaver dams among the reeds, offers shallow water appreciated by the feeding waterfowl and nesting small birds. It is a natural wildlife habitat gem within the city, viewable from the paved, higher foot path along the side of the pond and lake. The concert of bird songs grace the area, and complement the carpet of bright native flowers with varied color themes naturally changing in several-year cycles. Delightful yellow iris gradually replaced the beautiful purple loosestrife, much to the expressed irritation of the tax-costly government weed bureaucrats who view wildlife habitat and bird homes as "weeds" that must be destroyed. Pitiable government chaps rarely recognize or understand the real world outside their perpetually desperate agency budget excuses.

Four small islands near the shore of the lake, and three artificial floating islands in the middle of the lake, enhance waterfowl nesting protection. The floating islands (Barney's Island, Pebbles Island and Betty's Island) drift around on long anchored tethers. They are each growing a small forest. Barney's Island is visible in the current GoogleEarth photo taken before the other two islands were launched. The Google Earth (blue dot) Panoramio option offers pictures of the islands.

To enhance the lake shore, varied species of seedling trees are being planted each year, to eventually complement the adjacent Yakima Area Arboretum. The tree planting and vegetation improvement projects benefit the visual esthetics and wildlife habitat. The current tree species list and photos are on the Trees pages. The seedling trees are purchased from the good folks at Lawyer Nursery. The arboreal artistry of the LL and Laura Buchanan Lake Habitat is certain to make this one of Yakima's finest areas of the future.

The Yakima Area Arboretum is just across a waterway along the south end of the lake property. The Arboretum has a spacious lawn planted with two of each tree species which can grow in central Washington. With the shrubs, over 2,000 plant species grow at the arboretum. It is a science-based arboretum open to members and the general public. The Japanese garden, visitor center solarium and meeting room are often rented for weddings, events and meetings. It is one of the priority places to visit in Yakima. A Yakima resident would distinguish herself or himself by showing visitors the Arboretum, as a member. A city park is adjacent to the Arboretum.

The Yakima River flows along the east side of the lake, separated by a dike with a paved public foot path offering an elevated view of the lake and river. In view to the west, Mt. Rainier and Mt. Adams are two gem-white, glacier-clad volcanoes in the Cascade Range. The web slave recommends them both. Put them on your must-climb list. The popular recreation path extends for several miles along the Yakima River. The dike is separated from the lake by a small flowing waterway. People using the footpath complement the view of the lake, its untrampled shore, its waterfowl, the other birds and animals, with more natural diversity than the environmentally sterilized public parks to the north and south of the lake.

Barney's Island, Betty's Island and Pebbles Island have become a landmark (or watermark) of Yakima. Floating islands are fun. Other projects are planned.

Along the north shore of LL Buchanan Lake are twenty five acres of land and a six acre shallow pond area, in part available for new opportunities. The land is leased by Central Premix Concrete Company, offering the latest products and processes. If you need concrete or gravel, you will appreciate the products and service of the Central Premix folks. They have made high standards a fun endeavor.

To the north are Sarge Hubbard Park, a hotel complex, a restaurant, the Washington Fruit Commission office building, a Wal-Mart store, and an auto dealership. The Oxford Inn and Oxford Suites overlook the river, and offer quality lodging for visitors to Yakima.

Interstate 82 is on the west side of the lake. The Yakima Sundome convention center, the Central Washington State fairgrounds, and downtown Yakima are on the other side of I-82. I-82 offers convenient access to the Yakima Airport. Yakima is the hub area for central Washington. As well as points north, south and east, I-82 directly accesses highways to three passes over the beautiful Cascade Range, to the Seattle area and western Washington. Two of the passes have downhill skiing facilities.

I-82 also offers convenient access to the Yakima and Columbia valley vineyards and wineries. The ideal growing conditions for wine grapes involve the volcanic soils with abundant sun and irrigation water. With those ideal conditions and no dependency on the timing of rain, vintage years are an annually recurrent event. Among a few dozen of my other favorites, I recommend the magnificent wines of Tefft Cellars near Sunnyside, and The Tasting Room at Naches Heights. The other Yakima Valley wineries are worthy of your consideration. You will find wines that match your palate's most favored preference. The unpretentious nature of friendly Yakima valley farmers and vintners puts the winery tours high on the list of reasons to visit the area. You will return, especially if you find Chukar's Cherries, in Prosser, in the lower Yakima Valley. They put dried cherries in chocolate, and make other such things. If you find a better candy, email the web slave. He wants some.

At some point in time, an upscale development will most likely utilize LL Buchanan Lake's unique array of property characteristics. Lease opportunities are available for a portion of the area.

With the floating islands having become a primary visual attraction in Yakima, often mentioned in casual conversation, an innovative restauranteur may recognize a floating restaurant on the lake as the most sustainably profitable restaurant in central Washington, in full view of travelers on the freeway, and frequented by people walking on the adjacent public foot path. People like floating islands. Well, of course fish meals will be prominent on the menu.

Inquiries regarding this property may be made to Doug at Buchanan.ws (replace at with @).

LL Buchanan Trust wishes you the best in all things.