The clouds slowly cleared as the day went by on Wednesday. Calm on this shore as the wind was from the north. With a clear sky and wind that became calm, Thursday morning is our coldest so far this fall. Temp bottomed out at 28F around 6AM. They say that today will remain sunny and chilly. Tonight could be even a few degrees colder. I put a pitcher of drinking water in the refrig last evening to make coffee with this morning just in case the pipes were frozen, but they were not. I have found it takes the temp falling to around 20F for the cottage plumbing to freeze, and by then I am usually closed up for the fall. The cold overnight temperature has mist rising from the lake and the water temperature falling steadily.
The lake has reached the lower theoretical level for fall drawdown. 313.00 meters above sea level. Today it is right on that mark again at 313.00. That is for sure low, but not the lowest since I have been keeping track. On October 14, 2020 it reached 312.94. 6 cm lower than it is today.
The OLT hearing regarding Limerick Estates has been postponed from Monday October 6th until an as yet undetermined date. The parties involved are looking at sometime in January. The mayor forwarded the legal notice of cancelation. This is a 40-year tactic of the developer. Delay hearings for months, sometimes years, then blame the municipality for being obstructionist when the hearing finally happens. Been there, done that with these folks through the years. Link to the hearing cancellation notice: (copy and paste it into your browser, this editor does not support hyperlinks)
https://lwra.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/OLT-25-000357-Merit-Hearing-October-6-2025-Adjournment-1.pdf
Current status on boating access to Dixon Lake: A sub-committee of the Board of Directors of the LWRA had an in-person meeting with MNR staff in Bancroft on Tuesday September 23rd. Here is a link to a summary of the meeting:
https://lwra.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/MNR-meeting-sept-2025.pdf
The Rogers 5G tower on Sutton Rd. is operational. The Rogers / FOCA special pricing plan for internet service is $60 per month this year. (unless you have a Rogers phone in which case it remains $50 per month) Even at the $60 price it is the best internet service for us on the lake. It appears they throttle the 5G connection to 40MBps down, and 10MBps up. That is plenty of bandwidth for any single-family use. On a related subject, Bell seems to have improved their cell signal in the area as I can now make indoor calls. I used to have to sit on the front steps to make or receive voice calls. Now I am showing 4 bars of service indoors.
The dump is on Winter hours. It is open Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday and holiday Mondays from 11AM to 4:30PM.
2026 fishing regulations are not yet posted. If things remain unchanged, lake trout season will open January 1. Bass season should open June 27, 2026 and close November 30. The Limerick chain of lakes has a "slot size" for lake trout that MUST be returned to the lake if caught. It is roughly 16 to 22 inches. It is also a "one line" lake when ice fishing. The Limerick chain of lakes are at the very south end of zone 15.
