That was quite the day on Saturday. Three years, almost to the minute since our destructive storm in May 2022, a strong thunderstorm moved across the lake. We had .83 of an inch of rain in about 20 minutes. Fortunately, the winds were not strong enough to do any real damage, just blow some things around. Rain returned overnight and we have had another .46 inch of rain since midnight. Definitely a wet 24 hour period. They say the rain will come to an end Sunday morning and the rest of the weekend will have some sunshine and be quite a bit cooler. There is a chance of frost Monday and Tuesday mornings. Most of the coming week is forecast to be quite a bit cooler than normal. Weather was crappy enough the last three days for me to finish an entire novel since Thursday morning.
Took a late day ride to Mephisto Lake on the 7th and a sample from the spring was submitted to the health unit. This time it tested safe to drink with the bacteria counts both being 0. Remember, that is a snapshot in time. The source of that water is not monitored, and it is not treated, so just because it was safe at 5PM on May 7th, does not mean it is safe now. As Limerick Townships resident drinking water expert, you will not find me drinking it ever.
The blackflies are awake. Have also heard a few folks mention that the mosquitoes are worse than usual for this time of year too. We usual battle those two pests sequentially, not concurrently.
Continue to avoid downtown Madoc. They are doing infrastructure replacement up the main street and easterly on St. Lawrence Street. If you are north bound, turn left at the skate park and then right on Rollins. If you are south bound, when you reach the stop sign on Russel St. where you normally turn left, turn right. Turn left on Rollins. Turn left on Seymour back to Hwy 62 south of town. If you get stuck in the official detour you might be awhile. From the distribution of construction materials it looks like some sort of additional road work will continue southerly along 62 as far south as Ivanhoe.
The municipality will have a public information session on Invasive Species at the May 21st council meeting. 12:30 at the Community Center on Hwy 620.
The municipality has received overwhelming feedback against (roughly 80-20 against) creating public launch ramps in the municipality so that issue may be put to bed at the upcoming council meeting.
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. Once you are an LWRA member, we can provide you with a link to the "Rogers Preferred Program" webpage. It appears they throttle the 5G connection to 50MBps down, and 15MBps up. That is plenty of bandwidth for any single-family use. I have tested the connection and can stream three videos simultaneously on three separate devices with no buffering on any of them.
The municipality is on summer burning rules. Daytime burning is no longer allowed until November 1. No permits were issued last year. Campfires less than 3 feet by 3 feet are allowed from 7PM to 7AM. There have been exceptions for campfires in organized campgrounds in the past. I will check with the fire chief and see what the plans for permits and campgrounds are this year.
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 province is looking to make some modernization changes to the hunting and fishing license process. When you wade through the boilerplate, all it really does is introduce an app and allow for you to carry various permits and licenses digitally. For more info follow this link: https://ero.ontario.ca/notice/019-9441
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. Bass season opens June 28, 2025, 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.
