Weeds

Rice Lake has a bit of a reputation of being a "weedy" lake and this is part of the reason the fishing is so good here.

It's quite shallow, the maximum depth is 27 ft., but by and large it's no more than about 13 ft deep. A shallow lake bottom means lots of sunlight penetrates to the depths, and the weeds grow tall and close to the surface. There are huge mats of weeds out in the lake right now. The surface looks mat and brown instead of shiny and blue. By all accounts the weeds are as bad as anyone has seen them in a long time. Normally they retreat deeper in the lake when the hot summer weather and sun beat down on them, but this year we haven't had any of that extreme heat except for one or two days.

As boats cross these beds of weeds, it's not uncommon to get the prop tangled up in the long strands. You see boats chugging forward. Stopping. Reversing. And continuing along their way. Kinda like a boat conga line. They also tend to carve paths through the weeds as they pass. These free-floating weeds, pushed by the wind, drift towards shore. Our shore, for one.

We had so many floating weeds around the dock this weekend!

All along the west shore of the island it looked like this.

The Captain and handy Dad hauled rakes out of the garden shed to skim them out, but they're so heavy (uhm - the weeds, not Dad or the captain), the best they could manage was to push them off to the right.

I'll need to go buy a comb rake, I think, so we can drag those up onto the shore. Ideally I'd like to haul 'em up to the fire pit and burn 'em. I can't imagine a mound of rotting seaweed (lake weed?) would smell very good on the shoreline.

Oh, the places you'll go!

While gadding about the countryside in search of parts for the gas-can in That Damned Boat™, we puttered through parts of Ontario I'm not sure I've ever visited! If I have, I definitely don't remember it.

We passed a commemorative plaque honouring Mt. Ararat. The Ontario Ministry of Citizenship and Culture has a few of these scattered around, if you know where to look. Actually, that would make for a fun driving scavenger hunt! Anyway, I digress. At first, I thought the spot was one of those depressing road-side shrines marking the spot where a vehicular fatality occurred. I was pleasantly surprised! The plaque reads:

" In May 1847, Catharine Parr Traill (1802-1899), one of Canada's distinguished early writers, moved with her husband, Thomas, and family from Wolf Tower to this farm which they named Mount Ararat, "the highest elevation on the Rice Lake Plains." This property (Lot 19. Concession 8, Hamilton Township) is the locale of Mrs. Traill's famous book for children, Canadian Crusoes (later called Lost in the Backwoods). In the spring of 1849, the Traill family moved a few miles east to Oaklands on Traill Road, their third home in the eleven years they lived in the Gore's Landing area."

 Isn't that neat? I think I'm going to have to pick up that book for my bookworms to devour this summer at the cottage.

On our way out of Gore's landing, I snapped this nifty photo of some trees in the misty rain. I might have to print this for our room at the cottage. The colours are perfect.

Thanks again for stopping by!

My fears were not unfounded

We were very fortunate that our cottage escaped major damage in the recent wind storm that struck the lake. Others were not as fortunate. In addition to our neighbour's docks that went walkabout, there were trees down around the island.

This is a poplar tree from up by our firepit. It was already dead, so no big loss, and we were lucky that it fell away from the buildings.

This other cottage was not as lucky. Their boat house took a beating when a big tree fell on it. I hope they can repair the damage without too much effort.

From what I've heard, the north shore of the lake got hit much harder than the island did.

Dock, 2011

On a gorgeous Spring Saturday, the good men of The Lodge headed out to install our docks.

While the water was cold, apparently the temperatures were lovely and their always attractive hip-waders kept them dry (except for the captain who managed to fall into the lake. Bwahahahahahaha! *sniff* *wipe* Oh, I wish I had been there with my camera! At least he had the good sense to leave his cell phone on the deck. *ahem*)

The docks went in with ease, according to reports, and they had extra time to putter around attending to other cottage chores like connecting the water and emptying the poo hole.

Gosh the lake looks lovely. *contented sigh*

And that fella in the hip-waders is looking pretty fine, himself!

I can't wait to get back there. We're planning a day trip on Saturday (arg with the dance schedule conflicts already! arg arg arg) even though they're calling for rain. We need to launch our own boat, transport some more items, and do some spring cleaning before settling in for the summer.

Happy clap!

Get your snorkels out...

The docks are still partially submerged at the marina; most importantly, the one at the boat launch ramp.

Dangit.

Dock near the boat launch. (blub blub!)

Looking back towards our slips.

 Our dock.

Boat launch and submerged dock.


Thanks to Handy-Dad for these excellent pictures.

Wind storm

Yesterday we had a wind storm blow through with sustained winds of 30+km/h and gusts as high as 100 km/h. It also hit Rice Lake. I've been trolling the web for photos of what the lake was like in the middle of all that wind. Here's what I've found this morning:

This photo was shown on the Cow Island facebook page. Scary.

And these were shown on The WeatherNetwork page for Peterboro. 

The quality is poor but in this one you can see the docks at the end are torn apart (the support legs are sticking up out of the water).

Knowing the direction that wind was howling, our dock would've been pounded. I'm really glad we didn't put it in last weekend.

Boat launch?

Looks like the only boat we could launch this coming weekend would be an ark.

Water levels on the lake are very high due to a combination of heavy spring rain and the thaw from areas to the north. Although I recently saw photos of the marina showing docks about a foot above water, the latest reports from the area are indicating that the docks are once again submerged. Buggrit Buggrem. This time last year we had made our first foray to the cottage in That Damned Boat ™ (check out "Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel" for a trip down memory lane).

I picked up some cottage goodies this weekend while shopping in Port Perry (whee!) that I'll show you, if I ever remember to take a picture of them. Between work and dance, I'm pretty well addled, so I won't make any promises.

Happy Easter! I hope the bunny poops lots of jelly beans for you. (Of course the Easter Bunny poops jelly beans. Was there ever any question?!)

Thaw

Patiently waiting for the ice to leave....

Any day now....

*sigh*

(remember, Rice like stretches north east to south west, about half way between Lake Simcoe (at the top left) and the peninsular bulge of P.E. county on the north shore of Lake Ontario).

I strung together the satellite photos to show the progression of the ice thawing.

Water levels

I checked the Parks Canada site for Rice Lake water levels today. It looks like the spike has happened!

Compare this with last year's graph, taken on March 31:

This is good. This means the docks at the marina won't be underwater for long and we can get the boat back in the water. As soon as the temperature stays reliably above zero, at least. I haven't been able to get a decent satellite photo of the lake lately, because it's been so overcast.

In other news, it looks like our planned trip to the Cottage Life show this year is a bust. Hockey and Dance schedules have colluded and are refusing to cough up a single free day this weekend. Dangit! At least this is our last hockey weekend for this season (yay!!) This weekend is also the first of five dance competitions this year. I have to get up at 5 a.m on Thursday. Wait, there's a 5 o'clock in the MORNING now!? Yeesh.

If you're looking for me, I'll be the one blearily stumbling into door frames.

More melting...

Oh, gosh, I am so impatient now! GAH!

There's a lot more open water showing on the St. Lawrence. Whee!

Melt melt melt melt melt

From today's satellite pass.

Lake conditions

Rice Lake is still ice covered, but the latest satellite photo shows that the surrounding snow is diminishing, as it's now much easier to spot the lake!

Gah. The first 5 months of waiting went past in a blur. This last month is agony.

Things rattling around in my cottage mental box like so many loose marbles right now:
- dock ladder
- boat lift
- bathroom ceiling, trim, cupboard, curtain
- living room ceiling
- guest room doors
- how soon with the water level drop?
- did the flooring survive?

We're getting close...

It won't be long now before we'll be back at the cottage!

A few of the Rice Lake area message boards have started their annual Ice Out contest to see who can guess the date that the lake will be free of ice. Dates are ranging from April 1 to April 16th so far. Last year, Ice Out was declared on March 30th.

They're using a cool satellite photo site (NOAA - the US Gov site that also tracks hurricanes) to determine how much ice is left in the lake. Here's the link if you're curious.

It shows mostly Lake Ontario, but you can just see the white gash of Rice Lake in the middle of south/central Ontario if you know where to look. (If you draw a straight light between lake Simcoe and the penninsula of Prince Edward County - Hello Sandbanks! - you'll cross over Rice Lake about half-way across.) As always, click on the photo to zoom in.

You can see that Rice Lake is still frozen and white, whereas Lake Ontario and the Finger Lakes in New York are free of ice (blue).

Neat stuff.

This of course now has me in a tizzy asking myself "what did I forget to do over the winter!?"

At the top of the list of those forgotten items is: Buy Ceiling Materials For The Bathroom And The Living Room.

Dangit.

Now accepting suggestions for ceiling material. (Please note: "Soffit" is not a valid suggestion). I'm leaning towards 12x12 ceiling tiles for the bathroom, and white-stained pine planks for the living room, but can be swayed with good suggestions.

We're also debating hitting the Cottage Life show at the end of the month, but it's all dependent upon the wee lad's Sunday hockey schedule. I'm starting to give some thought to investing in a boat lift to keep That Damned Boat from getting smashed about on windy days.

ponder ponder spend spend

Brrrrrr!

Doesn't this look cold?

Brrrrrr... I get the chills just looking at it. These photos are of Rice lake from a few days ago. I'm not positive, but I suspect that's West Grape Island behind the fishing hut.

One more month until the official start of Spring.

Lake photos

I'd like to share a few more shots of the lake with you before I slip into my winter posting schedule (i.e. not daily).

Morning calm

Gorgeous view!

The view in the marina

Diamonds on the water

As seen from the boat.

Good Bye, Hodge Podge Lodge! See you in the Spring!

Out, out damned dock!

We're really nearing the end of cottage season now. During Thanksgiving weekend the gentlemen set about removing one of our two docks. Since Handy Dad's was easiest to disassemble, they opted to leave that one for a later, colder visit.

This time they removed our dock. First the deck boards came out, then the captain donned his dapper hip waders and dismantled the dock sections in the water. He didn't find my phone, but I don't think he was looking particularly hard.

As they disassembled each section, the three men lugged the heavy, waterlogged dock sections to shore where they were stashed in all available nooks and crannies. Uncle B repeatedly got clonked in the head  in the process, but he was kind enough not to complain about it within earshot.

They also decided to remove one section of Handy Dad's dock (the part in the deepest water) to make it a bit easier for them to remove it when the come back later.

It's weird with one dock out of the water. The cottage looks nekkid.

Piranha!

 I recently heard reports of a piranha that had been caught by a fisherman in Rice Lake. I didn't believe it. Scratch that.

I didn't believe it. I didn't want to believe it. Piranha!? RICE LAKE!?

So I turned to the perpetual fount of wisdom: The Interwebs.

[update: it bears mentioning that the "hearing" was recent, not the reports, nor the actual catching of said fish, which by all accounts happened in 2007. Though I did hear that another was caught this year- but that hasn't been verified]

Before long I happened upon these photos of the fish posted to a local fishing forum by a user named Blue_Axela (to whom I'd give credit for these photos, if only I knew who he/she was):

That, my friends, is a piranha.

And not a small one either.

Check out the size of this sucker!

Eeeeeeee.

Now, the word on the forums is that these fish do survive in fresh water, but don't survive the winter freeze. Also, in isolation, they are not an aggressive fish; rather the opposite.

I'm not sure I want to test that hypothesis, however.

Gyah.

A storm with a name on it

We have a rule in our family: don't go camping in a storm with a name.

I think we can safely extend that axiom now to include boating.

Earl blew past the eastern coast of the US and Canada on Sept 4th. I don't know if the storm we got that day was related, but the winds were howling - the strongest I'd seen all summer. The lake had never been rougher (in my experience, at least).

The lake was covered in whitecaps (♫ the weather started getting rough ♪) and our poor little boat was being tossed mercilessly (♪ the tiny ship was tossed!♫). Our neighbor had warned us about the really bad waves; he had already had his boat swamped twice and had to have a barge come to haul it up from the bottom, so we were suitably anxious.

The captain and Handy Dad headed out to turn the boat around so the bow was facing out. This helps to prevent waves from breaking over the stern of the boat and filling it with water.(♫ if not for the courage of the fearless crew the Minnow would be lost ♪)

Turning the boat is fairly straight forward: hang on to the ropes and ease it back out of the slip, spin it 'round, and then pull it back in and tie it up. Even a big boat like Dad's pontoon is easy enough to pull around when it's floating on water.

It gets challenging with the ropes are just barely long enough to reach the boat when it's out away from the dock.

But, if you're unlucky enough to lose hold of one of those ropes? Things get downright hairy. Which is exactly what happened to the captain.

Our poor wee boat was nearly adrift, save for the stern line Dad had hold of, and the boat was quickly bobbing and being blown towards the motor on Handy Dad's pontoon.

Oh, No! What do we do now? The captain scampered over to Dad's dock, while Dad nimbly climbed on to the back of his boat and started to fend off That Damned Boat ™ with his feet.

Gradually they were able to ease it away from the pontoon and back into its slip. I, of course, helpfully sat up on the nice dry porch taking photos.

I'm nothing if not helpful.

With the boat safely returned to the dock, we got to watch it bucking in the waves for the rest of the day.

And they were good waves.

Coming right up to the top of the dock.

And sometimes over it.

I fully expected the boat to be full of water after a day of this.

But it wasn't that bad. The captain headed out Sunday morning to run the bilge pump just in case, and hardly a trickle came out.

Needless to say we didn't do a lot of swimming that weekend.