Calling all Arts and Crafts People

CALLING ALL ISLAND LAKE

ARTISTS AND CRAFTSMEN

WE ARE IN THE PROCESS OF ORGANIZING THE FIRST ISLAND LAKE ARTS

AND CRAFTS SHOW.  WE HAVE A LOT OF TALENTED PEOPLE AROUND

OUR LAKE.  A VENUE TO SHOW AND SELL OUR WORK IS BEING

PLANNED FOR THE LABOR DAY WEEKEND OF THIS YEAR.

Any questions or suggestions

Please call or email Clare Hulett at:

989-685-3974

or

clareh@m33access.com

2010 spring Meeting

April 20, 2010

Dear Island Lake Property Owners,

The Island Lake Pro0perty Owners Association will hold their annual spring meeting on Saturday, May 29, 2010 at 11:00 A.M. at Trinity United Methodist Church, 125 W. Main St., Rose City.  We hope this will be a convenient location for all of our members.  The directors will meet at 9:30 A.M.

We have had a mild winter at Island Lake.  The ice left the lake one month earlier than usual.  All indications are we will have a nesting pair of swans this year.

The economy is starting to show signs of improvement.  Several homes around the lake have been sold, and we have some new neighbors.  Hopefully, these new property owners will become an active part of our association. 

The annual July boat parade will be held on Saturday, July 3.  Clare Hulett will host this event again, and we are sure she will do her usual great job.

We have several minor by-law changes to be and read and voted on at this meeting. 

If you would like to receive your mailings via e-mail, please send your address to Mary Lou at Cherry_bmj@hotmail.com.

I look forward to seeing all of you on May 29^th.

Sincerely,

Larry Sills, President

Water quality data 2005-2009

Water quality data for the past few years:
I test for temperature which controls for the other tests.
pH which show how acid or alkaline the water is.

Nitrates which looks at pollution or organic wastes leaching into the water.
Dissolved Oxygen which looks at the saturation of oxygen in the water, this is what the fish breath.
Biological Oxygen Demand, this is how much decomposition is occurring in the lake, or in other words "how is the muck competing with the fish for oxygen.

Phosphate, phosphate is usually the limiting factor in plant and algae growth. Phosphate is naturally occurring but also comes from fertilizer and cleaning products. Often it leaches from septic fields to a lake from excess cleaning products down the drain.

I am only including water quality data for selected years to show trends . I am also only including data taken mid summer around July 4th.

sorry blogspot is not good at columns.


                      2005 2007 2009
water temp        72  75      73

pH                     8.5   8.5   8.5


nitrate               .02      0      .1


Dissolved oxygen7.5mg/l 8.0 mg/l 7.9mg/l


phosphate       3mg/l  0mg/l   2. mg/l

In general water was very clear with little turbidity. All indicators show a very healthy lake.

Tests of biological oxygen demand (BOD) were varied depending on how stirred up the lake was. The muck decomposes and uses oxygen. This is good to remove the muck but lowers oxygen levels. Low oxygen levels can effect fish and other animals.
Fish populations look healthy even with the minimum habitat. A few logs and brush piles afford good areas for our fish populations. (Some brush debris under a dock will allow little fish protection to grow up to be big fish.)

A concern was the trace amounts of phosphate. this is usually caused by fertilizer runoff or use of phosphate high cleaning solutions. Please refrain from fertilizing lawns but if you must, use no phosphate fertilizer. This is indicated by a 0 in the center number of the fertilizer (20-0-20) . Phosphate encourages algae blooms. Many cleaning solutions contain high amounts of phosphate too. When washing boats/docks use low phosphate cleaners or wash boats up on the bank.

New Verizon Changes

Just got off the phone with Verizon, my land line carrier at the lake. Every winter I put my phone on vacation. Usually there is a charge to start it up and a monthly fee.But to my surprise they have finally got it right. Now there is no fee and no monthly charge. You must use the phone 90 days out of the year. This is good news. I was about to cancel my phone service but this makes it ok to keep a phone at the cabin.
UPDATE:  there are no Verizon charges but still some taxes so it's still about 6.00 a month

Great "New" Restaurant

Searching for a restaurant in the area is always a challenge. Sure there are great places for bar food (Hill Top, New Faull Inn,) but hard to find anything more than that. I like the food at the Willow but even that has seemed to slip. We saw an ad in the Ad Liner for O'Brien's in Mio at the Songbird Motel. The Menu looked pretty ambitious so we thought we would give it a try. It's pretty low profile, we must have driven by it a hundred times and not noticed it.
Run by a family who operated restaurants in Colorado and Key West we were met by Betty the owner. They opened about two years ago.
We then had a Great meal. Good bread with three butters, then Chicken Noodle soup, then a relish tray with cole slaw , pickles, sauerkraut,and more. For the main course I had Garlic Chicken and Elaine had ribs. Both came with great potatoes.
We also splurged and had Key Lime Pie. By the way they serve good wine too.
Bottom line good service, good food , good vibe at the Songbird Motel.

Rain Rain and More Rain

October has to be the wettest month in memory here at the lake.

With it, most of the leaves have come down, especially the maple and the poplar. The sturdy red and whit oaks hold on well into November.

Many on the conifers have dropped needles, too. Some say there is even a chance of snow today but it is more likely rain. The lake level is up noticeably and the outlet is flowing freely.

This may be the prettiest time of the year

Island Lake in October. The lake is calm. The sky is blue. The trees are alive with color.

And in 2 weeks I close for another season and dream about spring.

The Muskrat of Island Lake

I have heard stories about a beaver that patrols the shoreline in the early morning and at nightfall, but I had never seen it. I was skeptical, as there was no evidence of any beaver activity in the surrounding areas.

This morning I saw what must have been the beaver, as the tail working its way through the water sure seemed like a beaver's tail, but then he climed out of the water and onto the beach, and I could see that, out of the water, the tail was long and flat but not so wide as a beaver's. He was smaller, too, but the water mammal appearance is easily confused with that of his look alike.

With fewer people here at this time of the year, the wildlife seems less shy about letting themselves be seen in open spaces, and it is a treat for those of us who remain, who enjoy seeing them.

Swan Lake

There is a congregation of swans at the west end of the lake this week, sometimes as many as 12 and more often half that amount, and the fussing and fighting is loud and frantic. I suppose it is a territorial war with the two juveniles who claimed Island Lake in 2009, fighting off their siblings and potential rivals to the space. Now is the time to collect quills, as white feathers abound.

The leaves are turning nicely and are beginning to fall more regularly. The rain and cold of the last week seems to be coming to an end, and there is a break we all can look forward to as the week end approaches. Those who held off closing cottages may be doing it this Columbus Day week end. As I walk around the lake, I keep an eye on the cottages and all seems to be well. There is an open window here and a light left on there, but all seems to be in order.

Roger & I have had the pleasure of being a part of the Island Lake neighborhood since May of 1999. We have made many new friends and spend many relaxing week-ends with the wild inhabitants of the area. On our many hikes we've viewed deer, turkey, fox, chipmunks, squirrels, Swan, Pileated woodpeckers, Downy woodpeckers, Chickadees, Nuthatches, Blue Jays, Crows, Bald Eagles, Hummingbirds, Perch, Bluegills, Mushrooms of all shapes, colors and sizes, Lady Slippers, Triliums (just to name a few of my favorites). We've also been visited by the resident Knome who spent a weekend boating, sunning and maybe drinking a little too much... All-in-all our little piece of the planet is a great place to unwind and breath-in the clean forest air.