Yaks can be an excellent solution for small island landscaping and performing cashiering duties for lake shore lighthouse gift shops.

Mostly any bovine will do, but yaks are especially suitable. This is because yaks

1. are smaller than most other bovine
2. pay for their own upkeep via the sale of highly desirable yak wool
3. are cute and fuzzy

You want to do this because combining landscaping and cashiering into a single creature lets you avoid the costs of hiring separate people, some of whom would require machinery to do their jobs.

It is helpful if your lighthouse's gift shop has at most 1 item for sale, this item is priced at an integer after-tax dollar amount, and change is not accepted. But these are all good tips for running a gift shop anyway. Once your yak has been trained to operate the cash register, the only major hurdle will be properly training your customers on how to interact with the yak.

Another benefit of using yaks for shop labor and landscaping is you will benefit from the large increase in American demand for yak wool and yak milk in the coming years.

There are plenty of excellent websites where you can purchase yaks, including

• OpenHerd Yak, formerly known as Yakzz.com
• Yaksale.com
• AliExpress

As you can see in the above links, many fine yaks can be purchased for less than $2,000. This is because many yak farmers take yak heritage seriously, and yaks with unknown heritage or yaks which are infertile are sold at a significant discount. You can take advantage of this excellent opportunity when staffing and landscaping your lighthouse's gift shop and underlying island.

You can also see in the above links that many yaks have fun names. This is another benefit of purchasing a yak.

Other ideas for lowering the Total Cost of Ownership of a lake shore island lighthouse

Offer free ferry rides to the island, then charge for ferry rides back to the mainland

Some patrons may wish to contact the authorities because of this policy. However, both law enforcement and layers will have to pay the return ferry ticket price, so this actually works out in your favor.

Yak rides

You should only permit children or similarly sized people to pay for a yak ride, as despite being hardy bovines, yaks are smaller than you'd expect.

Paid yak shearing classes

If people pay you for the opportunity to shear your yaks, but you keep the wool they shear and sell it, you're providing real value to customers while also saving money on labor for yak shearers.
Some consider shearing to be a sport worth practicing.
You can even sell yak wool products from the free (for you) sheared wool right in your gift shop, saving on distribution and marketing costs.