TCC for 12/26/2009

TCC for 12/26/2009

More photos from ice-out of last spring:



3/27/2009

TCC for 12/24/2009

TCC for 12/24/2009

Photos from Ice-out of last spring:



3/27/2009

TCC for 12/22/09

TCC for 12/22/09

The Caretaker is currently packing things up to leave the Island for the holiday, upon his return he will start up the narrative about what is happening on the Island. While he is away he expects to be able to still post photos from ice-out and will probably delve into the cause of his long hiatus.

Photo from today:


More photos from ice-out of last spring:



3/27/09


--The Caretaker

TCC for 12/21/09

TCC for 12/21/09

No photos for today.

More photos from ice-out of last spring:



3/27/09

--The Caretaker

TCC for 12/20/09

The Caretaker's Concern 12/20/09

Photo from today:


Photos from Ice-out last Spring:



3/27/09


3/30/09

TCC for 12/18/09

The Caretaker's Concern 12/18/09

Ghetto temp. 17 F.
Island temp. 16 F.

Current conditions: Occasional breeze, mildly dense ground fog. Ice forming on lake back in the bays.

Photos from today:



Photos from ice-out of last spring:


3/27/09


3/30/09


3/31/09

--The Caretaker

TCC 12/17/09

Ghetto temp. 37 F. and rising.
Island temp. 18 F.

Current conditions:
Sunny, wind from the NW. about 10 mph.

The Caretaker has been on a bit of an unplanned hiatus, to make a long story short (for now), things happened, the Caretaker did stuff. In the meantime, here are a few photos from ice-out of last spring, enjoy.

--The Caretaker


3/26/09



3/27/09


3/30/09

TCC for 12/6/08

Due to unforeseen circumstances the Caretaker will continue to be on hiatus until Friday the 19th.
If he happens to get any new photos, and if he has the time, he will post them.

12/5/08


11/2/08


10/11/08

TCC for 5/20/08

The Caretaker's Concern 5/20/08
Lake Temp. 53 F.
Ghetto temp. 57 F.
Island tmp. 57 F. Yesterday's L/H: 50/51 F.
Current conditions: Mostly clear sky, star filled moonlit, mild wind from North West.

The daily text report has been suspended from May 17th, 2008 to after the weekend of May 17th/19th, 2008. However, daily photos will still be posted.


--The Caretaker

TCC for 5/9/08

The Caretaker's Concern 5/9/08

The daily text report has been suspended from May 1st, 2008 to after the weekend of May 10th/11th, 2008. However, daily photos will still be posted.

--The Caretaker

TCC for 5/2/08

The Caretaker's Concern 5/2/08
Lake Temp. 47F.
Ghetto temp. 48 F. and steady.
Island tmp. 48 F. Yesterday's L/H: 38/60 F.
Current conditions: No wind, total cloud coverage, damp, wet, cold, humid, hazy.

The daily text report has been suspended from May 1st, 2008 to after the weekend of May 10th/11th, 2008. However, daily photos will still be posted.

--The Caretaker

TCC for 4/26/08

The Caretaker's Concern 4/26/08
Lake Temp. 46F.
Ghetto temp. 60.5 F. and dropping.
Island tmp. 58 F. Yesterday's L/H: 53.5/73 F.
Current conditions: Mostly cloud covered, wind from the South, 5 to 10 mph.

Quite a bit of color in the sky this morning, the Caretaker almost missed it. After a bit of breakfast the Caretaker paddled in to town to post some letters and pickup some things from the hardware store. On his way to the mainland the Caretaker noticed that the mountain sides have begun to cover themselves with the Spring bloom of baby green. The Lake was mostly flat, just an occasional breath of wind. While paddling the Caretaker's attention was drawn to the reflection of the sky on the water, he found it rather mesmerizing, watching the clouds pass below, almost as if riding atop them in a canoe.

After posting his letter the Caretaker had to wait for the hardware store to open, to fill his time he went for a walk about town. Early on his walk he saw K. and said hello, they chatted for a few moments and then parted ways. Town proper is not exactly large, so the Caretaker was able to see most all of it just in time for the hardware store to open. Curious to see what people have and have not down with their homes, great to see the various flowers that have started to smile.

The wind had begun to pick up a bit when the Caretaker started his paddle back to the Island, coming from the South it provided a headwind most all of the way. Every once in a while the Caretaker would come across a patch of water that was agitated by the wind but not being directly hit by it, this resulted in the water forming constantly moving bumps but not waves. This action of the water distorted the reflection of the sky, it looked sort of like a broad, horizontal lava lamp, it also reminded the Caretaker of a fun-house mirror, except this one was constantly changing its distortion effect. 

The Caretaker spent much of the rest of his day working with a chain saw cutting up more branches. However, before he could do so he had to "fix" the chain saw, to make a boring story short the chain saw worked quite well the last time he used it, cut wood, consumed fuel, made noise, the usual. The next time he went to use it he filled the tanks, fuel and bar oil, and then went to start it. It wouldn't start, he pulled it over a number of times with choke and without to no avail. After trying all that he could think of he decided it would require a professional, that was sometime last week. Today, over the phone, the Caretaker located a local professional who would be able to take a look at the machine. The Caretaker's plan was to bring it in sometime during the coming week. Since the Caretaker had filled both tanks full he decided it would be wise to drain off some of the fluids to reduce the chances of them leaking during transit. He opened up the fuel tank and within an instant he saw what the problem was, when filling the tanks the last time, he had switched them up, putting bar oil in the fuel tank and fuel in the bar oil tank. Stupid Caretaker.

The Caretaker promptly drained both tanks, cleaned them out, refilled them properly, started the chain saw and had a merry day of cutting and noise making.

Come nightfall, the wind, having blown from the South at around 5 miles per hour for much of the day, continued to do so through the night at an increased speed. The Caretaker decided to take advantage of the opportunity to further rid the Island of pine needles, branches, tree bark, etc. It was a late night for the Caretaker, when he finally did turn in, he slept well.

--The Caretaker

TCC for 4/12/08

The Caretaker's Concern 4/12/08
Lake Temp. 38 F.
Ghetto temp. 52 F. and dropping.
Island tmp. 48 F. Yesterday's L/H: 40.5/38 F.
Current conditions: A few snow flakes, wind from the East 10 to 15 mph, bringing down the stench of the paper mill.

It was a rather windy morning, even a few snow flakes, but the rest of the day was mostly calm and mostly sunny, a mix of sun and clouds, another nice quiet day on the Lake, just the way the Caretaker likes it, unless of course he wants to go sailing, then he would much prefer it be windy. The Caretaker should make a point to get the sailboat up and in the water sometime soon.

Another sign of Spring has arrived, the house-flies have begun to hatch. These aren't exactly house flies, at least not the typical kind, these are larger, but not as large as black flies. Whatever they are, they are mostly annoying, they don't bite but they do make a lot of noise, all they really seem to want is to get out of enclosed spaces. The Caretaker does his best to prevent that, the Caretaker makes a point to keep them inside so he can give them the old whap-whap! with the fly-swatter. The Caretaker is not exactly expert at this, as will soon be revealed, however he has had much practice at the swatting of flies, so much so that he long since grew tired of the typical plastic type fly-swatter which often breaks in short order. He owns a fly-swatter made of metal and leather, this one has performed many a kill and is still giving out the good old whap-whap! with deadly results.

While at his desk doing something or other, occasionally reaching for his trusty fly-swatter dispensing with a fly here and there, the Caretaker noticed one particular fly that was rather cunning and evasive. Not willing to stand for this the Caretaker directed all of his attention to the destruction of this fly. After a number of near hits, the Caretaker finally lined up a shot that he was certain would not miss. The fly was dead center on a pane of glass of the East window, the Caretaker did not dally, he immediately let fly with the swatter--WHAM!

Clink, clink.
...
Bzzzzzzzzzzzz...

The Caretaker missed the fly, but he sure gave it good to the window pane, no mercy there. A long time ago, sometime before the current Caretaker was in residence on the Island, this particular pane of glass had suffered a hit causing a star that spidered out towards some of the edges. All of the glass was intact and seemed rather sturdy so there was never a move to replace the pane, it had a sort of decorative look to it. Such beauty is no more, a piece of the window pane clinked out of it and fell to the ground, it was no match for the might of the Caretaker's fly-swatter. Soon this pane of glass will be pulled and replaced with a new one, in the mean time, the Caretaker has papered over the pane, hopefully it won't rain soon.

Some may ask why not let the flies live, just let them out a window or door. The Caretaker will hear none of this poppycock. To let them out is to let them multiply. One female fly can lay up to 500 eggs at a time. Now some people are against contraception, and perhaps even more so of a type as brutal as practiced by the Caretaker, but as far as the Caretaker is concerned, if you want the flies, by all means do what you can to protect them, however to do so in the presence of the Caretaker will result in only one thing--a sharp rebuke from his fly-swatter, WHAP!WHAP!

--The Caretaker

TCC for 3/26/08

The Caretaker's Concern 3/26/08
Ghetto temp. 58 F. and steady.
Island tmp. 41 F. Yesterday's L/H: 31/42 F.
Current conditions:

Most of the morning was rather blustery so the Caretaker stayed inside the Ghetto to work on some paper work. At around Noon there was some hail or sleet or something. Whatever it was the Caretaker did not go outside and look but he sure could hear it coming down on the roof of the Ghetto. Eventually the wind abated come the afternoon, at around 3 o'clock the Caretaker noticed that the sun was out so he decided to do some outside work. More cutting up of the branches that came down in the wind storm a few weekends back. However, last night the wind was gusting pretty good and so more branches came down, most of the dropped branches have been from the White Pines. If these high winds keep up the pines will be stripped of all their branches. That would be bad, very bad indeed.

--The Caretaker

TCC for 2/16/08

The Caretaker's Concern 2/16/08
Ghetto temp. 45 F. and steady.
Island tmp. 18 F. Yesterday's L/H: 14/32 F.
Current conditions: Still clear night.

The Caretaker spent much of the day inside the Ghetto doing further work on his portfolio. It was a mostly sunny day, but a bit of wind at times. Come the night the wind stopped and the sky remained clear. The Moon was out and bright, if there was more snow on the ice it would have been a great night for a moonlit ski. Conversely, if there was less snow on the ice it would have been a great night for ice skating by moonlight. It's looking like the Caretaker will have to clear off some snow to create a ice rink so he can go skating, maybe after the coming rain passes.

--The Caretaker