July 2025 - Local Lad Invents Flash Flood Forecasting and Warning System

ORLANDO- Oakland resident Tristan Milliken (14), a high honors student going into the 9th grade at Montverde Academy has a Provisional Patent on his invention. It’s a Sensor system that can forecast in real time the amount of water that will flow into an area and the rate the flood level will rise. He has named it the Mystic Pole in memory of the Texas camp.

As a summer camp counselor himself at the Oakland Nature Preserve he was shocked and sadden about the loss of life that happened especially to the young campers.

Tristan realized that if you knew the amount or water that would be coming from upstream and at what speed then a simple computer program could compare this with topography map levels of the down stream area and immediately predict rates of water rise of the river and the level over land level around the river.

His solution involves “Mystic Poles” spaced along a river so that the upstream water data can forecast impact to the next downstream area and the mystic Pole there would then sound an alert. 

Summer 2025- Oakland Nature Preserve' s (ONP) Leaders in Training PROGRAM accepted Tristan as their youngest member this summer.

"ONPs Leader in Training (LIT) program is for youth who want to gain knowledge in programming events, working with kids and gain leadership skills. Participants will take part in a counselor orientation/training and take on more responsibility as they plan and execute games, sports and nature education with the camp educators and counselors of our Environmental Summer Camp program.

• LITs is for youth ages 14 to 17 years old.

• The number of LIT positions available is limited.

• A LIT must commit to at least one full week of our summer camp, Monday through Friday from 8:30am-4:30pm.

• LITs must attend LIT camp and animal handling training prior to camp starting."

"He built this yesterday and just rode it down a steep hill headed for a gator infested lake with his friend and declared the brakes worked!".... thank god they worked.  - Tristan's Grandmother    2024

The West Orange Times & Observer April 7, 2021

Tristan Milliken just wanted some chickens. He didn’t expect to create a popular business out of selling eggs from his home in Oakland.

The 10-year-old has built quite a following of customers in the last year with his chicken and duck eggs — all in the last year since ordering the poultry and picking up the live delivery from the post office.

LOOKING FOR EGGS?

Tristan’s Free Range Organic Eggs is located at 302 Edge Grove Lane, Oakland. Dozens of eggs are stored in a little red barn in front of the house, and cash can be placed in the locked honesty box. Tristan Milliken is selling duck eggs for $8 a dozen and chicken eggs of various colors for $5 a dozen.

For updates, visit the Facebook page, Tristan’s Free Range Organic Eggs.

Tristan, the son of James Christoffel and Crystal Lee Milliken, started selling the eggs last summer when they became inundated with the eggs. Each chicken — they’re up to 13 now — lays about an egg a day; the Peking ducks lay eggs every two days.

“At first it was like, ‘Cool,’ but then we were like, ‘We can’t eat all these eggs,’” Milliken said. “He started selling to family and friends at first.”

His chickens — Buff Orpingtons and Easter Eggers — lay eggs in shades of brown, blue and green and have unique names, such as Sriracha, Oreo, Golden, Mikey T. and Brain. The ducks are Marshmallow and Lightning.

Tristan is partial to Sassy and Classy “because they’re the easiest to catch and hold,” he said. “They’re the nicest because the others run from you.”

A two-story coop houses the ducks and chickens in the backyard, a structure built by Christoffel with some assistance from Tristan. There are quirky signs painted throughout the coop, such as “Fuzzy butt hut” and “Duck, duck, chick.” There is an area for ducks at the bottom of the coop, and the chickens hang out on the second level.

The fowl are free range, and they wander the back and front yards during the day, but at night they are locked up in the coop so they don’t fall prey to predators.

“The ducks don’t like going in,” Tristan said. “You have to walk the ducks in, but the chickens go in on their own. They can’t see at night.”

Tristan’s morning routine includes waking up at 6:40 a.m. and letting them out of the coop. They feast on meal worms and the random apple that he places on a pipe for the chickens.