Ahh... Sitting at my dock there are those transcendental moments when the interplay between light, wind, and clouds above and water below come together to create a sublime vision. One of an undulating wave of shimmering jewels sparkling on the surface of a very still and deep body of water. It is in those moments I can truly exhale. I was basking in one of those moments, when I was rudely brought back from my reverie by.... you guessed it, a boat going way too fast to be able to enjoy the moment. I believe most of us moved to the lake looking for those special moments where we can put our harried workday paces on pause. Remember when you see your own wake; you may have lost an opportunity to exhale. A more pragmatic issue, particularly after the drought (which has stressed much of our canopy) and lowered lake levels, is shore erosion, which recently claimed one of my poplars as a victim. We do not have a large lake so the slower one goes, the longer the boat ride and the more one enjoys the scenery, company and of course, favorite beverage.

On cleaning – who would have thought my approach to cleaning ("it doesn't look dirty to me") would become so environmentally friendly. But, if one does have to clean, there is no lack of information on environmentally friendly practices and products. Just Google – going green – and be prepared to spend the rest of the night reading. A few examples of websites out there include http://www.thegreenguide.com/; http://www.treehugger.com/gogreen.php; http://www.thedailygreen.com/going-green/ and http://www.seventhgeneration.com/ (which seems to be an established purveyor of green products). Regardless of what shade of green one decides to aspire to, it is important to understand the impact of our decisions in context of the lake quality.

Benzene, a constituent of gasoline has an established EPA maximum contaminant level of five parts per billion (above 5 – bad, below 5 – good). Just how big is a part per billion? Imagine a single sheet of toilet paper in a roll of toilet paper unfurled from New York to London or one second in 32 years and you begin to see how a small action (such as overtopping a tank) can have a large, detrimental effect on our lake quality. Everything we put on our lawns, store around our docks, pour down the storm drain and even flush down kitchen sinks can wind up in our lake. Mother Nature can break down a lot of contaminants but every choice we make to use less toxic cleaners will improve our environment and lessen our footprint on our children's earth.

My son, John, accused me of practicing medieval medicine the other day. I was in the water moving non- motorized watercraft to make room for a predicted landing of watercraft to rival Normandy later that evening. As I got out of the water he noticed a leech had latched a free ride on my foot (no lawyer jokes, please). It turns out all that vegetation that was growing on the lakebed last year, which is now submerged, makes for a wonderful haven for leeches. I guess you will be seeing John and me rooting around near the dock this summer clearing the vegetation.

As to specific water clarity and quality issues, we have now fertilized the lake twice reducing the water clarity from 16 feet to less than nine feet. Our goal is a clarity level of a few feet, clear enough for swimmers to enjoy the lake (Jenny has already been jumping off the dock for the last several weeks) yet opaque enough to make the fish feel safe and comfortable and minimize weed growth.

Now it's time for me to retrieve our coolers from various docks that were used at last month's progressive dinner. Now how cool is that - where we live in a community that allows us to savor the moment with our friends on the water?!?