Browntail Moth Caterpillar
For those of you who are interested in learning more about Browntail moths (which should be pretty much all of you), the Midcoast Conservancy has finally posted the video of the program on Browntail Moths that they put on back on April 4th at the Edgecomb Eddy School. You’ll find a link to that video along with other useful information about these insect pests.
https://www.midcoastconservancy.org/browntail-moth-info-session/
For 10 years I’ve waited to see water flowing over the Clary Lake dam again. It’s finally come to pass, and I’m not tired of it yet. I took this video this morning and posted it to our Facebook page. Posting it here now.
For the first time in over a decade, the water level of Clary Lake is at the HWM and there is water going over the dam. No this isn’t an April Fools joke, here’s the video to prove it:
Here are some videos that I took back on 9 November 2018 showing the PCS crew opening up the original log sluice. With all the excitement at the time, I forgot to post them! Enjoy.
Cold! Very Cold! And fast! Very fast! I’d have taken more video but it was too cold! What great ice! There appears to be a solid 8″ to 10″ of ice.
Totally Staged Photo of George Fergusson posing at the gate. Colin Caissie actually did all the heavy cranking.
I had intended to post some news and pictures on the dam repairs before now but I have been out straight and only now, the day before Christmas, have I found the time to sit down and do it. Last Tuesday workers with PCS removed the concrete forms and pulled some sandbags. They came back the next day to clean up and load up the rest of their gear and materials, bringing to completion the initial repairs to the Clary Lake dam. That afternoon, Colin Caissie completed fabrication of a wrench to operate the gate, and we wasted no time in closing it. Part of the rush was the anticipated rain forecast for Friday: we really wanted to capture the runoff! Here are a few pictures from when we closed the gate, and a video of water flowing over the weir: Continue reading
Here are a couple of short videos of Rick Pease of PCS Specialty Contracting “shooting” gunite into the Clary Lake dam yesterday:
At a short hearing held today at 10 AM in Bangor at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Judge Michael Fagone granted the Trustee’s motion to sale the Clary Lake dam to the Clary Lake Association free and clear of the restrictive covenants under sections 363(F)(5) of the U.S. Bankruptcy code. Gone too is the Medius mortgage under 363(F)(2). Further, the Judge granted the Clary Lake Association Good Faith Protections provided by section 363(M) of the U.S. Bankruptcy code. The Judge declined to allow the immediate sale of the property so we will have to wait to take title to the Clary Lake dam in 14 days at the expiration of the appeal period. Should AQF or Richard Smith (or anyone else) decide to appeal today’s ruling, 14 days from today our attorney will simply file a motion to dismiss and <POOF> the appeal will disappear, thanks to the 363(M) Good Faith Protections. Continue reading
Oral arguments of the Final Sale Motion hearing took place today before U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Michael Fagone. Trustee Jeffrey Piampiano was represented by attorney Kaitlyn Husar, the Clary Lake Association [CLA] was ably represented by attorney Randy Creswell, and Richard Smith and Aquafortis Associates LLC [AQF] were represented by attorney Louis Carrillo. The Trustee and CLA were to receive 40 minutes combined to present their arguments in support of the Sale Motion, which time was to be split roughly equally between them. Attorney Carrillo was to be given 40 minutes to present his arguments supporting Smith’s and AQF’s objections to the Sale Motion. Finally, the Counsel for the Trustee was to be given 10 minutes for rebuttal. In fact, each party went over their time limits a little bit. Also present at the hearing representing the Maine DEP was Assistant Attorney General Scott Boak and co-counsel Kevin J. Crosman. The hearing started promptly at 10 AM and lasted about 2 hours. No ruling was issued today: after hearing the oral arguments, Judge Fagone took the matter under advisement and said he will issue his Decision and Order just as soon as he can. While I had hoped for a ruling from the bench today, the Judge was presented numerous cases to review and that was far more than he could be expected to do today.
I thought counsel for the Trustee and counsel for the CLA did a GREAT JOB of presenting their arguments, and I thought counsel for Smith and AQF was way out of his comfort zone did an incredibly lousy job of presenting his arguments, but don’t take my word for it, listen to the hearing audio and decide for yourself. Continue reading
President Malcolm Burson and my wife Margaret and I attended yesterday’s Sale Motion hearing. Other parties in attendance were Butch Duncan, Richard Smith and Paul Kelley, counsel for the Clary Lake Association Randy Creswell, Bankruptcy Trustee Jeffrey T. Piampiano represented by Kaitlyn M. Husar, Esq., Assistant Attorney Generals Scott Boak and Kevin Crosman representing the Maine DEP, and attorney Dennis Carrillo representing Richard Smith and AQF. Regrettably, Paul Kelley’s bankruptcy attorney J. Scott Logan was not in attendance. Continue reading
At the U.S. Bankruptcy Court hearing held yesterday afternoon in Portland, Judge Michael A. Fagone denied the Trustee’s Motion for Substantive Consolidation but approved the bid procedures and scheduled dates for the auction and the Sale Motion hearing. Sale Objections and competing bids are due by NOON on June 28, 2018. The auction will be held on June 28, 2018 at 2:00 pm at the Portland offices of Drummond Woodsum. The Sale Motion hearing will be held July 5, 2018 at 9:00 AM at the Bankruptcy Courtroom at 537 Congress Street.
Having the motion for substantive consolidation denied was not a setback to our plans to buy the dam. There are other, less extreme means to accomplish the same thing as substantive consolidation. The hearing was fascinating and covered a lot of ground. Here is an audio recording of the proceedings. It lasted almost 2 hours:
Besides the Trustee, the lawyers, and the legal assistants, the hearing was attended by Paul Kelley (with counsel) and Richard Smith (representing himself). The Judge has allowed Smith’s Objection to stand despite being filed late, but has not decided whether Aquafortis Associates LLC will require counsel or if it can represent itself. Butch Duncan was also at the hearing.
The story on Clary Lake by Maine Public Radio’s Susan Sharon aired on “Maine Things Considered” late this afternoon. If you missed it, not to worry: a transcript with audio and pictures has been posted on the Maine Public Radio website and Facebook Page:
ClaryCam2 is back in service! David Hodsdon has replaced the dead camera with a new one of the same make and model and we got it hooked up and connecting this afternoon. From the looks of it I’d say he hasn’t been keeping his shoreline mowed. You can just make out the State Boat launch on the right side of the photo. I think David is going to straighten the image just a bit if he hasn’t already.
You can see all 3 cameras on the Clary Lake Webcams page. Here’s the updated Remote Access information:
Realtime remote access is currently working for all 3 cameras. The username and password is the same: Username: guest Password: 123abc
Clarycam 1
For access with a browser: http://clarycam1.ddns.net:88/
For access with VLC: rtsp://guest:123abc@clarycam1.ddns.net:554/videoMain
Clarycam 2:
For access with a browswer: http://la9446.myfoscam.org:88/
For access with VLC: rtsp://guest:123abc@la9446.myfoscam.org:554/videoMain
Clarycam 3:
For access with a browser: http://clarycam3.ddns.net:89/
For access with VLC: rtsp://guest:123abc@clarycam3.ddns.net:555/videoMain
I was able to make a short video of the loon family today:
It’s not the greatest video but what the heck! They’re loon babies!
Here are a few pictures:
Here’s a video of Clary Lake ice out on April 13, 2017 made from images from Clarycam 2 and Clarycam 3. Technically the ice isn’t fully out yet, but for me from where I’m sitting it’s ALL GONE. As of this morning however, there was still quite a bit of very gray looking ice in the east end of the lake almost to the State boat launch. I fully expect it will be out before the end of the day now that the sun is getting up and the wind is picking up.
I would have included a segment from Clarycam 2 sitting down on David Hodsdon’s shore line, but it has stopped working. Too soon to say whether or when we’ll replace it, or with what. I’m actually a little disillusioned with these Foscam cameras: remote access to them is tedious, the proprietary software used to access and manage them is one step above garbage, and the browser plugin to view realtime video is no longer supported by any reputable web browser. I have only got it working by installing an Extended Support Release of Firefox. Unacceptable.
[UPDATE]: David Hodsdon has informed me that his camera is truly dead. He thinks is it still under warranty and is going to see about getting it repaired/replaced.
Incidentally, David sent me the image that I’m using as a header image on this post. He spent some time the other day waiting for just the right conditions to take the picture.
A little over a year ago I got this idea of assembling a year’s worth of webcam pictures into a video. Our webcams take a picture every two minutes from 4:00 AM until 10:00 PM and upload them to the server, so I simply modified the script that manages the webcam photos so as to archive all pictures taken at the top of the hour (i.e., 4:00, 5:00, 6:00, etc) in a separate directory for safe keeping. Then I forgot about it. Then a couple of days ago, I remembered it!
So here is the video. It covers 365 days from March 9, 2016 through March 9, 2017. There are a few days missing (including 3-13-16 through 3-15-16 which coincided with ice out last spring for some reason, and a couple of other days in the fall). I also decided to delete all the night-time photos, ending up with 4,651 pictures covering Clary Lake in all its glory, compiled into a video at a frame rate of 10/second. It is 7:45 long. Best viewed full screen with the sound on:
I’ve never ice boated on a snow-covered lake before. It was quite the experience. And fast. Very fast. And cold. Very cold. The boat actually belongs to my friend Brian who clocked one of his runs on the ice boat at 42.8 kph = 26.6 mph. Felt like we were flying! He was also trying out his homemade surf skier whatchamacallit, made from a pair of skis and a windsurfer sail. I didn’t try it.
My friend Damon Meyer was out and around in his light plane over the weekend and took a couple of nice aerial photographs of the Clary Mill and Clary Lake dam. You can see quite a bit of detail in them. I hope to catch a ride with him one of these days so I can get some more pictures and video of Clary Lake.
I’m not sure how fast I was going, but it sure felt like I was flying:
I’m guessing I hit 30+ mph on the final leg heading towards shore. Here’s a friend of mine going for a spin:
It’s been a fun couple of days on Clary Lake what with good ice and better weather. Today a friend of mine flew up from southern Maine in his Canard aeroplane to check out the ice boats on Damariscotta lake. On his way back he buzzed Clary Lake and took this video. I expected him so I went out to watch. If you look closely you can actually see me standing out on the ice along with a green lawn chair:
He made several passes over the lake. On his second one I got this video of him: