Category Archives: Association News

Posts about Clary Lake Association stuff.

Upcoming Spring Maine Lakes Webinars

Maine Lakes is putting on a number of webinars this spring on topics of potential interest to friends of Clary Lake. The two that grabbed my attention (highlighted below) are one on PFAS in Maine Lakes and Rivers, and one on Maine’s Newest Aquatic Threats. You’ll find more of interest including a notice for the Water and Sustainability Conference on March 29th on the Maine Lakes website: https://www.lakes.me/ 


PFAS in Maine Lakes and Rivers
Tom Danielson, Maine Department of Environmental Protection
Thursday, April 11 at 5 p.m. Register HERE.

You have probably read about PFAS in the news lately as it relates to contaminated farmland. Tom Danielson of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection will present information about per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also known as “forever chemicals”, in Maine’s lakes and rivers.

Maine’s Newest Aquatic Threats 
Brett Willard and Christine Guerrette, Lake Stewards of Maine 
Thursday, April 18 at 5 p.m. Register HERE.

In early 2023, four new plants were added to Maine’s watch list for potentially invasive aquatic plants. Since their addition, three new infestations of one of these new invaders have been discovered in Maine lakes, with likely more to come. In this webinar the Aquatic Invasive Species team at Lake Stewards of Maine will discuss how to identify these four plants and their native lookalikes, how LSM is engaging with lake communities with active infestations, and how volunteers can become involved in battling aquatic invaders across Maine. 

2024 Clary Lake Ice Out Contest!

This is our fifth year running a Clary Lake Ice-Out contest. This year’s prize for first place is the same as last year’s prize, a $25 Gift Certificate to The Jefferson Scoop. Yay Ice Cream! If you guess the correct ice-out date  or come closest without going past it, you’re the winner. It’s quite likely that the ice will go out before the Scoop actually opens for business. As soon as the Scoop opens, we’ll pick up the certificate and get it to you.

In the event there are two (or more) people who guessed the same winning date, the person guessing first (based on the recorded timestamp) will be the winner and the other less-lucky (but still lucky!) person (or persons!) will win a laminated 8.5″ x 11″ Clary Lake Depth Map as a Clary_Lake_and_Meadow_Depth_Map_version_1.4runner up prize (see below). FYI, the earliest the lake has been deemed completely free of ice was on March 13, 2016; the latest the ice has gone out was on April 24, 2001. Last year’s “official” ice out date was March 29th which was correctly guessed by Vicki Grimaldi. She won a beautiful 12″ H x 15″ W framed loon photograph taken by David Hodsdon. We also awarded some second places prizes to a couple of other people. Visit our Ice In and Ice Out page to see all our historical data back to 2001. Reviewing historical ice-in and ice-out data is NOT CHEATING! We’ll be closing the contest to new guesses late on March 15th or sooner if it looks like ice out is actually imminent. Guess as often as you want, but remember: only your last guess counts!

Here’s the entry form. A few hints: 1) Use the little little calendar icon thingy and select your date guess  by clicking on the calendar, this helps prevent botched dates and 2) I’ll plan to update the list of people’s guestimates at the bottom of this message several times a day 🙂


2024 Ice Out Contest Guestimates

TimestampYour name:Ice Out Guess:
2/24/2024 9:15:24Lynda Despard3/15/2024
2/24/2024 9:25:03Margaret Fergusson4/1/2024
2/24/2024 9:39:15Karen Stutzer 3/28/2024
2/24/2024 10:41:34Beverley Bowen3/21/2024
2/24/2024 11:04:58Arlene Wing3/15/2024
2/24/2024 11:49:46Bill Hall 3/24/2024
2/24/2024 12:01:01Rich & Megan Luisi3/30/2024
2/24/2024 12:03:27Ronnie Spann4/1/2024
2/24/2024 13:09:15George Fergusson3/12/2024
2/24/2024 13:14:12Julie Anderson3/31/2024
2/24/2024 13:21:43Gayle Knight3/10/2024
2/24/2024 13:39:36Dedi Rapp3/25/2024
2/24/2024 15:07:59Wynne G Keller3/27/2024
2/24/2024 16:23:51Kate Seba3/25/2024
2/24/2024 18:49:19Ellis Percy3/26/2024
2/24/2024 18:52:17JoAnn Tribby3/22/2024
2/24/2024 21:47:47Stephen Viti3/23/2024
2/24/2024 22:53:57Brian Vogel3/29/2024
2/25/2024 8:31:50Donna Roeckel3/20/2024
2/25/2024 16:10:22Carolyn Curtis 3/17/2024
2/25/2024 16:30:40Margaret Fergusson3/17/0024
2/25/2024 18:02:22Cindy Norman3/17/2024
2/25/2024 18:02:23Ben Giguere 3/14/2024
2/25/2024 18:32:21Cheryl Smith3/26/2024
2/25/2024 20:45:54Erin Trundy3/19/2024
2/26/2024 7:50:41Don Hogg3/21/2024
2/26/2024 9:54:55Steve Relyea3/13/2024
2/26/2024 16:32:03Tristan Taber3/11/2024
2/27/2024 16:48:58Vicky Grimsldi3/18/2024
2/27/2024 18:14:54Thomas Gillette3/23/2024

CLA Hors D’oeuvre Party Announcement!

It’s never too early to beat the doldrums, or plan to beat the doldrums!! We’re looking to do just that this coming February when we expect the Winter Doldrums to be at their peak! We’d like to gather as many Members as we can to join in celebrating being together, and to break up the monotony and cold of the long winter with some warm cheer and friendly conversation. To that end we’re planning a party on February 24, 2024 at 7 PM at the home of our President, Gareth Bowen and his lovely First Lady Beverley! Their house is down at the end of the long driveway at 739 Gardiner Road in Jefferson in the field overlooking the lake (MAP). Various events have been held there over the years including our first Doldrums party back in February 2020, just before the COVID pandemic started. It was a great party and we’ve wanted to do a repeat of it ever since, and this is the first year when it seems feasible. We hope you can make it!

Mark your calendars!! This party is going happen regardless of the weather, but if there’s a major winter storm underway making travel unsafe or impossible, we’ll put the party off to the following weekend, same time, same place.

Please bring an hors d’oeuvre or light fare dish to add to what is sure to be a smorgasbord of little party delights, and whatever beverage you care to consume. Hope to see you there!

Happy Thanksgiving from the Clary Lake Association

This is a repost of a message written by my wife Margaret, 3 years ago on Thanksgiving. At the time we were in the middle of a pandemic and it seems like life had simply been put on hold, and there was little to be thankful for. The pandemic is over thank goodness, but for many of us, times are still challenging, life is still challenging. I thought Margaret’s message was as good today as it was three years ago.


Everyday should be and is an opportunity to give thanks.  During these challenging times, we can easily lose our footing in gratitude and only focus on what we don’t have, what we can’t do, and sadly for some of us, what we have lost.  And so, we must remain steadfast in our work of living in the moment, taking nothing for granted and performing little acts of kindness.  No earthly power can prevent us from living in this way.

May all of us, near and far, take a moment and remember what is truly important and know that it is found within. Happy Thanksgiving… now and always. Be kind and stay safe!

Margaret Fergusson

Happy Sunrise

I posted this on Facebook and Instagram the other day with the caption The first snow of the season is expected today. Y’all be careful out there!” and it received so much attention I decided to post it here too 🙂

Purple Loosestrife Eradication Project Update

20230816_120509There are a lot of things we don’t want growing in and around Clary Lake, and Purple Loosestrife is on that list. So far we’ve managed to keep on top of it but a small patch in a blueberry field adjacent to Clary Lake managed to get established and is going to take some effort to get rid of. Early last week Malcolm burson (pictured at left) attempted to dig them up by the roots but that proved way to difficult. Alan Clark stepped in and cut the plants down and bagged them up and tossed them onto my burn pile. This will at least keep them from going to seed and making the infestation worse. Next year we’ll round up a team of young vigorous helpers, arm them with shovels and spading forks, and dig them out of the ground properly.

Here are a few more pictures:

 

The 2023 CLA Annual Meeting Happened!

2023-Annual-Meeting_compressedThe Clary Lake Association’s 2023 Annual Meeting went off without a hitch yesterday afternoon at the Clary Lake dam. The weather was perfect and attendance was normal with close to 40 people showing up. Elections were held: Gareth Bowen is our new President, Steve Relyea is starting his second term as Vice President, George Fergusson is starting his 6th two-year term as Secretary, and Mary Gingrow-Shaw is starting her 5th (and final)  two-year term as Treasurer. Outgoing President Dave Knight and Kathryn Ference are both starting their 1st terms on the Board. Mary did an excellent job (as usual!) presenting the 2022/2023 financial report (our fiscal year ends on July 31st). Continue reading

2023 Annual Meeting Reminder!

The 2023 Clary Lake Association Annual Meeting is being held this coming Saturday, September 2nd at 2:00 PM at the Clary Lake dam. That’s less than 1 week away! As in past years, we will setup some awning tents to provide shade and seating will be provided as well but as usual, it never hurts to bring a folding chair or two if you have them. At this time while it’s still a ways off, the weather forecast for next weekend is looking good. That said, the rain date will be the next day, Sunday September 3rd, same time, same place. We will have our traditional potluck supper after the Meeting so bring your favorite salad, entree, casserole, side dish, or what have you and of course, bring an appetite!  Since previous pot luck suppers have been heavy on the salads, this year (like last year) we’re going to set up a grill and turn out some hot dogs, hamburgers, and veggie burgers too. Continue reading

Clary Lake Association on Facebook and Instagram

The Clary Lake Association has had a presence on Facebook for some time but Instagram was not really on our radar until just recently. We’re finally up and running on Instagram with the id @clarylakeassociation. One thing that makes this actually feasible is automatic cross-posting to those two social platforms and it appears that we have that cross-posting functioning now. I hope. Having to cross-post everything manually literally takes all the fun out of it.

Instagram is essentially a photo-sharing platform so we’ll be making more use of “Featured Images” because posting to Instagram requires them. You’ll notice an Instagram widget on the sidebar on most pages which shows recent Instagram  posts. We’re still experimenting with how to make use of this new dimension to the Clary Lake Association on the web.

The above picture was taken by Danny Bell.

2023 Spring/Summer Newsletter Is Out

The Spring/Summer 2023 Clary Lake Association Newsletter went in the mail about a week ago and is now available for download from our Newsletters page. Feel free to grab a copy and share it with your family and friends. Dues envelopes were included in the mailing, and I expect dues to start arriving any day. I’ll be updating the “Next Year’s 2023/2024 Membership List” as checks arrive. This year we totally met our Membership goal of 175 Members. Our Membership goal for the coming year includes a modest increase to 180 Members. Totally doable. You can help us reach (or exceed!) that goal by becoming a member today! Visit our Benefits of Membership page for more information about why you should join the Association, and how to do it.

Here’s a link to the Newsletter:

Our newsletter is mailed to about 250 people including all Clary Lake shore owners (check out our Parcel Map) which includes approximately 100 properties (almost 2/3 of which are represented in our Membership). If you’d like to receive a paper copy of our newsletter, send your name and mailing address to secretary@clarylake.org and we’ll put you on our list. Of course, you could also just join the Association 🙂

Upcoming Ice Cream Social and Meet & Greet Event

Mark Your Calendars! Our Annual Ice Cream Social and “Meet & Greet” event will be held on Saturday, July 15th from 1:00 PM to whenever, at the Clary Lake dam on the Mills Road (Route 218) in Whitefield. In the unlikely event of inclement weather, the rain date is the next day, Sunday July 16th, same time, same ice cream. We  postponed this event in 2020 and 2021 out of an abundance of caution, due to the pandemic. This will be a great opportunity to meet some of the many new CLA members and other people on and around Clary Lake. This event is open to all, not just Clary Lake Association members. The ice cream is free but donations will be gratefully accepted.

Summer 2023 Raffle

This event is also a great opportunity to buy raffle tickets to support the Clary Lake Association’s Dam Repair Fundraising initiative. Talk about a worthwhile goal! First prize is a  Masterbuilt Digital Charcoal Grill + Smoker donated by Louis Doe Garden Center. There are 3 great gift certificates for runner up prizes. Tickets are $5 each or 5 for $20. For more information about the Raffle and how/where to get tickets see the Summer 2023 Raffle page.

In addition to our regular ice cream offerings, Linda Gallion will once again be bringing a couple of buckets of her own very excellent home made ice cream (this year it’s going to be Blueberry and Strawberry). Linda and her husband Rick run the Clary Lake Bed & Breakfast. In addition to all the popular ice cream toppings, this year we’re going to have sugar cones which I have it on good authority are the environmentally friendly way to eat ice cream 🙂

Plan on coming and staying a while. There will be tables and chairs set up so you can sit and linger with friends, awnings to get out of the sun, and water to keep you hydrated… and most importantly—plenty of ice cream! There is also ample parking and you can always come by boat, kayak, or canoe. We hope to see you there!!

We’ve added this event to our Events Calendar and here’s a link to add it to your calendar. We’re posting about it early because summer is short and weekends fill up fast! We’ll post a reminder here as the event approaches! Stay tuned!

Summer 2023 Raffle!

The 2023 Raffle is Over!

We held the drawing at the conclusion of our Annual Meeting yesterday afternoon, September 2nd. The winner of the grill was Cheryl Willis, the Winner of the L.L. Bean gift card was Linda Gallion, the winner of the Reny’s gift card was Geraldine Hull (wife of Paul Barton), and the winner of the Sheepscot General gift certificate was Lee Sledjeski (a friend of our new President, Gareth Bowen). There was an additional 5th prize made and graciously donated by Linda Clark, wife of Alan Clark, a lovely sun catcher and a pendant made with real flowers (picture at left). This unexpected lovely final runner up prize was won by Steve Cowles daughter-in-law, Jess Puth.

We’ll be collecting the grill from Louis Doe Garden Center this coming week and delivering it to it’s new home.

All told we raised $2335 for our Dam Repair Fund bringing the fund balance to an impressive $26,310. We would like to thank EVERYONE who bought tickets this year for helping support our dam repair efforts.


The Second Annual Clary Lake Association Raffle is underway! Once again, Mark & Tara Doe of Louis Doe Garden Center in Newcastle have  graciously donated our First Prize, a Masterbuilt Digital Charcoal Grill + Smoker (pictured at left) with a retail price of $599. To increase your chances of winning something, we have three runner up prizes too! Our 1st runner up prize is a $250 Gift Certificate from LL Bean in Freeport. Our 2nd runner up prize is a $100 Renys Gift Certificate, and our 3rd runner up prize is a $50 gift certificate from Sheepscot General. Tickets cost $5 each or 5 tickets for $20. 

The drawing for the raffle will be held at the Clary Lake Association’s Annual Meeting on Saturday September 2nd at the Clary Lake dam on Route 218 in Whitefield. The meeting starts at 2PM and usually goes for about an hour and a half. We’ll hold the drawing at the conclusion of the Membership Meeting. There is no limit to the number of tickets you can buy so if you want to increase your chances of winning, buy a lot! 

Why Are We Raising Money?

We are raising money for our Clary Lake Dam Maintenance and Repair fund. The dam is in reasonable shape now but it leaks, and leaks only get worse, not better. Someday in the not too distant future we’re going to have to make some costly repairs to the dam and gate mechanism. This is your chance to help fund that effort and maybe win something as well. Sadly, money that you spend on raffle tickets is not tax deductible, even if given to a nonprofit organization such as the Clary Lake Association. Sorry! If you WOULD like to make a tax deductible contribution, please visit our Donate to the Association page!

Here’s what our tickets look like. You keep the big part. We keep the small part:


YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE PRESENT TO WIN!
 Make sure that you write your contact info (at least your first name and phone number) on the back of the ticket stub so we can reach out to you to let you know you won. Gift certificates can be mailed. Particulars for claiming the 1st prize will be furnished at a later date.

How To Get Tickets

There are lots of ways you can get raffle tickets:

  1. Make out a check made out to Clary Lake Association and mail it to PO Box 127, Whitefield ME 04353 and we’ll mail you your tickets! How easy is that?
  2. We’ll be sending out our Summer 2023 Newsletter soon with an included Dues envelope. Just include your ticket money with your dues and we’ll mail your your tickets! 2 birds with one stamp!
  3. If you know a Board member, go see them, they’ll have tickets to sell.
  4. We’d like to make it easy to buy tickets! You can simply email your name, mailing address, and phone number to ticketsales@clarylake.org and someone will call to make arrangements to meet up with you to get you some tickets!
  5. Tickets will be available at the Annual Meeting on Saturday September 2nd from about 1PM until the drawing.
  6. You can buy tickets at the Clary Lake Association’ Ice Cream Social (Saturday July 15th)
  7. Starting in June, we plan to have a table set up to sell tickets at the Whitefield Recycling Center (and possibly other places to be announced); stop by and grab some tickets!
  8. You can use the button below to buy tickets and pay for them with a credit card or with your Paypal account. Make sure we have your full name, mailing address and email address and we’ll put your tickets in the mail to you and put your ticket stubs in the bucket with all the rest. How easy is that!

We’re continuing to work on easy ways to see you tickets. Stay tuned for future announcements!

April 3, 2023 Ice Out, Finally!

I consulted with David Hodsdon a little bit ago and we are in agreement: the conditions for calling Ice Out on Clary Lake have been achieved. There’s still one small ice floe still drifting around down in the east end of the lake but it is not attached to the shore, it is visibly shrinking by the hour, and it will likely be gone by morning. It is not preventing circumnavigation of the lake.

The winner of the First Prize of a $25 Gift Certificate from The Jefferson Scoop is Gayle Knight! Congratulations Gayle! She was the only person to have guessed today’s date, hence there are no runners up. However, I’d still like to offer runner up prizes of a laminated 8.5″ x 11″ Clary Lake Depth map to the 4 people who guessed tomorrow, April 4th. They are: Sarah Hazelton, David Marsh, Brian Vogel, and Beverley Bowen. I’ll email you and let you know how to collect your prize!

I’d like to thank everyone for playing, it’s been fun.

Ice-Out Contest Closed to New Entries

I’ve closed the 2023 Ice Out contest to new entries. Now we wait! We’ve got 38 ice out guestimates ranging from tomorrow March 17th (sorry no way!) to April 25th (could happen!). I have no idea if there’s thin ice out there yet or not, but looking out my upstairs office window at the lake today I can see the lake surface has taken on a gray cast indicating there’s water soaked snow on top now. You can’t see that on the Webcams because the images are overexposed, but it’s there. Wet snow on the ice combined with a higher sun angle and warmer temps means winter is coming to an end and the ice’s days are numbered.

Stay tuned!

2023 Clary Lake Ice Out Contest!

This is our fourth year running a Clary Lake Ice-Out contest. This year’s prize for first place is a $25 Gift Certificate to The Jefferson Scoop. Yay Ice Cream! If you guess the correct ice-out date  or come closest without going past it, you’re the winner. It’s quite likely that the ice will go out before the Scoop actually opens for business. You were warned. In the event there are two (or more) people who guessed the same winning date, the person guessing first (based on the recorded timestamp) will be the winner and the other less-lucky (but still lucky!) person (or persons!) will win a laminated 8.5″ x 11″ Clary Lake Depth Map as a runner up prize (see below). FYI, the earliest the lake has been deemed completely free of ice was on March 13, 2016; the latest the ice has gone out was on April 24, 2001. Last year’s “official” ice out date was March 29th which was correctly guessed by Vicki Grimaldi. She won a beautiful 12″ H x 15″ W framed loon photograph taken by David Hodsdon. We also awarded some second places prizes to a couple of lucky but not that lucky people. Visit our Ice In and Ice Out page to see all our historical data back to 2001. Reviewing historical ice-in and ice-out data is NOT CHEATING!.

Clary_Lake_and_Meadow_Depth_Map_version_1.4

We’ll be closing the contest to new guesses late on March 15th or sooner if it looks like ice out is actually imminent. Guess as often as you want, but remember: only your last guess counts! Here’s the Entry Form: Continue reading

Help Wanted! Inquire Within!

Welcome to the Clary Lake Association website as we enter the doldrums of winter! If this is your first time visiting our website, an extra hearty welcome, and we do hope you’ll come back. If you are a returning visitor, know that your continued interest in our website and in the Clary Lake Association is greatly appreciated. The Clary Lake Association plays a vital role in protecting and preserving Clary Lake, and we very much need interested and engaged people to keep the Association functioning and relevant. We’re an all-volunteer organization and we depend on people like you who love Clary Lake to get involved and help out. Continue reading