TCC for 4/23/08

The Caretaker's Concern 4/23/08
Lake Temp. 49F.
Ghetto temp. 67 F. and dropping.
Island tmp. 67 F. Yesterday's L/H: 53/74 F.
Current conditions: Partly clear sky, little to no wind.

The Channel markers were installed today, which means that now the boaters have something to ignore, not that it matters with the current Lake height, but as time goes on and the Lake level drops, the shallow spots as marked by rock buoys will begin to take out the props of the less mindful boaters out on the water. Ha-Ha on them, stupid boaters.

There was a strong wind mostly from the South East then switching to the North, it was the first in a long while for day time wind. It was a good thing that it came, there has been a bit of a build up of a film upon the Lake's surface, thankfully the wind came and moved it away. Today's photo looking South down the Lake is to show the total cloud coverage of the sky, this is also a first in quite a while.

The fuel pumps at the Marina were a bit off in their pricing, they pumped at .36 cents a gallon, too bad that wasn't the actual price, if it were the Caretaker would have figured out a way to float his car over to the pump to gas up.

In the evening, there was such a large May fly hatch that the buzzing could be heard throughout much of the Island. Were they actually "May" flies? The Caretaker doesn't know, to be honest he is not even sure what a May fly is, but he uses the term loosely to refer to any non-biting fly that seems to hatch from the water only to return to the water often times via the mouth and belly of a fish.

Later at night, when the Caretaker went out to check the temperature of the Lake he could hear the sound of "peepers" from over on Clay Island. Spring is definitely afoot here on this Great Lake of George.

--The Caretaker

TCC for 4/22/08

The Caretaker's Concern 4/22/08
Lake Temp. 50F.
Ghetto temp. 65 F. and dropping.
Island tmp. 66 F. Yesterday's L/H: 54/74 F.
Current conditions: Little to no wind, light cloud coverage.

The ice-eaters were removed today, chances are pretty slim that this was done prematurely, it would take a serious cold snap for the Lake to ice-over this Spring. If this were the Autumn the Lake being at 50 degrees Fahrenheit would be just becoming too cold to swim in, however in the Spring time, the Caretaker usually won't go in until it is at least 60. In the Spring the top foot or so may be at 50 degrees, but below that it is colder, it is a little tough to keep one's body in but a foot of water while swimming, at least it is for the Caretaker. So he will wait, at the current rate though, it won't be long before the Caretaker will be taking a pleasurable swim this Great Lake of George.

The Caretaker is happy to announce that his assumption about the bats was correct, at least for now, there were no bats surrounding him during his shower this evening. In fact, he didn't see much in the way of bats at all, perhaps the bats have stayed in, perhaps it is date night for all the married bats.

Happy Earth Day--don't ruin it.

--The Caretaker

TCC for 4/21/08

The Caretaker's Concern 4/21/08
Lake Temp. 48F.
Ghetto temp. 64 F. and dropping
Island tmp. 64 F. Yesterday's L/H: 54/73 F.
Current conditions: No wind, mostly clear with wisps of clouds.

Still great paddling water for today. During Sunset the Caretaker went pole walking around the Island for some exercise, by default pole walking is something that the Caretaker does all Winter long, but he has now taken to doing it in the Spring. It makes for the perfect Island exercise while the water is too cold to swim. The "experts" claim that it increases the effectiveness of one's walking by some 40 to 60%, whatever it may or may not be it works well for here on the Island. It is not only good for the Caretaker, it is good for the Island, without the road caps over the pole spikes the poles serve to aerate the lawn. So with this in his mind, bringing much mirth, in combination with the quiet of the day at sunset, the Caretaker rather enjoyed watching the color slowly slip from the Western sky.

While taking a shower at dusk some bats were out, a few had taken to circling around the Caretaker while he was trying to get clean, AND a few of the cheeky rogues took to dive bombing the Caretaker. It made for a rather amusing shower time, the Caretaker suspects that the sight/sound of the Caretaker taking a shower in the open was a novelty for the bats and that once they get accustomed to it they will pay little notice in the future. What is appropriate in reference to a bat and its sonar, do they see or hear? If their vision is accomplished through hearing, do they also notice auditory noises like we do? Hm...

After the Sun had long since set, and the Moon had just begun to rise, the Caretaker took himself and his camera out to Cocktail point to try and do some night photography of the Moon. Having noticed the rise of the Moon unexpectedly he wasn't exactly prepared, not to be deterred he threw on his robe, grabbed his camera and tripod and went out in his sandals. It took a few moments to find a spot on the rocks that wasn't too uncomfortable on his feet, he got his tripod set up and started to take photos. Since it was dark the Caretaker had to use rather long exposure times, sometimes up to a minute which was then followed by a processing time of up to a minute. At these times the Caretaker waited patiently absorbing his surroundings.

A rather large fish seemed to be jumping the water for fly's not too far off of Cocktail point. It sound much like a canoe paddle being slapped on to the water. While perched on the rocks trying to remain mostly still the Caretaker would occasionally feel the mild tickle of something crawling on his feet, not wanting to laugh and run the risk of disturbing his camera while it was operating, the Caretaker would quickly swipe the bugs off his feet. Far off towards the East shore the solitary call of a Loon was heard. Much closer afoot the Caretaker could hear a quiet turning of leaves, there wasn't any wind to speak off so the Caretaker was curious as to what could be causing this gentle rustling. On with the flashlight and what did he see? a number of Stone Fly nymphs crawling about, these were probably the same breed that was crawling on the Caretakers feet. In the light they scurried for cover. Off towards the North some geese could be heard making a bit of noise, it sounded like there was an attempt to put a pee-pee in a po-po.

--The Caretaker

TCC for 4/20/08

The Caretaker's Concern 4/20/08
Lake Temp. 43.5 F.
Ghetto temp. 63 F. and dropping.
Island tmp. 63 F. Yesterday's L/H: 48.5/79.5 F.
Current conditions: Mild cloud coverage, little to no wind.

Ever more birds passing through, at Sunrise the bird noise was quite a cacophony, however overall rather pleasant, it sure is a nice change from the mostly silent Winter mornings, at least silent of most bird calls.

It was another calm day today, the wind last night was a nice change of pace, these constantly calm days are starting to get a little stale. Not that the Caretaker is complaining, it has sure made for some great paddling, but if there was more wind more often he would be a lot further along on the burning that needs to be done.

The Caretaker was in town today, it is getting busier, so too the Lake. There were more boats out tonight, the Caretaker still thinks it is crazy to be out on the Lake at night racing around. Not only is debris still floating, none of the lighted buoys are afloat, so if you don't know the Lake very well, you are really looking for trouble. Oh well, to each their own.

--The Caretaker

TCC for 4/19/08

The Caretaker's Concern 4/19/08
Lake Temp. 46 F.
Ghetto temp. 66 F. and dropping.
Island tmp. 62 F. Yesterday's L/H: 50/67.5 F.
Current conditions: A few clouds and some light haze, moonlit night, wind from the South, 5 to 10 mph, occasionally gusting to 15/20

Yet again a calm day on the Lake, mostly dry, little to no humidity, but there was a slight touch of haze from the heat of the Sun. While out and about on the Island the Caretaker saw a bat flying around a couple times during the day. Hopefully the bat was just disturbed from its resting place and not rabid, it didn't appear to by flying anymore or less erratically than would be expected of a bat trying to fly in day light hours.

In the evening the Caretaker, while walking the Island, heard a distinct buzzing, he looked up and saw a huge herd of May Flies, what their particular breed was the Caretaker couldn't say, but he sure did hear them.

Come nightfall the wind began to pickup from the South, it couldn't have come too soon, the air in the Lake George Basin needed to be changed out. Not that the Caretaker helped this, given the strength of the wind the Caretaker did not hesitate to get some burning done. In fact given the total lack of wind the Caretaker didn't want to waste the opportunity so he stayed up late feeding pine needles, dead branches, and wood chips into the fire as it was fanned by the Southern wind.
Eventually he got tired, so he went to sleep, however there is still plenty more to burn off. Too bad the Caretaker doesn't have any tree taps, with all the burning that needs to be done if he had some Maple sap he could boil it down to syrup. Oh well.

--The Caretaker

TCC for 4/18/08

The Caretaker's Concern 4/18/08
Lake Temp. 42.5F.
Ghetto temp. 59.5 F. and steady.
Island tmp. 60.5 F. Yesterday's L/H: 40/72 F.
Current conditions: Little to no wind, mostly clear night.


There was wind from the East today, about 10 miles per hour or so, this is probably the first decent wind all week. At the time the Caretaker wanted to have his shower the wind was still coming down from the Narrows, this would have blown a cool wind up his towel, which would have been less than welcome. So, deciding to take advantage of the relative portability of his outdoor shower set up the Caretaker moved his shower to the South end of the Island in the lee of the wind. This evening's shower provided the Caretaker with a nice view of the valley between Buck Mt. and Pilot Knob. The slow coloring up of the Eastern sky at Sunset was rather pleasant to watch from under the stream of Sun heated hot water.

At night the Caretaker heard a few boats out racing around on the Lake, the Caretaker thinks these people are crazy, there is still quite a bit of stuff floating around in the Lake, tree branches, logs, tree trunks, you name it. When the ice is up whatever falls onto it usually stays there until the Lake opens up and then it floats around in the Lake for a while. With the general absence of wind since ice-out much of what is floating around is still doing so. Because of this, racing around in a powerboat in the day time is not all that wise, to do so at night is just plain stupid, then again, these people might be outlanders and so they are just ignorant, hopefully for their sake they won't get wise the hard way.

--The Caretaker

TCC for 4/17/08

The Caretaker's Concern 4/17/08
Lake Temp. 45.5F.
Ghetto temp. 65 F. and dropping, slowly.
Island tmp. 65 F. Yesterday's L/H: 36/58 F.
Current conditions: Mostly clear, moonlight night, little to no wind.

Another quiet day on the Lake, while out paddling, and what a fine paddle it was, the Caretaker noted that given the general constant calm these past few days he could have canoed the entire Lake without ever having to battle the wind and resulting waves. If the Caretaker gets his act together come this Summer he will make a point to allocate time for a canoe trip along the entire shoreline of the Lake. His hopes would be to do it all in one trip, but if need be he will do it piecemeal. The Caretaker has been up and down the entire Lake, and has seen much of its shoreline, but not all of it, at least not up close and personal as can only be had by a canoe or rowboat or kayak or what have you.

There were more motorboats sighted and heard on the Lake today, the congestion is increasing ever so slightly, but it is increasing. All sorts of birds are passing through on their great migration Northwards. The Ghetto almost got up to 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Spring is inching closer and closer, Summer is off in the distance, but not too far away.

--The Caretaker