Gilligan’s Island

Posted On October 20, 2025

Little did I know that what began as a three hour tour would end up as an epic adventure,

leaving me stranded on…

It all began innocently enough, taking advantage of summer 2025’s dry weather to reconstruct my Swamp Pond’s beaver blown outlet channel & dam with one sunny morning’s 3 hour rock & roll tour.

With Swamp Pond’s outlet channel reinforced & refurbished, I then focused my efforts on the pond’s inlet. Over the course of three more days blowing it wide open with nothing more than me at the helm of bucket, shovel & wheelbarrow.

From there, with both Swamp Pond’s inlet and outlet upgrades complete, I turned my shovel’s attention to fully excavating Swamp Pond’s pair of sloughs.

With Swamp Pond’s inlet, outlet, & both sloughs completely to my satisfaction hand excavated, the weather still bone dry & it only being late August, I decided to take on the task of hand clearing built up silt from Swamp Pond’s main body, taking it as close as I could manage back down to slate bedrock. In the process of doing so, I started rebuilding what remained of what had once been two smaller islands into one big Swamp Pond island.

I continued to dig. Swamp Pond’s island slowly but surely took shape. I began adding retaining wall blocks to keep the mud from simply oozing back down. I purchased them one 14 block pickup truck load at a time, hauled them as close as I could with my zero turn and its mini dump trailer, then one by one carried blocks in, carefully placing each block by hand.

As my efforts continued, my Swamp Pond vision evolved. I continued adding retaining wall blocks to the pond bank, reinforcing it against the force of the intermittent stream current flow that I knew soon enough would come.

Whilst I was digging, a monster snapping turtle decided to join me.

By the time my Swamp Pond tour was finished,

I had hauled in and hand placed over 100 retaining wall blocks.

As a final late summer construction step, I undertook what I like to call a double benefit job. I have another big pond, which I call “Middle”. It’s longer and shallower than Swamp Pond, and had already years ago been dug down to bedrock. Since Middle Pond also needed a good cleaning out, I began cutting loose sections of matted cattail and pond vegitation roots from its bedrock base. Once free, they rolled up like carpet. I then carried those setions of root mass over from Middle Pond a few at a time and gave Swamp Pond’s new island a rug.

The final result for Swamp Pond, all its residents and myself, being one totally awesome new island.

All my new island lacked was a name.

After the month long digging journey I’d been on, only one name seemed fitting…

Come on now, I know you are dying to.

We all know the lyrics.

Sing along with me!

Who amongst us didn’t grow up watching Gilligan’s exploits on TV & singing this song?

“Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale,

A tale of a fateful trip

That started from this tropic port

Aboard this tiny ship.

**********

The mate was a mighty sailin’ man

The skipper brave and sure.

Five passengers set sail that day

For a three hour tour.

**********

A three hour tour.

**********

The weather started getting rough

The tiny ship was tossed

If not for the courage of the fearless crew

The minnow would be lost.

**********

The ship’s aground on the shore of this uncharted desert isle

With Gillingan, the Skipper too

A millionaire, and his wife

A movie star, the professor and Mary Ann…

HERE ON GILLIGAN’S ISLE!!!”

There, that was fun.

Now all Gilligan’s Island needs is some water.

**********

Until our Trails Cross Again:

ADKO

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A quick mid-November pre-Thanksgiving week update:

Gilligan’s Island is now fully engulfed.

The Swamp Pond it sits in, just as I planned, quickly filled to the brim.

It’s inlets, sloughs & outlets are now all flowing & filling too.

All functioning as planned.

Fully critter & bobcat approved.