Lake Shore Care & My Meanderings

 

Here is the latest newsletter notification from the Responsible Wakes  folks.

And this came to me from Jenny Gelfin:

About our lakefront

When I boat around Joe’s Pond, I see many properties with bright, green grass down to the water’s edge or retaining wall. I also see some beautiful gardens along the waterfront and also natural areas - flowers, shrubs including blueberries, trees and evergreens, some of which are kept cut low and others that rise providing screening and shade. Those properties with non-grass and non-stone buffers all seem to have maintained a pathway to the water, and also all seem to have a grassy area closer to their houses with open space, chairs, fire pits, etc.

Everyone wants to have some nice lawn. Green grass down to the water’s edge means more runoff into the lake causing deterioration in the water quality. Many people probably think “but mine is just ONE lawn. The percent of grassy shorefront around our lake is scary. Though the lake seems pretty darn nice right now, I wonder how many people are thinking ahead? What will this lake be like for our children, grandchildren, even seven generations beyond our own lives? 

Not everyone is a gardener, but plenty of friends, neighbors, local gardeners. Lake Wise, Vermont Master Gardeners all are available for suggestions and help. Especially where there is construction and the grass and other plantings on the property are all torn up anyway, it is proportionally a small additional expense to put in something other than grass or other impermeables for the ten or fifteen feet closest to the retaining wall or water, though this may take a little more thought, planning, and someone who is knowledgeable about planting non-grass. 

Lake Wise gives FREE advice on what to do and how to go about it. They also make other suggestions for your property, like managing your drip line. We had them look last summer, and Emily [Finnegan] pointed out things we had not considered. The expense and effort have been manageable, even though changes on our property will make only a small difference. Her contact info is Emily.Finnegan@vt.nacdnet.net.

I treasure this lake, and I suspect most people with camps here feel similarly. No one is being asked to give up their waterfront or all of their lawn. Please consider what you can do that will make a difference to the health and future of our little piece of paradise. 

 

Jenny Gelfan

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This is an abrupt change from the very, very hot, dry weather we've had for the past week. We had some brief rolls of thunder last evening and a light rain - I measured .40 inch this morning, and recorded 54 degrees as the temperature - but the rain was enough to brighten things up considerably, start water running into my pond again, and introduced some much appreciated cooler air. Right up there with notes of appreciation for cooler weather is that as I walked this morning in a fine mist, there were no black flies bothering. I picked up several bites just going down to pick up my mail yesterday. Not only did they bite me, they came inside with me and I had two or three flying around me and combed one out of my hair an hour or so after I was back inside.

On my walk today  I noticed two  new signs along the lower side of West Shore Road that is undeveloped land between the property line of John and Liz Randall, opposite me, and extending west to the pasture next to Deeper Ruts Road. All of that land (about 20 acres) that a few years ago belonged to Ken and Debra Coleman, who lived in New Hampshire, and I believe Richard Mayhew, is now in conservation. Mayhew placed his land in conservation some years ago, but the Coleman's 10 acres may be  a more recent acquisition. 

I couldn't read the fine print on the signs (I saw two in different locations) but I was able to read "Passumpsic Valley Land Trust" and that it was an "Access Point' to the preserved land. The signs are set well back from the road, well off the  town's right-of-way, and they aren't very large, so it is easy to miss them. I was looking for a reason for positioning them at those points, where access might be easier than the fairly steep bank and deep ditching along most of that chunk of land, but none of it is particularly easy to navigate. There are a couple of points I know of, but the signs were not at either of those.

That land, from the open pasture on the west edge to Morgan's property line on the east side, was once our "Fischer Lot" where we pastured young cattle each summer. We drove them from the farm on the Plain down the road that ran from my present mailbox all the way to Cabot Plains Road (now Bolton Road) in a straight line, past the big barn my grandfather owned. It was a seasonal road, never used in the winter, but very handy in the summer, cutting off at least a mile and a half for traffic wanting to get to Cabot Plain. We kids appreciated the shorter distance when we wanted to go to the pond for a swim at the sandy beach below the Wilbur Ewen farm (where Pupinos live low and where Sandy Beach Road is). Of course, we walked, and thought nothing of it. We walked miles every day between herding cows from far-off pastures, being "gofers" for the adults on the farm needing tools, water, cigarettes, or just a verbal message carried to someone in a far-away pasture or field. At the end of the day, we still had the energy to go to the pond for a swim, sometimes with neighborhood kids, sometimes, just me and my cousins or, if nobody else was around, my mother would go with me. Nobody had time to be bored, nor were kids interested in just "hanging out " We were always in motion, and most of us were in bed by 9 or earlier, and up by 5 or earlier if it was our morning to get the cows. But what a great way to grow up! 

As I walk now, many decades later, there is often a familiar fragrance that brings back a flood of memories. Like Thursday when I went to visit my friends, Sally Goodrich and John Greaves in Walden. The field where John's house sits had been recently hayed and his son was busy picking up the hay. There was just a hint of the hay field smell I remember, because this was haylage, grass that is cut, chopped and dried very little, not well-dried hay like we used on our farm. Still, it was a very pleasant moment in time when I recognized that sweet smell. Like one morning last week when I awoke to the smell of apple blossoms when my flowering crabs, and old crab-apple tree were moist with dew and at full bloom. We had a big crab tree in our yard when I was growing up, and I had a swing there, and a small playhouse my dad built for me from lumber scraps. The old tree formed a big canopy of fragrant flowers and buzzing with bees every year. Later, the little red crab apples would produce their own aroma as they ripened, then dropped, and finally decayed on the groundl. My mother made crab-apple jelly every year, but  there were always lots left for wildlife to enjoy.