Whenever I meet with new clients, we get to know each other by talking about an array of topics.  In the course of our conversations we explore taste and preferences, lifestyles and budgets.  And we discover who is a Henry, and who is a Henri.

The Henry is an engineer—someone who knows every piece that is going into a project before even starting to put it together.  Like the left-brained Henry Ford building a car.

The Henri, on the other hand, has an idea and selects colors and shapes that fit that vision.  Then, as the vision evolves, the colors and shapes evolve as well.  Like Henri Matisse creating a painting.

Building a home requires both.  It’s a whole brain exercise that entails precision and artistry, sequential logic and spontaneity, and that’s what makes it such an interesting process.

A recent study that compared the brains of expert and novice chess players showed that the experts processed information on both sides of their brains simultaneously.  Further, the study concluded that the ability to use both sides is an acquired skill, not an innate one.

Have you ever taken a test to see if you’re predominately left-brained or right-brained?  If you’re curious, there’s a quick questionnaire at web-us.com/brain/braindominance.htm Even though the test is designed for students, it’s interesting because once you get the results, they outline ways to boost the performance of the less dominant side.

Or you can talk to a whole-brained custom home builder who can see the magnificent creation of your new house in total, while keeping an eye on every important detail.

Dwight

Find the man in the coffee beans

Doctors have concluded that if you find the man in the coffee beans in 3 seconds, the right half of your brain is better developed than most people.

If you find the man between 3 seconds and 1 minute, the right half of the brain is developed normally.

If you find the man between 1 minute and 3 minutes, then the right half of your brain is functioning slowly and you need to eat more protein. If you have not found the man after 3 minutes, the advice is to look for more of this type of exercise to make that part of the brain stronger!  And yes, the man is really there!

https://www.drivenissanleaf.com/Win/Vote.aspx?b=uz36tcrthsk2

At the end of August I was invited to a Small Business Roundtable with Governor Christine Gregoire.  We had a very productive discussion about the issues builders are facing in this economic environment–and how the state can help lower some of the barriers to doing business.

This was a wonderful opportunity for me to tell the Governor how much I appreciate her hands-on approach helping Washington’s builders.  Her work on both the state and federal levels to improve the availability of capital is very important to us; so too is the delay in implementation of a costly new energy code.  I feel very fortunate to have had the chance to hear what she had to say, and add my voice to other small business owners as we looked for ways to do things better.

(Click on the letter to be able to read it more easily.)

 Letter from Governor Gregoire

The willows in the center of the photo are blocking the low-flow channel; to the left is the freshly mowed high-flow channel.

Shortly after our meeting with King County and the Army Corps of Engineers, I went over to the weir to see if the clearing had started–and it had.
The county took an important first step in resolving the water flow problem from Lake Sammamish into the Sammamish River. These photos show the results of the mowing operation that began late last week.
Still a concern are the willows and additional sediment accumulation that might restrict the higher flows come winter. On September 9 we’re meeting on-site to discuss future maintenance and what other steps need to be taken to ensure that the lake will continue to drain during higher flows.
As for right now, however, the water–and King County–are moving in the right direction!

Yesterday was one of those meetings.

Followers of this blog know that I’ve been actively involved in a variety of issues concerning Lake Sammamish. The high water levels that occurred earlier this summer have been a focus of my efforts.

The water was not flowing properly from the lake through the outlet at the Sammamish River, and it caused major problems for people who both live on this lake and use it for recreational purposes.

Yesterday a number of lake residents, leaders from local municipalities, officials from King County, the Army Corps of Engineers and representatives of state government sat down and had a meeting of the minds–and formulated the next steps to fix the water flow.

The work is only beginning, and we have a way to go, but we are on a positive path–thanks to all involved.

This is the way government is supposed to work!

Dwight

Seeking Local Approval: The City of Bellevue’s proposed SMP is in the “Local Approval” phase, which needs to be completed prior to submitting the plan to the state in the fall. Take a look at the working draft here.

Upcoming Public Hearing: The City of Sammamish reports that the Department of Ecology will hold a public hearing—tentatively scheduled for October 7—on the city’s proposed SMP. You can get schedule updates and see the proposed plan here

How could this have happened? Here is my take on it:

Prior to 1998 the weir was at elevation 25.5, mostly level with a wide and shallow outlet to the transition zone. The low flow channel just downstream of the weir was open and about 50′ wide (my estimate from the 1991 photo posted below).

Two improvements for fish passage in 1998 narrowed the low flow channel; a notch was created in the center of the weir, and a log sill with a 4′ wide notch was added just below a small fish resting pool below the weir. It seems that these two improvements narrowed the low flow channel and allowed the willows to grow together into the channel in the low flow summer months. Now it is hard to identify any low flow channel at all. The view from the weir downstream is a “wall of willows” where the low flow channel once was. This has become the limiting factor for the outflow of Lake Sammamish in low, high, and normal flow conditions. It is great to do things which are good for fish passage, but this work may have also caused lake levels to be substatially higher. That was not part of the plan.

I hope that this situation will be quickly rectified so that the lake flood levels can be better contoled next year.

The above graph shows that we had some very high winter lake levels this year, but we were trending down to typical seasonal levels. Then Lake levels really spiked in April and June, quickly rising and slowly falling.

The blue line is this year, the brown line is an average of the previous four years, which shows an average June 1 level at about 26.5.

I Have asked both King County Flood Control and the Army Corp of Engineers why they think we are have such historic high levels. Although we have had a wet Spring, it has not been extreme, like the lake level has. I will report back as I learn more.

Dwight

It’s not every day that we see an island floating on Lake Sammamish.

While kayaking last weekend we spotted this clump of land, complete with grass and a tree, bobbing along the lake. 

Apparently the unusually high water level saturated a section of the shoreline.  Then the wind—which usually comes out of the south—shifted to the north.  A tree caught the wind like a sail and dislodged the clump from the shore, sending it off toward the northwest end of the lake.

That’s where the outlet to the Sammamish River is.  It made me wonder if the floating island would create a blockage, or diminish flow rate of the water from the lake to the river.

So I kept my camera handy, and watched.