The power outage caused by the Thursday afternoon storms ended around 6PM Friday. Just about 24 hours. Ran the generator for 11 of those hours. Once the storm cleared the area on Friday morning, the rest of the day was quite nice. Bit of a northerly wind and the temperature climbed to 86F. Took the family to Dark Lake for a bit of fishing Friday morning. They did quite well on both the large and small mouth bass. No sign of any Land Escapes employees over the 3 hours we were there. Saturday should be quite nice, but some thunderstorms have crept into the overnight forecast into Sunday morning. Later in the day Sunday and Monday look to be nice before rain returns on Tuesday.
Current status on boating access to Dixon Lake: The creek is open and navigable, but Land Escapes employees continue to attempt to intimidate boaters into not boating to Dixon Lake. You have every right to use the creek and to use the shoreline (60 feet) of both Dark and Dixon Lakes. The more of us who do that, the better.
A bonus for those who will be here to take advantage of the dark, night sky: At its peak (Aug 12–13), the Perseids Meteor shower will have up to 100 meteors per hour shooting across the night sky, some even turning into fireballs!
FOCA sent an ad for 2 for 1 tickets to the fall Cottage Life Show. Follow this link for the special offer good through July 31: Start - Ticket - Fall Cottage Life Show / Seasons Christmas Show
The LWRA will be having their traditional activities on the August holiday weekend. The paddle sports (canoe, kayak, etc.) competition will be Saturday morning August 2 at Frasers Beach (169 LL North Shore) at 9:30AM. The AGM and social event will be that afternoon (being held at the Aaron Huizinga cottage across the bay from the dam on St. Ola lake. There is a yellow slide on his dock.) starting at 1:00PM, and the sailboat regatta will be Sunday afternoon August 3 starting near the Coxwell cottage (202 LL South Shore) at 2PM.
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. If you have signed up for that service, FOCA sent me a long list of other Rogers benefits available. (drop me a line and I will send you the link) It appears they throttle the 5G connection to 40MBps down, and 10MBps up. That is plenty of bandwidth for any single-family use.
The municipality is on summer burning rules. Daytime burning is not allowed until November 1. See exceptions below. Permits to have an outdoor fire during the day are now available for $25 at the municipal office. Campfires less than 3 feet by 3 feet are allowed from 7PM to 7AM.
To answer some more technical questions about daytime fires. This is MY interpretation of what was provided by the "Fire Prevention Officer" for the municipality. O.Reg. 207/96 sections 8.1 through 8.4 say that during the day:
You can use a commercially sold camp stove during the day that uses a liquid or gas fuel as long as that stove can be turned off by a control valve.
You can have a charcoal fire in a BBQ designed for charcoal while using only commercially available charcoal, AND, you are within 100 meters of your permanent dwelling.
You can have a charcoal fire in a BBQ designed for charcoal while using only commercially available charcoal, AND, you are in a commercially operated campground with permission from the campground owner/operator.
You can have a wood fire in a commercially available wood burning stove or oven as long as the stove is 5 meters from any combustible material, the area under the stove is bare rock, the stove encloses the fire on all 4 sides, and the stove is within 100 meters of your dwelling.
You can have a campfire in a commercial campground in an above ground grate that is permanently affixed to the ground and cannot be moved and is clear of any combustible material by 3 meters in all directions including vertically (no overhanging branches) and you have permission from the campground owner/operator.
You can have a daytime campfire that is less than 1 meter in diameter and 1 meter high as long as it is on bare rock and at least one meter from all flammable material.
This last section (taken from O.Reg. 207/96 Section 8.5 paragraphs 1 through 4) seems to say that as long as you build a small fire on bare rock, you can have a daytime campfire at a wilderness campsite. Remember, all of these exceptions are for daytime burning when a total "fire ban" is NOT in effect.
The dump is on summer hours. It is open Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday and holiday Mondays from 11AM to 6:00PM. It changes back to winter hours on September 1.
The 2025 fishing regulations are available on the Ontario.ca website. The Limerick chain of lakes remains at the very south end of fisheries zone 15. Pages 104 to 114 of the regulations book. I had a chat with our local minnow trapper on the 19th and just a reminder that it is forbidden to transport minnows across fishery zone boundaries. Bass season opened June 28 and closes November 30. Lake trout season opened January 1 and closes September 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.
