Robert Frederico Antognoni Obituary

Robert Frederico Antognoni
1925 – 2015
JEFFERSON – Robert Frederico Antognoni, 89, died peacefully at his home on Clary Lake, surrounded by his loving family on Wednesday, March 4, 2015. Robert was born on Aug. 22, 1925, in Concord, Mass., to Secondo and Ersilia Fraticelli Antognoni, who had both immigrated to the United States from Fano, Italy. Continue reading…

Friends are invited to memorialize Bob and his life at Staples Funeral Home in Gardiner. Visiting hours will be 4-7 p.m., Sunday, March 8. A Mass will be celebrated at 11 a.m. on Monday, March 9, at St. Denis Catholic Church, North Whitefield. A reception to commemorate his life will immediately follow the service at the St. Denis Parish Hall across the street.

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.

January 2015 water level chart archived

And so we come to the end of another month. I’ve archived the first chart of 2015 in a new album “2015 Water Level Charts.” Due to heavy rains in December combined with frozen ground, significant runoff brought the lake level up to 24″ below the top of the dam at the start of the month, right where it would be this time of year if the water level order were being followed. The water level has steadily fallen since the 1st of the year and ended the month at 46″ below the top of the dam.

Like last year, I have decided to halt further water level measurements for the month of February. Weather permitting I’ll resume water level measurements on or about March 1st.

14 January 2015: More photographs added to the Chase family archive

Jane Chase came across 5 old photographs showing repairs being made to the dam back in the fall of 1993. I’ve scanned them and added them to the Chase Family Archive. Art Enos subsequently bought the dam in February of 1995. I recall when the work was being done, the mason Ron Bourassa was a friend of mine and I remember stopping by a few times to watch what was happening. One of the new photographs shows Steve Schlosser who was Ron’s tender on that job. The 5th & last photograph shows someone removing sand bags from the stream img_1595__medium_ with a backhoe while dismantling the coffer dam that had been constructed at the narrow gauge railroad abutments. Some of those sand bags are still in the stream as can be seen in the photograph at left, taken by me in the Spring of 2012.

I’d like to thank Jane (again!) for providing these photographs and encourage anyone with old photographs taken on or around Clary Lake to please send them to me.

11 January 2015: Winter recreation opportunities abound

Recreation opportunities abound on Clary Lake this winter, apparently. While the rest of us were ice skating down in the west end of the lake, David Knight was out doing donuts on his riding lawn mower with his faithful companion Megabyte:

David Knight and Megabyte out for a spin

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.

01 January 2015: Ice Skating

A couple of skaters cruised by the Clary webcam this morning. It’s a chilly 17° out there making for some “hard” ice but fortunately there’s no wind. I’m going to head out myself in a few minutes and give it a whirl. The ice looks pretty good for the most part, but there appears to still be some open water over on the north shore out in front of the Duncan and Enos properties so if you head out skating, beware.

Incidentally, I’ve added a Winter 2015 photo album.

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.

21 December 2014: Two days in the life of Clary Lake, December 2014

Having (almost) nothing better to do for the last few days than put wood in the stove and read, I decided to make a time lapse video with pictures from the Clary Web Cam. The time period covered is December 14th and 15th from 5:00 AM in the morning till 6:58 PM at night with a picture being taken every 2 minutes. It’s pretty exciting stuff. For example, about 12:30 PM on the first day, a water drip runs down the glass and when night falls, you can see a couple of lights on in houses on the other side of the lake 🙂

The technical stuff: the video is composed of 838 pictures being viewed at 24 pictures (frames) per second. That works out to just a hair over 34 seconds of riveting video excitement. You’re welcome 🙂

08 December 2014: Ice-In date of December 6th finally determined

The official 2014 ice-in date has finally been determined to be December 6th and I have updated the Clary Lake Ice-In and Ice-Out accordingly. While the lake was completely frozen over on the morning of November 29th, more than 1/2 of the lake melted off 2 days later when the temperature rose into above 40° for a couple of days, accompanied with some rain on top of that. Since then the lake has struggled to completely freeze over again until last Saturday morning when it finally seized up tight. Since then it’s put on quite a bit more ice. It was only 5° this morning as the cam pic at left will attest.

The ice isn’t the greatest for skating this year and the weather coming in tomorrow (snow, sleet, freezing rain) isn’t likely to make it any better. We only get really good ice 1 year out of 3 or 4. Here’s another video I found from December 2010 to show you just how good it can get:

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.

27 November 2014: Happy Thanksgiving from the Clary Lake Association

Happy Thanksgiving everyone 🙂 I went out this morning and thawed out the Clary Webcam which was operational, but snow-covered. I thought I’d post a picture of what the lake looks like this morning. At the top of my list of things to be grateful for today is that we still have electricity (and internet) after last night’s snow storm. This means we will be able to bake the turkey we’ve been defrosting for the past 3 days and not have to resort to sitting down to a turkey made out of hotdogs:

I don’t know about you, but I’d sit down to a bowl of Cheerios for Thanksgiving Dinner before I’d resort to a turkey made of hotdogs. Know what I mean?

Be well, stay warm, and be careful if you’re traveling today.

19 November 2014: A little ice around the edge of the lake

Skim ice!

For the first time this fall that I’m aware of, the lake has a little skim ice around the edges this morning. I hadn’t thought the water had cooled off enough to freeze because I was seeing lake-effect warming just the other day. I guess it is ready to freeze up! I remember years ago ice skating over Thanksgiving. I wonder if I’ll get to do that this year? According to our ice-in, ice-out records which go back to 2001, The earliest the lake has fully frozen over was back in 2002, on November 29th though last year it froze over on November 3oth.

16 November 2014: Clary Lake Association eligible for donations through AmazonSmile

The Clary Lake Association is happy to announce that they are now eligible to receive donations at no cost to you in the form of a small percentage of your purchases on AmazonSmile . For those of you who have never heard of AmazonSmile (I hadn’t until a few days ago), it’s simply another way to shop at Amazon.com with the difference that anything you buy on Amazon.com you can buy on AmazonSmile and Amazon will donate 0.5% of the purchase price to the charity of your choice! We of course would hope that you select the Clary Lake Association as your preferred charity, but you are free to select any charity you wish. All you need is an Amazon.com account.

You’ll notice a new AmazonSmile banner over on the sidebar, just to the right (under What’s New”) just like the image at the top of this post. When you click on that banner image you’ll be directed to smile.amazon.com pre-configured with the Clary Lake Association’s ID so you can just start shopping. You can also share that link with your friends and colleagues so they too can contribute to the Association:

http://smile.amazon.com/ch/01-0495730

Now, 0.5% doesn’t amount to a lot of money on any given sale (only 50 cents on a $100 purchase), and our user base at present is rather small but if you use it, and you ask your family and friends to use it, over time, it can add up to real money. I have the distinction of being the first person to use AmazonSmile to contribute to the Clary Lake Association; earlier today I ordered a linquini attachment for my Marcato Atlas pasta machine, something I’ve been wanting for a long time. It cost $39.95 and the sale resulted in a $0.19 donation to the Association 🙂

Remember, it costs you nothing to contribute to the Clary Lake Association through AmazonSmile.

For more information about AmazonSmile check out their About AmazonSmile page.

11 November 2014: DEP issues Lake Elevation Survey

The Department of Environmental Protection has released an Elevation Survey for Clary Lake dated October 28th conducted by CES, Inc. , a consulting engineering and surveying firm with offices in various cities around Maine. The field work for the survey was conducted in the vicinity of the State boat launch on October 14th and refers to engineering work completed back in 2002 during the construction of the boat launch. The elevations on the survey are referenced to the NAVD88 elevation datum and are based on GPS measurements.

Clary Lake Elevation Survey

Special Condition 4 of the Clary Lake water level order required the dam owner to retain the services of a licensed professional land surveyor to establish the historical normal high water line of Clary lake. This survey was to have been completed and submitted to the Department by June 2nd of this year. Since the dam owner failed to complete the work as required, the Department of Environmental Protection has done so. This is a welcome development.

The survey concludes that the crest of the dam has an elevation of 151.17′ (NAVD88) and that the highest observed stain line on a rock in the vicinity of the boat launch has an elevation of 151.2′ (NAVD88). Thus, the survey has concluded that the historical normal high water line of Clary Lake is the same elevation as the top of the dam.