DLPOA 2011 Annual Meeting and Picnic

Desert Lake Property Owners’ Association

Annual General Meeting: Sunday July 31^st, 2011

Minutes of the Meeting

-Call to order at 10.10 – Angus Ross – approximately 55 attendees

-Executive present --- Angus Ross, Mary Lapeer, Peter Hodgson, John Bonner, John Sherbino

-Angus welcomed our Guest Speaker Kim Goodman from the Center for Sustainable Watersheds and councilors McDougall and Vandewal

-Howard Wintel motioned acceptance of the agenda, seconded by Lucille Groll – carried

-Reviewed minutes of 2010 annual general meeting, motion for acceptance from Peter Hodgson, seconded by Jane Robinson – carried

-Matters pertaining to minutes – none

-Treasurer’s Report - Membership down slightly (38 plus 4 Honorary)
Income down slightly year over year ($1295 in 09/10 and $1096 in 10/11
Total Assets up from $43,075 to $44334

-Auditor’s Report – Steve Maybury indicated that ‘All is in order’

Motion by John Sherbino to accept the Treasure’s report as presented, seconded by Howard Wintle --- carried

-President’s Report
Rick Paudyn and Judy Curtain have resigned their executive positions

2011/2012 Executive
President – Angus Ross
Past President – John Sherbino
Vice President – TBD (Acting Mary Lapeer)
Secretary – John Bonner
Treasurer – Mary Lapeer
Directors – Peter Hodgson, Don Robinson

We need to promote a program to encourage ex-members to stay associated

-letters concerning high water levels have been sent to Fortis and the Conservation Authority. Fortis have responded that current spring levels are not exceptional

-Lake Management Plan – current direction is to complete the work that has been started

-consider hiring a planner who will give us an opinion on residential/commercial properties on the lake with a view to a comprehensive lake plan covering all aspects of care

-Kim indicated the Center could work with us to create a shoreline inventory of all site and subsequent Shoreline Action Checklist and recommendations and a complete schedule of work for what we expect

-motion to authorize an initial expenditure of $3000 to start the process, and accept additional tax deductable donations from the membersip made by Elaine Harvey, seconded by Rosalie Wintle ---- carried

-Angus advised the attendees that we need a volunteer to lead the Lake Management System Program, and that if anyone was interested, to contact him or John S.

-Rob Canvin indicated that he had maps from previous shoreline inventories

-after further discussion concerning Fortis actions (high water levels) that are potentially harming the lake, Lucille made a motion that we obtain a professional opinion regarding lake water levels on overall health of the lake, and impact of Fortis maintaining high levels above the normal acceptable high water levels

Motion was not seconded or voted on, however it was agreed that the executive should discuss at future meetings and take forward if deemed appropriate.

-Angus indicated that a planner (Bob Clark) had been engaged to look at impact of expansion of Commercial properties on the lake

-a councillor indicated that a new Hazardous Waste dump site had opened on Keeley Road and is open every Thursday

-councillor MacDougall extended an invitation for anyone of the executive or members to attend the weekly council meetings.

-Angus thanked the Canvins for their hospitality in hosting the annual meeting once again

-Howard Wintle made a motion to close the meeting, seconded by Robin Turkington – carried

Meeting Adjourned at 12.10 PM and a pot luck lunch was enjoyed by all

Richardson Mine

Ron Peterson discovered this interesting information about the Richardson Mine which is located at the end of Deyo's bay.

From the Department of Mines publication "Feldspar", by Hugh S Spence, #731, 1932.

Caterpillars

Here is some information that John Bonner dug up on the current crop of caterpillars that are busy at work on our trees.

After visiting Frontenac Park, John sent the following note to Corina Brdar at Ontario Parks.

I have had a cottage on Desert lake since 1975, and have suffered through Gypsy moths and tent caterpillars, but have never seen anything this late in the summer that attacks Oak trees. The ground around our cottage is covered with green partially eaten oak leaves and there have been hundreds of caterpillars for the last 2+ weeks.

I stopped into Frontenac Park and actually saw several around the building, but the staff had no knowledge of the beasts, and recommended that I contact you for some identification information.

I have attached a couple of pictures, and would appreciate any info you can provide me concerning what they are, and what if anything can be done to contain them next year.

Corina responded with the following.

Interesting. Those guys at Frontenac think I know everything. What I don’t know is moths, and that’s what these are a caterpillar of. Moths are incredibly diverse (there are hundreds in Ontario), and many of them eat trees as caterpillars, including the caterpillars that are native to Ontario. I get updates on tree pests and diseases from a colleague and tried looking up some of the known oak pests that have been abundant recently in our part of Ontario, but no luck. I looked through my caterpillar field guide – nothing. Then I googled “oak caterpillars” and came up with this, which you may enjoy:
http://magickcanoe.com/blog/2007/03/22/finding-caterpillars/ (page 3)

Apparently it’s a red-humped oakworm, which seems like an appropriate name.

It’s not unusual for the various species of insects that feed on trees to go through cycles and be more abundant some years than others – it all depends on what’s happening in the ecosystem. Our native trees have co-evolved with the various insects that feed on them, so they generally don’t have a serious impact when they go through little population bursts. It’s when something is out of balance that problems happen – like when there is a caterpillar outbreak the same year as a bad drought, or if an alien species like emerald ash borer gets introduced.

Additional information came from Carolyn Bonta of MNR.

I'm printing up page 4 of the Forest Health newsletter (link below) to post in the Park Office breezeway, and I'll also update the whiteboard, as I'm sure a lot of people are wondering about these little critters. www.foca.on.ca/xinha/plugins/ExtendedFileManager/demo_images/Forest_Health_Update_Nov_2010.pdf (page 4)
Good to know that red-humped oakworms are a native species and not an invasive pest; it also sounds like their outbreaks aren't as regular as those of e.g. tent caterpillars.

Have a look at the two references. They are quite interesting.

The Old Log Cabin

Photo by Robin Turkington

In 1840 Jeremiah Page , reputed to be the original settler of the Desert Lake area, at 18 years of age, boarded a ship from England and sailed west. En route he met his 16 year old wife-to-be and together they headed north from Kingston (stopping temporarily to work on a farm at Railton) ultimately building their log cabin two miles off the Bedford Road on Crown Land.

In 1985 we purchased a few acres from Leslie Page, the great, great grandson of Jeremiah Page, and commenced to build our log cabin on Desert Lake .

We had seen an advertisement for an island for sale on the north end of the lake so we contacted the real estate agent for directions and confidently set off to find it . Three quarters of an hour later en foot along a primitive cottage road the only sign of water we’d seen was a small beaver lake which we assumed even an optimistic real estate agent would not claim as waterfront. The next day he drove us up to the property, and after stumbling through the bush we finally glimpsed Desert Lake. Lengthy discussions with the Township and the adjacent farmers over right of way and even longer discussions with MNR regarding culverts ensued and we finally signed the deed eighteen months later.

The next challenge was to encourage the building inspector to struggle through bush and to wade across the opening between the island and the mainland and approve our site. A young adventurous female Dept. of Health, inspector would only consent to visit the property in a canoe.

Robin felled 30 tall pines and we hired Wilbert Rose , the King of cottage road construction to build the road and put in the septic system.

Selection of the cottage type was the next step.

About this time we heard about a professor from Renfrew, Dick Trainor, who was dismantling abandoned pine log houses and reconstructing them on other sites. We visited an available house in Quebec before it was taken down, took pictures and learned the history of the original family who had built it.

The price was settled upon including delivery of the entire house to our site (in pieces) and for an extra fee he would “build” the cabin by stacking the logs up on our foundation, This turned out to be a smart move since each log weighed over 200 lbs. and doing it ourselves would have been a daunting task..

A local , Joe Bowes constructed the forms and Robin and a friend borrowed a cement mixer and poured the footings. The cement block truck negotiated our mile narrow long winding hilly road and delivered the blocks. It was a great relief to see him exit safely.

The I-beam was installed and the underlay floor and pine floors laid. Dick Trainor then arrived with his 15 year old son and a young friend and with the help of Roy Abrams from Verona spent a week stacking up the logs.

A local carpenter put up the second floor. We spent an hour or more deciding on the colour of the shingles for the roof . An activity which was a bit fruitless as after a week neither of us could remember the exact shade.

A sand blaster came from Oshawa to clean up the inside walls after which Robin reconfigured the openings for the windows and installed them, and laid the pine floor upstairs.

Jeremiah’s original cabin naturally had only outdoor plumbing as was usual in those days but we decided to depart from tradition and installed a bathroom. This meant that the upstairs design had to be changed which meant an alteration in the stair’s location . Mark Callaghan , a carpenter on Canoe Lake Road suggested a location for the stairs and put them in.

The pink insulation was stuffed between the log spaces (Jeremiah’s was mud and moss) and we contacted the Sydenham High School shop teacher to suggest a student to help us with the mixing cement and external chinking.

Because the insulating properties of these 1 foot logs is so good, we have never got around to doing the inside chinking of the cabin .In addition, electric baseboard heating was installed but has never been turned on after the initial test as the cabin is warm in winter with the heat supplied by a catalytic type airtight stove.

There have been many additions over the years; the latest being a well put in to make winter camping a more comfortable experience.

Would Jeremiah or any of his six children identify with the old style homestead? At least probably from the outside. Maybe.

Would we do it again? Well there was a tremendous amount of work involved since we either did the work or contracted it out. Perhaps just as well we did not examine our birth certificates too closely back in 1985.

Robin and Nancy Turkington

Bedford Mining Alert Meeting

Bedford Mining Alert

Invites you to our

12^th Annual General Meeting

Attend this meeting:

Protect the value of your property and the environment.

“Why BMA continues to raise concerns”

To be held

10:00 am Saturday August 6, 2011

at

The Bedford Town Hall

(1381 Westport Road approximately 8 km east of Godfrey)

Featured guests:

Officials from the Ministry of Northern Development, Mines & Forestry

discussing the Mining Act Modernization:

Clive Stevenson, Provincial Mining Recorder

&

Robert Merwin, Executive Director of the Mining Act Modernization Secretariat

Current conditions:

• There are over 30 active mining claims in Bedford district held by Cardinal Exploration Inc.
• These claims were previously held by Graphite Mountain Inc.
• Claimholders must carry out exploration/assessment in order to keep these claims active
• The majority of claims were staked in the 1980’s
• Claims can be kept active by completing work on one claim and applying credits to other claims
• Many of these claims have been given extensions by MNDM&F to perform work and to complete and file exploration reports.

Questions arising:

• How does the Mining Act support and promote exploration in Bedford?
• Why should you be concerned about exploration on mining claims in Bedford?

• Will the Ministry continue to grant extensions and relief from forfeiture?
• Will the new regulations change this situation?
  

Lawn Fertilizer Advice

More information is available at http://www.zeropzeroworries.ca/

An even better idea is not to fertilizer your lawn if it is anywhere near a lake or river. (I am not sure what the definition of “anywhere near” should be.)

Problems Caused by High Water Levels

John Sherbino was the first member of our group to recognize the impending problem.

I received a call today (Good Friday and Passover no less!) from Murray Hall of FORTIS in response to my call asking about water level control.

He told me that they are keeping the maximum flow possible into and out of our watershed lakes. Over the next several days in expectation of further rain they will be adjusting the logs at Canoe and Kingsford in an attempt to (at the very least) keep the levels no higher than they are now. He observed that the levels in our lakes and in Devil and Buck are near the Max on record.

This might be good to post as the M Creek banks are overflowing and I'll bet that some of the fixed docks are in trouble.

Over the next few weeks there were many reports of damaged docks, missing equipment, etc.

 --- . ---

I thought I should let you know that our dock is missing this spring!

It is a large one from Rideau Docks with an 8' x 16' floating section that connects to the shore by a ramp, with metal posts at the shore end. We have had it since 1999, and this year moved it around to our beach area because of ice damage occasionally over the years.

When I was out at the lake this week, I was shocked to see that it was gone. My daughter has taken the boat out and thus far can't find it.

So, we are hoping that you might be able to put the word out that if someone finds a dock hanging around that it is ours!

It is bizarre that it could have been taken away in the ice, but the ropes used to tie it up are torn.

Don MacNaughton

 --- . ---

I also have a fixed dock. It was still there when I checked it yesterday, although one of the supports it rests on was shifted to the side.

Don Robinson

  --- . ---

We have the tops of two docks floating  against the shore one between our cottage and Pierce, and another one down closer to Roy Martin's old place. The top has a herringbone pattern. 

I believe my floating dock is still tied to the shore. Hopefully I will get up next weekend to connect it.
Water was too high a few weeks ago to connect then.

John Bonner

 --- . ---

My floating dock was missing and found in front of George and Margaret Hoekstra's cottage in the north part of the lake, a very unusual path. I believe the extra high water and quite severe winds we had at the end of April combined to affect docks and other land features. Several large trees on our point were blown over as well.

Richard Paudyn

 --- . ---

I may have located your dock - there's one ( or part of one) between Lovets and mine ( Pryce ). I originally thought that it might belong to Snug Harbour but it might be yours. I've never seen the water this high and I didn't put my aluminum one in since it would have been underwater. 

Graham Pryce

  --- . ---

John Bonner has it tied up at his dock!

Rob Canvin

  --- . ---

We are next door to the MacNaughton's and apparantly our fixed dock is no longer fixed - it has come away from its cradle. It seems that this winter the water level and ice has done more damage to our dock than in any of the past 5 years we have been on Desert Lake. Do you have any ideas for an alternative dock system?

David Groll

  --- . ---

My daughter and husband said that my dock is not where it should be--maybe because of the very strong winds that occurred on Thursday -week before last.  There has been a lot of damage in area of my home--Sydenham.  If Lauren and Jeff see missing dock I will let you know.

Bev McNeill

 --- . ---

High Winds, approx April 28th, did all this damage after the ice was gone. As you can see, my dock is in three pieces with ropes holding on.

Got back to Canada 1.00am Friday morning and yesterday went up to the lake. I knew that the lake level was high and evidently there were very, very high winds Wednesday/Thursday and many trees came down. On your property you have lost your dock, I think to ice movement, and you have some tree damage as you can see from the photographs. Additionally you have one big fallen tree across your lane just past where your property opens up. 

John Sherbino suffered more damage, but not to any property. Three or four large pines were toppled, the biggest, down by the creek, was about 75 feet high. All the lower part of his property was also extensively flooded as was Joanne and Sherrri's property. I understand that Rob Canvin had tree damage to some of the cottages but we didn't go into see.

Walt Allen &  Geoff Torrible

 --- . ---

Hi, Just letting you know that Vaughan Good has found a kayak. 

Sally, Desert Lake Resort

 --- . ---

I was at the lake today and we are missing the top of our dock. I did go out on the lake at the north end but did not find it.

If any of the dock tops are unclaimed please let us know and we will check them out. We are the north end of Desert Lake.

Jan Glenn

 --- . ---

Vaughan B Good ( close to Desert Lake Family resort) took a yellow canoe onto his shore, it had been floating around the lake for about 4 or 5 days.

Steve Maybury

 --- . ---

Took this picture yesterday. Maybe someone can identify there missing dock from it. Still between my place and Lovets. 

Graham Pryce 

 --- . ---

Well, we had a wet and windy Sunday afternoon on the lake but did find our dock at the north-east end of the lake, about 3.5 km from where it was supposed to be! The ramp is still embedded in a "beaver dam"

supply of debris - logs, dock boards, branches, leaves, etc! The ramp is still stuck, but we brought the rest "home". We'll retrieve the rest when the weather is nicer!

Don MacNaughton  

 --- . --- 

We were up at the cottage for the first time this year and discovered someone else's intact deck chair on our beach. If anyone is missing a chair please tell them to call me.

David Groll 

 --- . --- 

I noticed some pieces of a dock washed up on the sand in front of Urs Wyss’s place. He has no dock so this material has come from elsewhere on the lake.

Sandra Rutenberg

A stray dock showed up this spring.

We just noticed it a few weeks ago.  It is an all plastic black platform about 12x6 feet.  It is upside down and partially submerged.

It is about 30 feet west of our dock in Deyos Bay on the shore.  It is under some overhanging trees.

The rightful owner should come and grab it.

Keith Millar



We were wondering if anyone has reported missing a green FKE fiberglass canoe. We returned to our cottage on the West side of the lake a few days ago to find someone had tied it to our dock. So far no one has come by to claim it. If you are aware that some one is missing one would you please let us know. Thanks so much.

Anne and Bill Pierce

How Can You Help Protect Our Water?

Recent water research shows that, in general, there is a sufficient amount of good quality water (despite the occasional seasonal gaps or man-made problems) for most everything we want to do here in Eastern Ontario including maintaining a healthy aquatic environment. We know that water is in constant motion and that it occurs in many forms in our area. We learned that around 20% of the Mississippi-Rideau area is made up surface water of one kind or another. And that there is no guarantee that the regular replenishment of groundwater and lakes by seasonal rainfall and snowmelt will continue as it has in the past. We know that several different layers of government and many different government agencies have the responsibility to protect various aspects of our water supply and its quality.

So, in the face of all this water knowledge and responsibility, is there anything that one small Eastern Ontario family or even an individual can do to help protect our valuable supply of clean water?

Indeed there is. There are scores of tips about conserving our water supplies at home, school and office. They include fixing dripping taps, brushing your teeth with the water turned off and using the clothes and dish washers only when full.

It is all about reducing the unnecessary amount of water we use each day (more than 300 litres compared to Europe and Scandinavia at about half that per person per day) and not degrading or abusing the quality of our water by adding harmful substances. In other words, lower quantity and higher quality is the goal.

Here are the top three easy fixes around the house that would be big steps in the right direction…if you can accomplish these, Ontario will be well on the way to protecting our water:

• Make sure that your family’s septic system is functioning properly. Faulty/old/non-existent septic systems are one of the prime sources of contamination of surface and groundwater in our area. Call your municipality’s septic service provider (either the Health Unit, the municipality itself or the Conservation Authority) for advice on how to do it. This one step is the single best action you can take to protect water quality.

• Next time you replace that old toilet or shower head, take the opportunity to replace the dinosaur with a modern, new low-flow device. There are lots of models available and this one step will help reduce the quantity of water that your family consumes and flushes down the drain each day without any real hardship on your part.

• If you have property (especially near a lake or watercourse), plant a tree in May for each of your children for each of the next ten years. If you live in an apartment, urge the building owner to allow you to plant a few trees on the grounds. Trees are nature’s little environmental cleaning stations that purify the air and water, improve the soil, provide wildlife habitat, buffer wind and noise and they do it all for free for up to 80 years. Planting a tree is the single most effective all-around action you can take to ensure a healthy natural environment for the next generation.

For more information: Sommer Casgrain-Robertson

Co-Project Manager

Mississippi-Rideau Source Protection Region

1-800-267-3504 or 613-692-3571 ext 1147

sommer.robertson@mrsourcewater.ca