Essentially the Only One

When something, however off-beat, interests me, I tend to keep tabs on it. Today I returned to my favorite sluice valve with most satisfactory results. To be precise, my visit solved the nagging issue as to how the sluice valve was actually operated.

This had puzzled me ever since I first came across it. How nice it was then to find this elegant solution - a mobile diesel engine and belt drive.I was the only person here by the Mississippi on this gorgeous evening (apart from a Conservation Policeman checking to see if I was fishing on the sly). A lovely evening marred only by the fact that I dropped and damaged one of my older cameras. It still works, but I broke the auto-exposure somehow. Not an absolutely essential feature, fortunately, as long as I shoot using manual settings and I often do that anyway.