BW Extra: The People That You Meet

One of the most salient features, and correspondingly big attraction, of the Boundary Waters is its isolation, its offer to let yourself get away from it all - your paddling companions excepted of course. Most campsites, as far as I could tell, were not visible from other campsites, and the disconnectedness of the lakes on the route we took reinforced the sense of isolation. We saw a few folks making/breaking camp as we made our way, and some folks on the water from our campsite on Winchell Lake, but never actually had a boat-to-boat conversation with anyone else.

Almost paradoxical, then, was the relatively high traffic we encountered during portages. We would paddle across an empty lake to the takeout, and in most cases if there wasn't already at least one party there preparing to put in, we would run in to others as we made our own portage. Depending on the time it took to get from one end of the portage to the other, and the number and size of other parties present, you could run into a surprising number of people. Until I got used to it, it was almost jarring to suddenly encounter people after seeing no one, and this was reinforced by the narrow linear nature of portages. No one at a portage can avoid coming within standard US personal space of anyone, or indeed almost everyone, else.

What helped me adjust the most was the fact that everyone we met was really really nice and, more so, generous with advice about the portage, the status of campsites on various lakes etc. Especially useful was the weather information provided by a solo fisherman with a satellite phone who we encountered over the first couple of days. We in turn tried to be as helpful as we could. Even something as simple as a positive affirmation did its part. I can tell you from personal experience that hearing "You're almost there!" while carrying a canoe is a Good Thing.

Why was everyone so nice? I think the main factor was that all of us, i.e. everyone in the Boundary Waters, knew that what we were doing was not easy but that it was really cool to be doing it AND we were all there because we wanted to do it. Additionally, given the parties' differing itineraries someone had at least minimally useful information about where someone else was heading. Everyone wanted everyone else to succeed.

I suspect that's why we felt kind of bad about the first day's race to the island campsite on Meeds Lake. The campsite system, where possession is ten-tenths of the law, imposes a sort of zero-sum framework on an otherwise cooperative (or at least not adversarial) environment. I get that there is really no other way to administer this in the context of a designated wilderness, but it's too bad that a critical component of the experience - shelter - contrasts so strongly with the rest.

To everyone we met as we hauled our gear to and fro: THANK YOU and safe travels.

BW Extra: Great Lakes Sidequest

As we were planning the itinerary for the "there and back again" portion of the expedition, CRH informed me that he had a secondary goal besides paddling the Boundary Waters: visiting every Great Lake during our travels. As Lake Superior was really the only one we were guaranteed to see on the way to northern Minnesota, this took some thought and map-staring. As luck would have it, we are both reasonably thoughtful people who like staring at maps, so this task really was tailor-made for us.

The only real stretch, in terms of going from DC to Minnesota and back, was getting to Lake Ontario, but that allowed us to travel the land of my people and end up in Ithaca where a number of our friends live and a number of my family rest.

All of that is covered elsewhere in the series, but for now, here is the order in which we visited each Great Lake:

• Michigan/Huron. This was essentially a tie as we saw them pretty much simultaneously when we stopped in Mackinaw City. Extremely technically speaking we actually circumnavigated Lake Michigan in our travels but did so without ever glimpsing its eastern or western shores.

  

  Michigan on left, Huron on right, high skinny bridge in center

  
  
• Superior. Our pretty much constant companion on the drive between Grand Marais and Duluth.

  

  I like big lakes and I cannot lie

  
  
• Erie

  

  What am I going to do, NOT read it?!

  
  
• Ontario (don't even joke about this). Gordon Lightfoot's "and the rest"-equivalent body of water is the one I know best, having grown up south of its shore. Pro tip for travelers: the Sodus Point public bathrooms on the beach close after Labor Day; plan accordingly.

  

  There's a whimbrel in there somewhere

  
  

  

  Bonus lighthouse pic (sorry Erie)

  
  

BW Extra: By the Numbers

Miles put on car: 3439

Lakes visited:

• In the Boundary Waters: 10
• Great Lakes: 5 for 5 baby!

Total Miles Paddled (approx): TBD

Portages: 14

• Total Portage Miles (one direction): 2.35
• Approximate Miles Covered in Portages Per Person: 12
• Based on a rough average of five one-way trips to transfer canoe, supplies etc., then return for more

Campsites: 4

• Meeds Lake
• Henson Lake
• Winchell Lake
• Horseshoe Lake

Life List Birds: 6

• Spruce Grouse
• Trumpeter Swan
• Tennessee Warbler
• Black-backed Woodpecker
• American Black Duck
• Lesser Yellowlegs

Lesser Yellowlegs seen at Montezuma NWR; all others seen in Boundary Waters

States Visited: 11

State	Outbound	Inbound
DC*	X	X
Indiana		X
Illinois		X
Maryland	did not stop	did not stop
Michigan	X
Minnesota	X	X
New York		X
Ohio	X	X
Pennsylvania	X	X
Virginia	X	not CRH
Wisconsin	X	X

*

Sass Ron Swanson GIFfrom Sass GIFs

Boundary Waters: Technical Issues, or I Should Have Known

I'm going to fast-forward for a moment to let everyone know that CRH and I made it back successfully from our wanderings through the upper Midwest, and had a fantastic journey* to boot.

However, two factors - one I should have known and one I discovered - hindered timely reporting of our adventures:

• I should have known that there is no cell service in the Boundary Waters so no possibility of anything remotely like liveblogging.
• I discovered that the Blogger mobile app is just terrible, so even with cell service on the road and two initial posts under my belt it was just not feasible to publish.

Fortunately I took pretty good notes so I will be using those to fill in the framework I created before we set out, with a couple additional standalone pieces as necessary.

I cannot guarantee that I will proceed in linear fashion so it is likely that the posts will be out of chronological order. Hopefully the titling scheme of the posts will suffice to guide the reader. Additionally I will be revisiting previously-published material to make sure I am satisfied with the writing. This was an incredible experience and I want to do it justice.

UPDATE: I have added a label-based link for the series to the Essence of Potpourri section on the right-hand side.

*No, not that one

BW Outbound: Day Two (9/3/2026)

Today we covered another 400 miles, nearly all of it in the state of Michigan, ending the day in the Upper Peninsula at Newbery, which bills itself as the “Moose Capital of Michigan.” No moose so far except the statue outside our hotel and various other statues etc. in town.

Hey Rocky!

Highlights of the drive north:

• sighting a bald eagle while stopped in traffic (we were stopped in traffic, not the eagle; settle down in back there)
• passing (but not stopping) at Bronner's CHRISTmas (sigh) sales complex, from which we used to receive a steady stream of nice ornaments from my parents
• crossing the 45th parallel marked by a highway sign reading "Halfway Between the Equator and the North Pole"

We paused in Mackinaw City to visit Fort Michilimackinac and the Old Mackinaw Point Lighthouse, both in the figurative shadow of the Mackinac Bridge*, and literally for the entrance to the Fort grounds which is built into the bridge supports. Very edifying and well worth a visit, plus you get to see two of the Great Lakes (Michigan and Huron) at the same time. Three to go!

While on the palisade walkway we were unintentionally dive-bombed by an osprey, which took me a moment to identify as I had never seen one from above.

Danger: there be reenactors within

After crossing the high narrow bridge (not as bad as the Chesapeake Bay Bridge but still) our route took us along the Lake Michigan shoreline before turning north to Newbery. I had not seen a Great Lake since maybe 2017 and was reminded of their magnificent vastness.

Dinner at Timber Charlie’s in Newbery was worth the wait; initially we were mistaken for part of a party of six that was waiting to be seated so we were ignored professionally** until the mistake was realized.

On to Duluth tomorrow!

*The end of all these are pronounced the same ("aw"). Blame the French.

**The servers went out of their way to avoid making eye contact. I haven't been ignored like that since high school HEY-OOOOOH

BW Outbound: Day One (9/2/2026)

OK, not quite as dramatic and by the time we left CRH’s house it was light, but we are off!

First leg of our journey took us to Perrysburg OH, covering 469 miles in eight hours flat. We stopped for lunch at one of Ohio’s nice turnpike rest stops. These follow two designs, one of which looks like a science museum; ours was the other slightly more utilitarian design.

Our hotel in Perrysburg has the famous “Don’t Give Up the Ship” quote on the wall but ascribes it to Oliver Hazard Perry; he had it on his flag but it was Capt. James Lawrence who said it (and then supposedly said no more until dying shortly thereafter). I shall send a strongly worded email after we cross into Michigan, or maybe wait until we get home in case we need to use the same hotel company.

Boundary Waters: Hear Me O Muse

In the 1990s CRH and I took part in several overnight canoe trips on divers Virginia rivers. For various reasons (for which CRH was not responsible, I'd like to emphasize that) these expeditions were often a bit slapdash in organization and execution. For example, the first one I joined (1990, Paw Paw Loops of the Potomac) featured a complete lack of drinking water; on the plus side I was the only one not to go into the water including my canoe-mate, but that's another story. On the other hand the last such trip (Rappahannock? late 1990s?) was extremely well stocked with provisions including martini materials; I brought the olives. The put-in looked like one of the embarkation ports for D-Day if Overlord had involved canoes and coolers.

I know this is debarkation but put it in reverse and you get the idea

Somewhere in there CRH did a multi-day paddle through the Boundary Waters and enjoyed it very much, not least because none of the usual suspects joined him for it.

Fast forward to late winter/early spring 2026, when he asked if I would be interested in going on a multi-day paddle in the Boundary Waters. It didn't take much thought for me to agree so on the calendar it went.

Fast forward again to summer 2026 and the start of my belated details-oriented prep for the trip. (I had done some general preparation but it was nowhere near sufficient.) As I was pondering how to record the experience FRS, about to embark on her own adventure, suggested I blog it.

And so I shall!

In advance I have created a post for each day of the expedition, organized, like Gaul, into three parts:

1. Outbound (DMV to MN)
2. On the Water (self-explanatory)
3. Inbound (an odyssey that will in fact take us to Ithaca)

The plan is to keep notes, transcribe them into that day's post, then publish.

This post not only introduces the series but is a test of the process.

Stay tuned!

Farewell Dolly

We have lost a truly Great Person in Dolly Parton. Time for a reminder to live your life like you want to be remembered.

We saw Dolly Parton some years back with her amazing backup group at Wolf Trap VA. She could be cornier than Iowa but simultaneously a fantastic musician. At one point early in the show a female fan called out "I love you Dolly!"; Dolly paused then responded "I love you too!" Later in the show the (apparently) same fan once more yelled "I love you Dolly!" Dolly paused, ever so slightly longer this time, then said "I told you to stay in the truck..."

RIP

To Do Something, or Not to Do Something

Right before I left for vacation I posted some quick thoughts on the continued absence of Mitch McConnell from the Senate (or indeed from the land of the visible for that matter) and the yammering for Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear to take matters into his own hands and DO SOMETHING! After all, we have to FIGHT!

I can’t be the only one here (there are dozens of us?) who thinks that McConnell’s non-presence in the Senate is actually a good thing as it reduces the GOP majority. I mean, sure, the caucus will fall in line but Collins and Murkowski get less of a pass in this situation.

— Roy Batty’s Dove Wrangler (@dmslattery.bsky.social) 10:17 PM · Jul 23, 2026

Meanwhile everyone yammering for Beshear to DO SOMETHING seems unaware that at minimum his magic pixie appointment of a Democrat will be litigated until the end of time, and at maximum he will be impeached and removed by the KY legislature.

— Roy Batty’s Dove Wrangler (@dmslattery.bsky.social) 10:17 PM · Jul 23, 2026

In what I believe is an unprecedented response, someone actually replied substantively to something I posted on Bluesky. Better yet, it was someone who has actually been in my kitchen - two of them, in fact. (Kitchens, not commenters.) His general point (apologies if I misstate) was that obstacles be damned, we have to fight regardless to show we can fight. There was a lot of back and forth so posting all of that would result in a giant-length piece; if you like you can review the fun on Bluesky itself.

Robert Farley at Lawyers, Guns and Money posted this reprint of a news piece from Kentucky outlining the challenges faced by that perspective, then wrote a follow-up piece that gets to the heart of the matter:

This is why “FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT” is a dead end. It feels emotionally satisfying, but it’s not strategic, even as an effort to mobilize the party. You pick fights you can win, you pick fights where the benefits outweigh the risks, and sometimes you pick fights that you know you’re going to lose because the act of fighting has a special meaning to the supporters of the party. Understanding the need to use power carefully and strategically is what made McConnell an effective Senator for a very long time.

Beshear's position is not enviable but going after McConnell and/or his seat more aggressively will not improve it. At any rate, things seem to have quietened down such that a casual search on Bluesky and the web in general doesn't show continued calls for ACTION on Beshear's part.

Raven Samantha Slattery, 2010ish - 2026

In late October 2011 a family - mother, father, daughter and son - huddled disconsolately in back of the Sterling VA Petsmart. They had just lost out on a chance to adopt a dog as the result of a name-out-of-a-hat draw between them and another equally-deserving family. It had been just over a year since the loss of their previous dog, and they were looking forward to bringing another furry ward into their lives.

The full story is here but suffice it to say that Raven entered our lives at precisely that time. She also brought thousands of unexpected friends with her as well as kennel cough, but we all made it through that (except those friends of course) and Raven became a sweet, playful and frankly uncomplicated dog.

Raven lived up to her Whippet heritage by delighting in leading other dogs at the dog park on high-speed, high-maneuvering chases. The only dog that ever caught her was a purebred Whippet who saw Raven zooming across the dirt, seemed to think for a moment and then basically teleported into Raven's side, sending our dog flying. True to her nature, Raven didn't care.

When Scout entered our lives the two got along very well, and teamed up from time to time to hunt rabbits in the back yard. At the time two young girls lived next door so I often had to move fast to avoid having to explain away the "sleeping" bunny. Most of their time, though, was spent lounging on various furniture.

As she got older Raven became (in)famous for her interest, however polite, in other dogwalkers' potential treat supplies; it didn't necessarily help that several neighborhood friends and acquaintances proved to be a soft touch. Indeed, anyone we passed, whether with a dog, just walking by or even getting out of a parked car was a potential snack source.

In fall 2024 Raven began to suffer from extreme balance/vertigo issues as well as plain advancing old age. When we took her to the vet they said "Raven isn't an old dog..." That was unexpected but then they continued "She is a REALLY old dog and there is no science for her" since so few make it that far. At that time we knew Scout wasn't doing well so we steeled ourselves for a rough 2025 dog-wise. At that time of course we had no idea of the everything-else-wise aspects of the coming year.

However, Raven rallied and medication helped with the immediate issues, to the extent that we were able to stop medications later in 2025 with no ill effects. Frankly the drugs were having adverse effects in other ways so in some sense were exacerbating the problem, but again, no science to fall back on for that.

Time, as we learn over and over again, eventually runs out and the dreaded phrase "quality of life" becomes unavoidable and undeniable. So it came to pass with Raven and we said farewell on March 31.

We had so much time with her, but it is never enough.

Raven Slattery runs free across endless grass. She was and is a Good Dog.

Assumption Adjustment

In ninth grade I was in the inaugural class for Earth Science at my high school. As the inaugural class we had supposedly been selected as brighter than average (true enough, thinking back) and our teacher was a seasoned (if not pickled) educator albeit with some notable character quirks. All of these factors resulted in a memorable year and the profusion of running jokes, catchphrases and genuine lore.

One section of the class covered the interpretation of astronomical observations to explain the movement of the sun and planets, to wit, the geocentric vs. heliocentric interpretation of the solar system. Geocentrism, of course, had the religious stamp of approval and the simplest observation, reinforced by human nature, appeared to show everything revolving around us in circular orbits. However, representing the precise apparent* movement of the planets in a geocentric interpretation eventually required a series of epicycles and exceptions, whereas the heliocentric model could represent the same motions in essentially circular orbits.

We are seeing a similar clash of interpretations as we labor to make sense of the actions of the Trump Administration. (I am temporarily letting the rest of the GOP off the hook here because of their passivity in the face of the administration's activity.) The traditional approach to executive branch analysis over the last half-century or so looks at policy preferences, constituencies and the various players when interpreting executive action. It makes a lot of assumptions, as it turns out, but those hadn't been viewed as such since they had by and large been followed. One of the biggest of these is that executive branch actions, whether we agree with them or not, are intended by the President and his Administration to advance the power and status of the United States of America.

We are seeing that the "geocentric" model of executive analysis is struggling mightily to rationalize the following (unfortunately not a complete list):

• America's heel turn regarding Ukraine and NATO in general
• Destruction of US soft power
• Destruction of US scientific and medical research infrastructure
• Economic chaos via tariff wars etc.
• RFK Jr.

None of this makes sense from the traditional approach. I'm not sure if I have seen any actual epicycle diagrams yet but they may not be far behind. How, traditional interpreters ask, does any of this advance US national interests?

******

There is another approach, one where we take the same data and infer** a different model. Here it is:

The goal of the Trump Administration is the de facto destruction of the United States of America and the reduction of its population to an impoverished, disease-prone, poorly-educated lumpenproletariat, the better to be ruled and cowed by an expansive surveillance state.

Trump himself doesn't give a shit about any of that; his sole project is his self-enrichment. Hell, he'd be fine with a second (big, beautiful, cherished) Marshall Plan as long as he got a cut. However, he has unsurprisingly gathered about himself the Worst and the Dimmest who are taking this second chance and are running with it.

There is no action taken by this administration that does not align with that statement. Even the retraction of policy from pushback reinforces the point that the word of the government means nothing.

I get that this is a really hard adjustment to make for a political and media class comfortable with norms and certainties, but the sooner they adjust, the sooner we can stop it.

Just look at the data, is all I'm saying.

*"Apparent" was emphasized by the teacher as part of the scientific method of measurement, observation and inference. We of course ran with that to the extent that anything like "I did my homework" would be countered with "Apparently!" Oh to be young and a jerk again.

**We could not state; we had to infer from the data

Cowards

As I told CRH recently, his post from the first week of April really sums up everything you could conceivably write about with respect to the Republicans; hell, CRH himself could barely get beyond the title. However, it is important to keep writing, to keep pointing at all of this shit if only to say "WTF America" over and over and over again.

For example we need to keep hammering at the fact that Congress and, secondarily, the Supreme Court can stop this at any time. Senator Murkowski's fears are certainly well-founded but she has to recognize that her oath as a Senator requires her to step up and, additionally, her party's role in bringing us to this point makes her personally complicit every day she remains silent (in the "performance of duties as a Senator" sense). Yes, Schumer is an idiot and there are things Democrats can be doing better to slow our descent - for one, we are NOT going to triangulate our way out of this - but the GOP is at the controls and it is on them to act. The fact that a handful - that's all it would take - of Senators and Representatives cannot rouse themselves to act is absolutely damning.

We also need to point - literally as well as figuratively - at those in the law enforcement community who execute the (unlawful) orders wearing masks but no badges, driving around in unmarked cars and snatching US citizens off the streets, out of schools etc. Incidentally you could see this coming in the 1990s when the militarization of the police really took off. A Democrat in the Oval Office is always preferable (with, I grant you, the possible exception of George HW Bush) but Clinton gave a bit too much fertilizer to the seeds of fascism in this country, knuckling under to that paragon of rectitude Newton Leroy Gingrich.

Finally, for today at least, we need to look at ourselves in the mirror. I can tell you that I am scared, though perhaps not quite at General Catburd's level. I know, or know someone who does, at least one of every kind of person/group/etc. currently targeted by the Republicans. I know people who are working actively and enthusiastically to either help the Republican project directly or improve the conditions for its success. And here's the thing: WE ALL DO.

My selfish fear is that I am going to have to Do Something but I don't know what, when or how. Worse is the Whether.

Layout Update: Sprucing Things Up, or Pining for the Woods

In advance of my work during the first Fedex Day I procured a variety of scenery materials including a bag of variably sized conifers*. They look fine if you don't look directly at them or make them the highlight of a scene, but they didn't get included in that round of scenery because other priorities intervened and I was put off by the trunk/roots at their base, which I suppose led me to de-prioritize them further. 

Nice variety of sizes but those roots have to go

In addition to making them look like Christmas trees the flatness of their bases was an impediment to mounting them on the uneven terrain I had created. In that respect at least I had achieved a "natural" result with my scenery!

So they languished in my scenery drawer until the most recent Fedex Day, when once again I put them at the end of the "do something with these" list with predictable results. However, that work got me thinking about them again.

Fast forward (slightly) to my backdrop work, after which I took a look at the corner behind the engine terminal: a gentle slope up to an abrupt meeting with the newly-extended backdrop. That seemed to be a good place for an experiment with a couple of aspects:

• Blending a three-dimensional foreground with a two-dimensional background
• Using forced perspective to heighten the sense of distance from the viewer

For installation, it's a bit hard to see in the photo above but the round trunk between the base and the bottom of the foliage has a consistent width and is of sufficient length to hold the tree steady if stuck in a hole. The trunk is plastic-sheathed wire, so out came the diagonal pliers for the surgery, and pin vise and 1/8" drill bit for the installation:

Snip => Drill => Plant

Once again excitement at having defined the task got the better of me so there are no "in progress" shots, but I ended up planting about a dozen trees in what I hoped was a random arrangement of size and color.

This first draft looked pretty good and achieved the goal of integrating background with foreground, but the start of the forest was relatively abrupt so the next day I Googled "pine forest edge" and got some good ideas for planting some smaller foliage in front of the trees. I grabbed my several bags of Woodland Scenics Clump Foliage (various sized and tinted bits of ground foam) and secured them to the scenery with white glue (the white dot on the upturned container on the track):

Foam => Glue => Position

It was really hard to achieve a random distribution with just a few shades of material, so future efforts will include a greater variety of materials for use.

Here is the scene in its current state, keeping in mind there are always additions/changes to be made:

Objects in viewfinder hopefully look farther away

I have already identified a couple other areas on the layout to plant more forest, including on the relatively steep slope above the mountain lake. There I may have to trim part of the lower foliage off one side so it can accommodate the slope. I will use smaller trees the higher up I plant them as a further exercise in forced perspective.

Not too bad for maybe an hour's work!

*Forgot to add this; good thing nobody reads this! My late father graduated from the NY Schools of Environmental Science and Forestry and not surprisingly knew a lot about trees, so he was usually pretty specific when referring to them. We also had two large Norway Spruce in our front yard when I was growing up so that reinforced the distinction

Layout Update: Around the Edges

Years ago when I installed the photo backdrops on the walls around the layout, there were a couple of issues that got designated For Later:

The full-length backdrops did not extend all the way down the wall by the engine terminal:

Oops pt. 1

More jarring for me, I aligned the backdrops at the level of the yard and engine terminal, setting aside the fact that in the transition section the scenery base is 2" lower.

Do not under any circumstances look behind the bridge

This is exacerbated by the layout being a couple of inches out from that wall, so when you are standing closer to the bridge you see a nice strip of sky blue below ground level. In retrospect Fiona and I should have painted the bottom half of the wall dark green or something less eye-catching, rendering it Somebody Else's Problem.

The first issue was much easier to resolve, as I had some extra backdrops and they are pretty well aligned to flow one into the other. The trick was not to repeat a backdrop in the same field of view, which took some planning.

So, out came the scissors and et voila:

That's better

That got my mind back on track for solving the other problem, which was thornier as it would involve

• What to use for the scenery block
• How to get it to stay in place
• Covering four feet of space
• Minding the gap

At first I thought about using some more spare backdrops, cutting the sky off and reshaping the hills, but I wasn't thrilled with that. I finally decided to dip into the strategic reserve of 6" x 9" Scotch-Brite pads I had picked up long ago with something like this in mind, and scrounged my scrap lumber for four feet of 1x2 and the hardware drawers for mounting bolts. Using Scotch-Brite pads would also fit in with how I screened the interchange track on the rural section.

There were two options for mounting what I am calling the "mediumdrop": to the layout or to the wall behind it. Space and clutter considerations ruled out the first option, but the second option was not without its challenges. The other side of that basement wall is a prime storage spot for tabletops, ladders etc. so all of that had to be moved. Then I had to determine the best height for mounting the 1x2 by looking at a mockup of the mediumdrop from the layout side, but had to measure and drill the holes from the other side of the wall. The wall itself is 1/4" paneling mounted to studs with the studs on the storage side, so I couldn't just lay a yardstick end to end and measure; I had to mark one hole at X and then measure from both sides of the stud to get the proper spacing for the next hole.

(At this point I need to break off and apologize for the lack of in-progress pictures. The combination of finally figuring out what to do and having the time to do it spurred me to get it done with as few distractions as possible. Also my workbench is embarrassingly semi-functional and I did most of the work on the very edge of it.)

I briefly pondered what adhesive would be best for gluing Scotch-Brite (pathologically porous) to wood, but then remembered I have a staple gun which reduced drying time to, well, zero.

With the pads attached I did a test fit and realized that when I did the first test fit of the 1x2s to their mounting holes I didn't take into account the width of the Scotch-Brite pads. Fortunately there was just enough space to fit the assembly behind the layout and get the bolts into position in their holes.

The main goal of the test fit was to establish the minimum height of the pads for cutting the tops into a more natural wavy contour.

And here we are:

That's so much better

This is one of those projects that when you are finished with the basic work, you wondered why it took you so long to just do it.

Eventually I will cover it and the earlier interchange screen (at left in the photo above) with some scenic materials - ground foam, clump foliage, some spare puffball trees - to reduce its two-dimensional appearance. I think I will also insert a spacer below ground level by the yellow structure so it stands a bit more upright. But for the moment it has achieved its initial goal: to make the wall there, if not somebody else's problem, at least not mine.