Carlin Lake Association

Merry Christmas to All

         

Have a happy holiday this week with loved ones, your family and friends.

Then, remember the Carlin Lake party on Saturday eve, December 27th,  5 PM onward, at Mary and Warren Watkins'. 

And, please let the Watkins know in advance how many people will attend, and whether you plan to bring an appetizer or a dessert.     Their email:   [email protected]   or local phone 686-2212.  

It's usually lots of fun, so hope you are able to make it, for this annual holiday event!

The Carlin Lake blog will be taking a Christmas vacation for the next week or so.  I will plan to be back in 2009 with some photos from the party. 

 

 

Thirteenth Tale: January 6th

 

If you have time between now and our book club meeting on Tuesday, January 6th, here are a couple of links to give some ideas about our book of the month.

Click in to see discussion questions and some reviews of the book.

Bits and pieces

The news from the lake is pretty modest, as there aren't many of us here right now.  We need you to arrive between Christmas and New Year's, and fill us in on your news.

Here's what we know, some fact and some supposition--guess you will have to decide which is which.

1) John Smith, playing for the Iowa Energy in Des Moines, has suffered an injury and is temporarily on injured reserve.  He reports that he is starting to feel better, and hopes that he can be back with the team soon.

2) Chuck Hayes has submitted papers to run again for the Presque Isle Town Board this spring--showing his level of commitment to community service.  (And, maybe a touch of masochism.)

3) Rumor has it that Jim Stocker, a life-long resident of Illinois, has considered a run for the IL Senate seat vacated by Mr. Obama.  But, he is discovering that, even by using all the money he collects for Carlin Lake boat landing keys, he doesn't have enough to get the governor to look his way!

4) Duanne and Ann Swift are unique at Carlin Lake, in that they responsibly continue to head to work, even on icy, snowy, 20 below zero days.   They say they do look over their shoulders with some envy, though, thinking of their retired neighbors still lollygagging around in their pjs.

5) The snoopy newslady hasn't talked to Bob Rider, but sees worker's trucks in his drive, so guess his new house is not totally completed.  In related news, Sue and Richard Straus report they can take only a few days at a time in their dusty, chilly, and noisy being-remodeled home.

Please, get here soon---you can see we need an infusion of new news!

More snow info

When we lived down south, we always checked in on Adam Johnson's Skyview Lodge website for the most accurate news about snow conditions in Presque Isle.

Now, Linda Davis clues us that the Skyview has a new, updated web page but still with Adam's updates on snow  (see the top left column on that page.)

http://www.skyviewlodge.com/

Adam tells us that even his web designer couldn't believe how many hits the site got in the first 24 hours, well into the thousands.  Most were from the southern part of the state and the Chicago metropolitan area, as expected, but most interesting, many hits came from Iraq.   Adam was delighted to see that soldiers serving in that hot, sandy place are apparently checking in to see about the snow cover back home.  When I hear "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas," I will think of soldiers there being homesick for snow.

(It is still minus 21 degrees here this morning, at 9:30 am--but it does as though the sun may show itself.)

Monday morning

OK--I know I said I was not going to write about the weather all the time, but the past 24 hours have been pretty interesting---and it sounds like that's true all through the midwest, too.

We had a beautiful, heavy snow all Sunday morning--probably 6-8", but definitely enough to plow or blow away.   In the afternoon there was a little drizzle, and the temp climbed to 34 degrees, warm enough that as it got dark, snow melt was dripping off the roof. 

This morning, our thermometer reads 10 degrees below zero, and a good wind gusts through the trees.  The local school is closed and we are pulling out our long underwear.  

There's still a week before winter officially arrives, isn't there?   Stay warm!

 

 

Snow information

I love the variety of weather in winter, and so will probably continue to send updates from here about what the weather is doing.   (Our thermometer read 10 below zero this morning, and now at noon is still only about 5 degrees.  It's supposed to be warmer tomorrow and Sunday.)

But, I don't mean to bore you either, and only repeat information that Gail Speer already has told you on her weather web site.   You probably already have it as one of your internet "favorites."

http://home.centurytel.net/presque-isle-weather

So, I'm going to remind you of the link on her site called "Presque Isle Snow Information."    And, when you click that link, you will see two interesting graphs---one is "Yearly Comparisons of Snow Depths" and the second is "Yearly Comparisons of New Snowfall Amounts."

Presently, you will see that although we have about the same amount of snow on the ground as we have had in comparable Decembers, quite a bit more snow has fallen than we usually have by this date.   In other years, Gail's graph shows about 28" of snowfall, and this winter, shows that we have already had 44".  

It sounds as though wherever you are in Wisconsin or Illinois, you have some snow on the ground.   Enjoy!

Comparing water levels

Now that ice is on local lakes, we haven't thought as often about our water levels.

Gail Speer, the person who maintains Presque Isle weather information on the web, reports with info this fall about the two lakes she monitors, Presque Isle and Katinka.  She emails to say:

 

"As of Nov. 6, Katinka is almost one foot below the high water level, and is currently the lowest it has been all season.

"As of Nov. 6, Presque Isle Lake is about 1/3 foot below the high water level, and at its worst this summer, was about a half a foot below.

"As of Sept. 12, the blog reported that Carlin Lake was 2 and 1/4 feet down.

"So out of the 3 lakes, Carlin wins the 'biggest loser' award, and Presque Isle wins the 'least loser' award!"

 

I think she is awarding us an honor that we aren't excited to receive!

Of course Carlin is fed by seepage and rain run-off, and we know the ground water level is very low, thus less water is going into the lake.  I'm sure there are other factors, too, that I don't know about. 

Christmas Lights

Christmas lights, both in the house and outdoors, are especially welcome this month, as the days get shorter and shorter.  And, add to that a snowy forecast this week, with little sun, and we are definitely in a dark time of the year.

John Bates tells us that for the next 10 days, we experience the earliest sunsets of the year, at 4:14 PM.  This week, that gives us less than 9 hours of possibility for sunlight.

And by December 27th, we will be experiencing our latest sunrises, at 7:40 AM.  By the winter solistice on December 22nd, we will have only 8 hours and 39 minutes for the sun to possibly show itself.

For those of you who are further south now during December, it would be interesting to compare how much daily sunlight there is, just a few hours south.

Hunting season results

Local media, both TV and newspapers, are reporting that the deer population in the whole state, but especially in Oneida and Vilas Counties, is substantially down for the past hunting season.

Apparently hunters just didn't see deer out in the woods as they have before.  Across the state, kill numbers were down 20%, but in Vilas County, those numbers were down 53% for anterless deer, and 34% for bucks.  (Are you interested?   That means 990 does this year in Vilas compared to 2085 last year, and 928 bucks compared to 1404 last year.)

The DNR spokesman partially attributes these lower numbers to a more severe winter last year, including a long, cool spring causing fewer fawns to be born.   He says though that an increased number of predators did NOT affect the total numbers.  Even though wolves, bears, and coyotes may have been more visible, he doesn't think that they could be suddenly killing more deer than they have in other seasons.

Check your mailbox

 

The Carlin Lake newsletter fall (winter?) edition was mailed from Presque Isle yesterday, Wednesday, so should be in your mailbox any time now.    

Note that the envelope also contains your invitation to the holiday party and your annual dues notice ( What a small price to pay for belonging to this great organization!)

You will probably notice that you should cross out the last two paragraphs of the logging article on page 2.   I re-wrote the article after the good news arrived from the DNR about maintaining buffer zones, and you can see that my computer failed (those darn machines!) to delete the last two paragraphs from the former article.