Carlin Lake Association

Carlin Tuesday morning, July 1st

 

What year did we hold our very first book club meeting?   What would be your guess for how many years our group has been meeting?    

 

If you guessed 2006, you are right.  That means that this coming Tuesday, July 1st, we will celebrate our eighth annual book club luncheon, and the start of our ninth year of reading and discussing.

That's hard for me to believe.  But I do have the master list on my computer of all the books we have read, and will plan to bring that along on Tuesday if you want to refresh your memory.

So, the start of our ninth year:   9:00 on Tuesday morning at Sue Straus' .   If you haven't let her know that you will be coming, please get her either by email or phone.

Men, enjoy your usual breakfast at Skyview, too.   You've had just as many breakfasts as we have book club discussions, I suppose.

 

Bears in the woods

 

In just a couple of days, I have heard more reports of bears than I did all last summer!

Marty Coonen, after grilling their chicken for supper last night, was surprised to see a bear sniffing around the corner of the house toward them.

Jim Luedtke encountered a big bear in the middle of Hwy P, near the entrance to Big Lake campground.   Jim estimates that it weighed around 400 pounds and stood as high as the hood on his truck.

And, guests at the Carlin Club saw bears in the same vicinity:   a mom and three cubs crossing the road.

A visitor (adult)  at Bill and Jeannie's this week heard snuffling and snorting in the woods nearby, and believed immediately that it could be only a bear.   Other family members described the shock on his face as he quickly returned to the house.  

So, keep your eyes and ears open when you are out and around!     ----If you have bear news, please let the rest of us know.

 

More about all these things at annual meeting July 26th

     

The  Carlin Lake Board of Directors held their spring meeting on Saturday, July 14th, hosted by Bob and Judy Ruch.   The board always meets in preparation for summer's annual meeting on the last Saturday of  July.   (Make sure your calendar is marked for Saturday, July 26th, at 9:30 am at Mary Watkins' home.)

All of these items were discussed at the meeting and will also be covered at that annual meeting.

    1) Treasurer Barbara LaPean presented the treasury's balance on hand.  She also prepared a budget for the coming year, which was approved by the board.

    2) Cecil Davis presented a thorough report from the fishing committee, prepared by Chair Richard Straus.   They talked about possible stocking of pan fish, about fish cribs, and about "catch and release" recommendations.

    3) Do you see bats swooping after mosquitoes after dusk?   Bat monitoring of our lake will take place again this summer.

    4) Ramona reported for the task force gathering information and action plans about the Norway Drive gravel pit.  They  surveyed our membership and are making recommendations based on information they have gathered.   Their report, followed by discussion, will constitute the program for the annual meeting.

    5) Danny LaPean reported for the nominating committee of Duanne Swift and Karen Hayes.   Election of new officers will be held at the July meeting.

    6) Remember the pontoon float scheduled for Saturday, July 12th at 4:00 pm.    And, consider if you would be willing to be a member of our social committee.  Volunteers will be invited at the annual meeting.

    7) The water quality committee will report about our continued excellent water quality and about our welcome increase in water level.  

    8) The board congratulated Duanne Swift for completing the training as a Master Naturalist, and Judy Ruch for her state-wide recognition as an Invader Crusader for her educational work to combat invasive species.

Thanks to the officers, board members, and volunteers of our association who work on our behalf and on behalf of Carlin Lake!     

 

New / Old sign for Carlin Club Lodge

 

Do any of you old-timers remember this sign?   Jim and Betsy Luedtke discovered it, stashed away behind other heavy items in storage.  

They are guessing it must have come from the 70's and 80's, maybe the heyday of Roland and Christel Maurer's Carlin Club.    (I realize I haven't heard the term rathskeller used much in the intervening years.)

Anyway, needing a new sign, JIm and Betsy decided nothing could be better than using an old and still-accurate sign to mark their historical restaurant and lodge. Here you see them today. dressed in their mosquito-combating gear,  working to get this heavy sign attached to two-by-fours and elevated so visitors can read it.

I think the sign is one more part of Carlin Lake history, and besides, it looks terrific!

 

And, we can be involved, too

 

Duanne's narrative about the Master Naturalist training continues below, by telling that each "graduate" has responsibilities after completing the program.  

Maybe we could help out with his project?  I'm thinking this topic could be one that may come up at the CLA annual meeting on July 26th.  Also, Duanne's last paragraph here tells how others may choose to contribute.

 

The Master Naturalist program has also just been completed at the North Lakeland Discovery Center, meeting one full day a week for six weeks.   After each of these training sessions,  master naturalists are literally told to “go forth and do good work” upon graduation.  

They are required to complete forty hours of volunteer service annually, as well as twenty hours of additional annual training in order to maintain certification. At the completion of the program, graduates are asked to select a topic for what is known as a “Capstone Project,” a longer-term effort carried out by each graduate.

So now you’re probably wondering what my project is… ok, ok, you twisted my arm. At the risk of sounding a bit self-serving, my project is entitled “Hear ‘em Sing.”

If I can raise $1500, some of which I already have, we will purchase two hearing assistance devices that will enable those with high frequency hearing loss----(Some of your neighbors fit this description.  They’re the ones always saying, “What?”)----to once again hear birds they haven’t heard in years.

The unit is produced by a Cornell University spin-off called Song Finder (www.hearbirdsagain.com).  These units will be given to the Discovery Center for loan to people like me.  They are a shirt pocket transmitter and small pair of head phones.  If you think you’re hearing everything, go to their website and play some of the bird songs there.  I have never heard a yellow warbler in the wild.  I’m looking forward to that.  

If you’d like to help send a check to the Discovery Center; attention Hear ‘em Sing project.

 

Duanne certified as Master Naturalist

 

Congratulations to Duanne for completing the rigorous training to be a Master Naturalist!   In the following description, he tells about the program which he recently participated in.  

 

He has always been a "go-to guy" for us for questions about the environment and about living green, and now he can expect that we will head his way with even more questions.

 

Thanks very much for describing this interesting program, Duanne.   Feel free to pass on to us any of the new knowledge you have gained.

 

A mile wide and an inch deep…that’s how the Mississippi River was once described. That is also an apt description for the week-long WI Master Naturalist Program that I completed in mid-May at Schmeekle Reserve on the campus of UW Stevens Point.

Twenty-four students (mostly with as much gray hair as I have) immersed themselves in attempted understanding of the natural world as we know it in Wisconsin. In a total of forty hours, nineteen women and five men, generally from the Stevens Point area but from as far away as Chicago, listened to speakers and went on daily field trips.   All hoped to upgrade their value as volunteers at some of the more than 2,000 environmental education and nature centers around the state.

Please don’t assume the first sentence is in any way a negative reflection on the fledgling program administered by Cooperative Extension Service.   Patterned after the very popular Master Gardener program, the Naturalist edition covers a staggering amount of material with each day of the five-day course covering different parts of the environment.   Included were landscape, ecology, plant life, wildlife, water, and the impact of human evolution.  

Now being presented in more than 43 states, the WI version states its objective as simply, “…certified volunteers will work in their communities in three natural resource service arenas;  stewardship, education and research.”

 

Lions sponsoring whitefish boil

 

Chuck Hayes forwards the following announcement about an upcoming community event----sounds fun and delicious!   Note that you can get tickets from Chuck all this week.

 

The Presque Isle Lions will be hosting a Lake Superior whitefish boil on Wednesday, June 25, at Pipke Park.  Tickets can be ordered BEFORE this coming Friday from Chuck Hayes.  All proceeds go back to community activities and traditional Lions donations.

 

And, if you haven't already been there, this would be a good opportunity to see Presque Isle's Pipke Park and picnic/warming house.    In Chuck's years on the town board, he was a leader in remaking the walleye rearing ponds into an attractive area for a variety of recreational uses.   

(Carol, Susan, and I had a walk there this spring, and found it beautiful and mostly mosquito-free on the surfaced path around the pond.   Take a look, if you haven't had occasion yet to use this community resource.)

 

ATV headline

 

If you are here at the lake, you probably already saw this headline.   The Lac du Flambeau band of Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa voted NOT to allow ATV's on their tribal lands.

The results were significant, I thought.    Of 205 votes cast, 126 people voted "No" and only 79 voted "Yes."    

The ATV issue keeps coming back in Vilas County, and I found it interesting to read that the Lac du Flambeau tribe had voted soundly not to allow ATV's on tribal lands.

 

How cute is this?

 

 

God-parents Danny and Barbie announce the birth of I-Lean's fawn for 2014.   I haven't heard if the new baby has acquired a name yet.  

Even if you are having a grouchy day, bet this photo makes you smile!  

 

In unrelated but also cheerful wildlife news, Chris Davis reports he saw flocks and swarms of dragonflies while fishing yesterday on Presque Isle Lake.  Yay!!   Maybe it's only my optimistic thinking, but it seems to me there are fewer mosquitoes today than there were a couple of days ago.     

 

Congrats to Taylor----and to Mom and Dad

 

A big milestone for the Bricco family this past weekend:  Taylor's graduation from Lakeland Union High School.   Congratulations to Taylor on this achievement, and to Ron and Tracy for their parenting of such a terrific young woman!

Taylor's our youngest full-time Carlin resident, so she's had many of us watching her grow into the lovely and accomplished young woman she is now.   These two graduation photos show the mixture of toughness and feminity that Taylor has become.

Taylor's a hockey player, (since second grade and all four years of high school), an honor roll student, and a hard worker who will be bussing tables at the Carlin Club again this summer.

She's all set to enter Northern Michigan University in Marquette this fall, to enter a nursing program with thoughts of some variety of medical career.

Those of us attending a late-winter dinner of Carlin friends at Skyview were pleased to have Taylor and her friend join us.   We were impressed with how out-going, poised, charming, and determined Taylor was that evening, and were pleased to see the mature young woman she has become.

All our congratulations, Taylor, on your successful high school career, and all our best wishes as you head off to college!