It's Winter

Now I know that December 21st has not arrived, but it's winter at Quimby Pond.

The pond totally froze about 4 days ago and the temperature is not predicted to rise above freezing for the next several days. So, it's winter. The freeze up was a little unusual this year, there were pockets of water (about 40 of them) all over the pond instead of the usual springs freezing last. There has been wind, so the ice is NOT perfectly flat, there are ridges and "fans" as you can see to the right. Some of you may wonder if any waterfowl got caught in the ice. Nope, I've never seen that up here. The loons left weeks before the freeze and the ducks seemed to have an instinct in that they stayed in the open pools, then left about 24 hours prior to the total ice cover.

Today, the snow is arriving. Predicted is 10 - 16 inches of the white stuff, known in Rangeley as "white gold", because the local winter economy is so dependent on snowfall.

The association

As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, we are The Friends of Quimby Pond. The vote was close, but the friends won out. We have an address: P. O. Box 647, Rangeley, ME 04970. We have another meeting of the steering committee on Dec. 16th at 6:30 PM. Dave Halliwell, from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection will attend. Anyone is welcome at these meetings. Please call me at 864-2179 and I will give you more information.

There are 3 things that we should accomplish at this meeting: 1) We need a mission statement. 2) We need to reserve a date for the watershed survey. It should be sometime in May, but we need to narrow down the exact dates. 3) I'd like anyone reading to chime in on this one. The DEP wants to set up the watershed survey a little differently. They want to (instead of sending one person as a coordinator) to send 4 DEP representatives here, one DEP person as the respective leader for each of 4 teams. I had promised people that the town or state government would not be involved in the survey. It would be cheaper for us to have the DEP have 4 people here, but at what cost? Would many of the pond folks object to having the DEP "inspecting" their property? The DEP (Kristin Feindell) tells me that the inspection would not be involved in the enforcement part of the department. I believe that we can change this DEP preferred type of a survey to one that is more private, but it may cost us a little more.

I thought that I would include a couple of aerial shots of the pond and a few facts (trivia perhaps).

Quimby Pond is located at latitude 44.988 and longitude -70.739. While the town of Rangeley claims to be halfway between the equator and the North Pole, Quimby Pond is closer to that designation. The maximum depth is 12 feet. My GPS estimates Quimby's elevation at 1782 feet above sea level.

Have a great couple of weeks. It's beautiful here (as usual)!

What's in a Name

I don't have much time to post for a few days, but I thought that I would include a little news and a couple of photos.

The forming lake association is now called The Friends of Quimby Pond. We had a great meeting with Maggie Shannon a couple of days ago. Maggie has lots of experience with lake associations and answered all of our questions and gave great advice.

Here's a picture of the steering committee:

from left to right are: Marcia Baker, Rick Baker, John Towey, Dawn Towey, and Jayne Soles.

I (Sue Motley) was behind the camera (my favorite place).

As I looked out at the west shore of Quimby Pond yesterday, I saw a few ice covered birches and I thought another photo opportunity.

I hope all, who are reading this are healthy and happy.

~Sue

Friday, the 13th

Late Fall Musings

When I awoke this morning, my goal for the day was to get a few decent photos to post. I felt a little pressured, because I hadn't been at Quimby Pond all week and I had neglected to take a few shots 2 weeks ago.

As usual for mid November, the pond starts to "think about" freezing up. On a few cold, windless nights we awake to a small skim of ice and if it becomes breezy or the temperature rises above freezing, then the ice disappears. It usually takes several weeks of this freezing and thawing for Quimby to freeze over for the winter. In the picture below, you can see the middle of the pond has ice (It really looks like ripples, but it is indeed ice.)

Wildlife that I haven't seen for a week (but may still be here). The chipmunks and the loons.

There are ducks on the pond. There are our usual mallards, but now there are lots of mergansers. We have both the common merganser (in the upper photograph) and the hooded merganser (in the lower photograph). Luckily, both species graced me with their presence today...close enough to photograph, too!

As I walked on the road past the old Quimby Farm, the leaves were encased the fall frost and crunched when I stepped. Willetta Hall once told me years ago that this house was the original Quimby settlement. You probably know the place about one half mile down Quimby Pond Road on the right. It has a couple of stone walls and the apple trees.

There were a few apples still precariously hanging on the trees.

The Lake Association

We have a meeting this Wednesday with the Maine Congress of Lake Associations. It's great that they (free of charge) will help us to start our pond association. This organization has helped folks like us start up an association and it's great to get their advice and perhaps circumvent some mistakes made by other associations.

So far, it's 3 votes for the Quimby Pond Association, 1 vote for the Friends of Quimby Pond, and one write-in of the Quimby Pond Merry Anglers!

And did I say that I was afraid that I wouldn't have enough good photos for todays posting. Well, we had one of the most beautiful sunsets, that I have seen in a long time.

If you're here at Quimby Pond, I'm glad.

If you're elsewhere, then I wish you were here.

~Sue

Seasonal Stuff

As early Fall blends into late October on Quimby Pond, the wildlife begin to prepare for winter. I'm starting to see a few hooded mergansers rafting up on the pond. The loons remain and the chipmunks only occasionally show their faces. The hummingbirds are long gone. Are far as human inhabitants go, there are many of us within the Quimby Pond watershed, but it looks like we are down to our usual half dozen or so along the shoreline of the pond for the winter. I photographed a downy woodpecker today, who looked as if he was wondering where everybody went.

Maine Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has been doing a fish study here and I have posted a picture of the study area. There are nets hanging from the floats. I have heard only hearsay about the results, but the hearsay is that we have good sized brook trout, and that smelt have returned to Quimby Pond.

The association

Today, I mailed the first of a few letters to start an association on Quimby Pond. If you saw the web address in the letter and you are seeing this blog for the first time, then welcome! I hope that you enjoy reading this. My plan is to post something about every 10 - 14 days. Regarding the mailing, it went out to property owners as listed on the Rangeley tax records. If I got your name wrong or of the letter was forwarded to you , please let me know (you can post a comment if you like).

What should we name the association?

Quimby Pond Association...Friends of Quimby Pond... or can you think of another name? Please let me know. I have a goal to start this association by the end of November and I need input from all of you. Several neighbors (and I) will have a meeting with the Maine Congress of Lake Associations on November 18th, then shortly after that we should become a real association.

If anyone would like to submit photos, I would love to post them. (Again, click on the comment section and just start typing).

Since Halloween is a couple of days away, I thought that I would post a photo submitted by Sandi Andrews. It looks spooky to me.

Happy Halloween.

~Sue

It's amazing how things change here on Quimby Pond. Years ago I thought that time had not changed Quimby Pond. One can sit on a porch and imagine times gone by. Thirty years ago, there were no motorboats on the pond. Today, there are still no motorboats. Thirty years ago, the loon's wail call echoed across the pond. Today, the loon wails and yodels continue. Thirty years ago the fishing was fantastic (so they tell me). Today, the fishing is still good.

Today, we're a little more worried about the ecology of the pond. A little algae showed up last summer and we're trying to figure out just what is possible to do about it. And to determine what's best for the pond. Don't get me wrong, this is still the most beautiful place on earth and I wouldn't trade this place for any other.

The photo to the left is the north shoreline last week.







The photo to the right is early morning today (October 13, 2009). Mother Nature had delivered a few inches of snow overnight.



And by this afternoon most of the snow had melted and a little fog rollled in.

No, I wouldn't trade this place for any other.