Category Archives: News

News from around the lake.

02 May 2015: Clary Lake water quality monitoring resumes

Water quality monitoring for 2015 resumed on April 30th. David Hodsdon and I tried to get out the previous week but the wind was so strong my anchor was dragging and we couldn’t stay in one place. This date is about average for the first data collection exercise of the year. We’ll try to get out every 2 weeks throughout the boating season. This also marks David Hodsdon’s 40th consecutive year of water quality monitoring for the VLMP. Quite a record!

The water was quite clear with a secchi disk reading of just over 11 feet. You can view current data and that for recent years on our Clary Lake Water Monitoring Data page (we also have data back to 1975 when David Hodsdon started his water quality monitoring efforts, available upon request). Our collection station is over the “deep hole” which we locate with a GPS and the data we normally collect includes air temperature and wind speed, water depth, clarity (secchi disk reading), and dissolved oxygen and temperature measurements at the surface and at 1 meter increments all the way to the bottom of the lake. Approximately 3 times per year we take a core water sample for phosphorus which we send off to the State for analysis. We took one this time.

You can read more about the VLMP and our water monitoring efforts on the Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program page.

22 April 2015: Anyone missing a dock?

A dock floated up on my shore this morning. It’s about 8′ x 8′ with no flotation, just a deck. I think it came from over by Duncan Road but I could be wrong. I tied it up so it wouldn’t float off down the channel. I noticed a few other pieces of flotsam floating around this morning, the result of our exceptionally high water level which as of this afternoon was about 12″ below the top of the dam. If anyone’s looking for it, it’s over on the south side of the lake by the Jefferson/Whitefield town line by Route 126.

Time Lapse Video of Clary Lake Ice Out, Spring 2015 [UPDATED]

Over the last 4-5 days there has been a LOT of traffic to the web cam page, people have apparently been anxiously following the progress of the ice going out. I sure have been. Here is a time lapse video showing the ice going out over the last 3 days, compressed into 92 seconds:

The video is comprised of the same photographs you see on the web cam page which are posted to the site every 2 minutes. I’ve removed the night time shots to keep the file size small. Most of the ice-out action happens on the 3rd day (April 18th). If you’re paying attention you’ll spot a muskrat swimming back and forth a few times and a few birds popping in and out of the scene.

Nobody is more surprised at how fast the ice went out this year than I am. On April 9th the lake was solidly frozen over with 6″ of new snow on it. Today, 9 days later… and there is just a little ice left hanging onto the edges in a few place. The ice isn’t officially out until David Hodsdon says it’s officially out. I’ll post the official date on the Ice-In and Ice-Out Dates page when David gives it to me.

[UPDATE: 19 April 2015] Well the southeast end of Clary Lake still had a lot of ice floating around this morning, but David Hodsdon tells me this afternoon that it all disappeared mid-morning today. So the official ice-out date this year is today, April 19th. It’s about average.

16 April 2015: What a difference a few days make

This was April 9th, lake fully covered with ice and 6″ of new snow:

This was yesterday, 9 days later, snow all gone and half the lake open:

09 April 2015: 6″ of new snow better than sharp stick in eye

“Waking up to 6″ of new snow today was a little better than a sharp stick in the eye” George Fergusson announced at the Whitefield Superette this morning. “but the expression on my wife’s face when she looked out the window was truly pitiable.” George’s recommendation is to get out and make one final snow man before tomorrow’s rain and this coming weekend’s 50° plus temperatures turn today’s winter wonderland into tomorrow’s quagmire of mud. “Before you know it you’ll be doing yard work with a cloud of black flies around your head. This is just a temporary setback.”

31 March 2015: Wild Kingdom on Clary Lake [UPDATED]

I got a call the other day from a neighbor telling me that he’d hit a wild turkey right in front of my house. I went out and retrieved the carcass and decided to put it out on the ice in front of the Clary Webcam so we could all enjoy watching wild animals tear it apart. My son’s dog already discovered it last night and started the process of pulling feathers out. I imagine the Ravens will make short work of it assuming a fox or coyote doesn’t come along and haul it off in the night. Maybe an eagle will show up.

You’re welcome 🙂

UPDATED 31 March 2015:

Visitors today to the turkey carcass included my son’s dog Emma (again), several ravens, and an immature Bald Eagle.

25 March 2015: Whitefield Selectmen Vote to Waive Foreclosure on Clary Lake Dam

Paul Kelley (left), of Pleasant Pond Mill LLC, and Richard Smith, of Aquafortis Associates LLC, speak about the non-payment of property taxes at the Whitefield selectmen’s meeting Tuesday, March 24. (Abigail Adams photo)

There is an article in this week’s Lincoln County News by reporter Abigail Adams about the Town of Whitefield waiving automatic foreclosures on property belonging to Aquafortis Associates LLC and Pleasant Pond Mill LLC. The article includes a lot of background information with the only obvious error being that it indicates the 2 parcels owned by Aquafortis Associates are “downstream” from the dam whereas in fact, they are on opposite sides of Route 218; the 1 acre vacant lot is actually located on the same side of the road as, and on the south side of, the Clary Lake dam.

Here’s a link to the article on the Lincoln County News site (I will archive a copy of the article in a few days):

Whitefield Selectmen Vote to Waive Foreclosure on Clary Lake Dam

I posted about this story last week; see: 19 March 2015: Whitefield votes to waive automatic foreclosures on PPM, AQF properties.

21 March 2015: Regular water level measurements resumed

Today I took a walk down to the lake and noticed that melting snow had exposed a small section of ice on the shore so I got a shovel and dug down through 3′ of drifted snow to uncover my bench mark and made the first accurate water level measurement since the end of January. The lake level is currently at -54.65″ below the top of the dam, about 1/2 a foot lower than I had estimated it to be a couple of weeks ago and 8.57″ lower than it was on January 31st when I last measured it.

19 March 2015: Whitefield votes to waive automatic foreclosures on PPM, AQF properties

At a hastily convened Emergency Select Board meeting held this afternoon at 5:00 PM at the Whitefield fire station, the Whitefield Select Board voted 3-0 to waive the pending automatic foreclosure of property belonging to Aquafortis Associates LLC. Present at the meeting were Select Board members Tony Marple, Dennis Merrill, and Frank Ober, and Town Clerk Aaron Miller. There were only 5 people in the audience including Paul Kelley of Pleasant Pond Mill LLC.

The tax liens were for non-payment of 2013 Whitefield property taxes on two lots of land belonging to Aquafortis Associates: the Clary Mill property (and mill building) on the west side of the road (tax map 17 lot 004A) with a lien on it in the amount of $752.64 and the approximately 1 acre of land on the east side of the road adjoining the Clary Lake dam on the south (map 17 lot 055B) with a lien on it in the amount of $595.40. The total amount due for both properties was $1348.04. The automatic foreclosures were set to take effect at 3 PM tomorrow afternoon. Aquafortis Associates also owns the red building sitting on the Clary Lake dam but the taxes on that have been fully paid. Tax maps and property assessment data are available on the Town of Whitefield website.

There was little discussion and the meeting was over almost before it started. The Selectmen did not give any reason for their decision to waive automatic foreclosure of the Aquafortis Associates properties other than to state that they were acting on the advice of the Town’s attorney, Mary Denison of Lake & Denison LLP in Winthrop Maine.

The selectmen had previously voted at a regularly scheduled Select Board meeting a few weeks ago to waive automatic foreclosure of the Clary Lake dam property belonging to Pleasant Pond Mill LLC, also for non-payment of 2013 property taxes. That tax lien was for $208.10.

There are outstanding tax liens on PPM and AQF properties for non-payment of the 2014 taxes. Those liens will go to automatic foreclosure in about a year if the taxes are not paid.

09 March 2015: Still no solution in battle over water level at Clary Lake

Paul Koenig of the Central Maine Papers (Kennebec Journal, Morning Sentinel) has written an article that appeared in this past Saturday’s paper. There has been precious little news in recent months about the Clary Lake water level order and the ongoing mediation. Sadly, while it is good and generally accurate reporting, there’s not a lot of new information in the article.

Still no solution in battle over water level at Clary Lake

I’ve archived a local copy should anyone have trouble getting the article off the paper’s site.

08 March 2015: Clary Wildlife Cam

The Clary webcam is now a wildlife cam simply by spreading some black sunflower seeds in front of it. It seems awfully large for a Gray Squirrel doesn’t it?

04 March 2015: Robert Antognoni has passed away

Robert F. Antognoni
August 22, 1925 – March 04, 2015

I got a message from Mary Hornecker just a bit ago that her father Bob Antognoni passed away early this morning, at home, surrounded by his family. He was 90 years old. There will be an obituary in the paper this Friday and the funeral is planned for next Monday. Details of the arrangements will be posted here when they become available. Mary sent the this recent photograph of Bob. Bob was a long time member of the Clary Lake Association, a dedicated and faithful steward of Clary Lake, and a good friend. He will be missed. Please join me in wishing his family strength and peace at this difficult time.

I hunted around the site and found this picture of Bob in our Historical Photographs album. The picture shows Bob putting out Loon Nesting signs, sometime around 2002.

01 March 2015: Resumed water level measurements, sort of

Well, not really. I did go over to the dam today and took the picture at left showing some open water between the railroad bridge abutments. By carefully measuring the image using known distances for the length of the southerly abutment (~23′) and the distance between the abutments on the west end (~17′) and after adjusting for the skew angle (simple trigonometry) I came up with a water level value of approximately -48″ below the top of the dam (which is probably within ±3″ of the true value). This value is consistent with the amount of water I observed flowing out of the dam, which wasn’t a whole lot. It is also within a couple of inches of where the lake level was at the end of January when I halted water level measurements. I think the lake level has been fairly stable: while there wasn’t a lot of runoff last month, there’s a lot of snow piled up on the lake and that’s almost the same thing.

At the end of the description of the above picture there’s a link to a full sized version (or click here) on which you can easily see dark stain on the abutment representing the approximate normal high water line, about 1′ below the top of the abutment.

I also added a chart for February 2015 (using precipitation data from the Weather Underground) to the 2015 archive more or less for a place holder since there really isn’t much to look at on it, and I updated the Current Water Level Charts page with a rudimentary chart for March. I’ll try and get an approximate water level more or less weekly until conditions allow me to resume regular measurements. I expect when our awesome 48″ snow pack melts we’re going to see a substantial rise in the lake level.

While I was at it, I corrected the mislabeled January 2015 water level chart which unfortunately claimed to be for December 2014. Nobody noticed, or else nobody bothered to point it out to me.

Think spring!

01 March 2015: A clear and cold start to the month

It was a clear and cold -15° F this morning when I got up, pretty chilly for the 1st day of March. As cold as it has been this winter, it appears the channel has remained open. You can see in the web cam image from this morning that there is some fog up in the northwest end of the lake where the channel starts. This indicates open water. I’ve seen this phenomena off and on this winter when conditions were right. Sure hope the weather starts warming up soon.

I had hoped to resume water level measurements today but the weather is going to have to moderate a lot and a whole load of snow is going to have to melt before I venture down to the lake. There’s easily 6′ of snow on my shoreline and I have no inclination to try floundering through that to find the ice, and then have to chop a hole in it, find my bench mark, yada yada. I will make a point of swinging by the dam today and guestimate the water level at the railroad abutment, that should give us an idea within a few inches of what the lake level is.

24 February 2015: Chilly morning on Clary Lake

It was -27° this morning on Clary Lake, according to 3 different thermometers. Now that’s bracing! If you feel like it’s been a cold month, you’re right. According to the National Weather Service at Gray, Maine, this has been the coldest February on record with an average temperature of somewhere around 13° (record keeping began in 1940). Sure seems like the temperature has been below 0° every morning since sometime in January.

10 January 2015: Comet Lovejoy is well placed for viewing

Comet Lovejoy is well placed for convenient, early evening viewing. It’s bright enough to be visible to the naked eye but I recommend at least binoculars to get a good view of it. The finder chart below shows the comet’s location on the evening of January 10th. If you can find Orion, you can find the comet. It’s moving fairly rapidly in a northerly direction and getting higher in the sky all the time. On the 17th, it will be just south of the Pleiades.

Here’s a Sky & Telescope article with finder charts and photographs.

02 January 2015: Extraordinary skating on Clary Lake, and a word of caution

The ice skating on Clary Lake has been extraordinary this year, and a good many people have taken advantage of the fabulous conditions. This afternoon I was out skating and encountered 4 people from Waldoboro (at left) who’d heard about the excellent skating conditions on Clary and came by to see for themselves. They were suitably impressed. Unfortunately the snow, sleet, and freezing rain storm coming in tonight will likely put an end to skating this winter. Here’s a video I shot this afternoon.

A word of caution: despite the low temperatures, there is still a considerable amount of open water out in the middle of the lake, (see video above) and a few open or mostly open leads around the shore where you wouldn’t expect to see them. This condition is due to a combination of the relatively high water level (2′ below the top of the dam) and a strong current resulting from the dam’s gate being wide open (the lake level is dropping about 1″ per day now). The current flows in a generally straight line from the inlet by the State boat launch passing close by the point at the end of the Duncan Road, to the outlet channel at the northwest end of the lake. The channel itself is ice free as well. The picture at left was taken New Years Day and the open area has gotten considerably larger since then.

This condition has occurred several times in the past few years. These open areas will probably fill with slush from the coming storm and skim over without getting really solid. Snowmobilers and skiers beware: if you don’t know where the safe ice is, you’d best stay close to shore or off the lake altogether.

I’ve also posted a few pictures in the Winter 2015 photo album that Tony Marple sent me yesterday, including this one at left that almost could have been taken on a calm summer day. The clouds reflected on the ice show just how smooth it really is. Thank you Tony.

2014 Water Level Charts Archived

And so we come to the end of another month, and for that matter, another year. I’ve just posted the 2014 chart (below) in the 2014 Water Level Charts album. This makes the third full year that I’ve been recording Clary Lake water levels. You’ll notice that last winter I stopped making water level measurements in early February and didn’t resume until April

1st due to cold weather, deep snow, and (for a while) ill health. I’ll keep measurements up as long as practical this winter but I imagine when winter really sets in that I’ll take a break and resume when weather permits.

The December 2014 chart (at left) is interesting. The rainfall we received back on the 9th of the month and over the next few days, though only 1.78″ in total was enough to bring the lake level up fully 16″ and to within an inch of 2 feet below the top of the dam for a runoff multiplier of 9 x (1 inch of rain = 9 inch rise) due to partly melting snow but mostly just because the ground was frozen. In other words, little if any rainfall soaked into the ground. It all ran off (the runoff multiplier during summer months is generally more like 4 x). Subsequent additional rainfall brought the lake level to 22″ below the top of the dam, right about where it would be this time of year if the Water Level Order being adhered to.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a safe and happy New Year’s Eve and a happy and productive New Year. I sincerely hope that 2015 sees the Clary Lake water level order implemented, the lake level restored, and a satisfactory resolution of all the issues surrounding the Clary Lake dam, for all parties. The Clary Lake Association is diligently working to bring these things about. With your help, we will succeed.

November 2014 water level chart archived

November 2014

And so we come to the end of another month. You’ll find the November 2014 water level chart in the 2014 Water Level Charts Album. The lake level stayed in a fairly tight range for the entire month, right around -50″ below the top of the dam, give or take a few inches. It got as high as -48″ at one point and low as -52″ below the top of the dam. With only 2.66″ of precipitation for the month (average is 4.36″) you’d have expected the lake level to have fallen more. However, the ground is fairly well saturated from heavy October rainfall so most of the precipitation we received ran off into the lake. Also, the lake only falls about 1/2 inch per day when it’s at this level so it doesn’t take much precipitation to keep the lake level constant.

And that’s the way it looks from here.

30 November 2014: Clary Lake iced-in

Clary Lake was completely frozen over the morning of November 29th and well-below freezing temperatures all day undoubtedly added to the thickness of the ice coating. A lite dusting of snow coated some pre-existing ice the night before, as the cam picture at left shows. I was going to post this yesterday but David Hodsdon thought we should wait to see if the ice survives today’s temperatures at or above 40°. If so I guess we can consider it iced-in for the duration. David Hodsdon has been keeping track of Clary ice-in and ice-out dates for the past dozen or so years.

It’s too soon to tell if we’re going to get ice worth skating on. Only about 1 year out of 3 does the lake freeze over smoothly enough and stay snow free long enough to provide for good skating. And when the conditions are right for skating you need to get out and enjoy it because it won’t last long. Here’s a video I took back in December 2010 when conditions were just about as good as they get. It features me on camera and my wife Margaret pushing a chair (which is how most of us older folks ought to be skating anyways):

I’ll post a few more when I get a chance.