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A gentle reminder: the Second (almost) Annual Clary Lake Association Ice Cream Social is this coming Saturday, July 17th, at 1:00 PM at the Clary Lake dam on Route 218 in Whitefield. I wrote about this back on June 19th, for more details see: “Get Ready for an Ice Cream Social and Meet & Greet Event!. It looks like there’s a chance of showers on Saturday but it doesn’t look like a washout and we’ll have some canopies set up in any case. If the weather really goes south we’ll postpone to the next day, Sunday the 18th, same ice cream time, same ice cream place. Hope to see you there!
July 2021 Precipitation as of 7-10-21
On its way up the New England coast yesterday, Hurricane Elsa dropped over 3″ of rain on Clary Lake. While this won’t end our drought, it will go a long ways towards replenishing ground water supplies, and it brought the lake up enough for water to flow over the top of the dam again. For the month of July we’re now at 5.35 inches, well above the average of 3.54 inches. For the year we’re now only (only?) 4.97 inches short of normal for this date.
[UPDATE]: As of this morning and for the FIRST TIME this year, the lake level is +0.08 feet ABOVE the High Water Mark having risen 7.08 inches since yesterday morning. Plenty of water flowing over the top of the dam as the picture at left shows. What a treat to have such high water this time of year!
Here’s a great video about Loons with fantastic photography. No word on whether Clary Lake’s loons are nesting this year. They probably are and we just haven’t discovered where they’re doing it. If they do successfully hatch out some chicks, we should know soon.
The 2nd Annual 4th of July Clary Lake Boat Parade made the Central Maine Papers. I’ll post a few of my own pictures soon.
According to organizer Shanna Pease, the Clary Lake Boat Parade is happening TODAY at 2:00 PM Rain or Shine! As my old boss Lem Brown used to say, “there’s no such thing as bad weather, only poor dress.”
A little late but better late than never, Maine Lake’s Spring 2021 newsletter is now freely available on line and is well worth perusing. The Clary Lake Association has been a long time member of Maine Lakes (formerly the Maine Lakes Society). Among other things, Maine Lakes administers the award winning LakeSmart program: “LakeSmart is an education and reward program that helps lakefront homeowners manage landscapes in ways that protect water quality. The program is free, non-regulatory, and voluntary.” The Clary Lake Association is considering participating in the LakeSmart program in the near future.
June 2021
I have archived the June 2021 Water Level Chart (at left). The drought deepens. We were shy 5.20 inches of rainfall at the end of May, now we’re shy 6.76 inches of rainfall at the end of June. We received a total of only 2.15 inches of rain in June, fully 1.58 inches less than normal. This brings us to 14.1 inches for the year to date. Our drought is nowhere near as severe as they’re experiencing in the western half of our country and especially in the southwest, but that is small consolation: this deficit will have a profound impact on our environment and ground water supplies for the rest of the year, and it’s not over. It’s so dry that even when we received a significant rainfall of 0.99 inches on the 22nd of June, the lake level only came up 1/3 of an inch. Lesser rainfall amounts during the month had almost no measurable effect on the lake level. There are two reasons for this: The primary explanation is that the ground around the lake is so dry that when the lake receives rain, the rising water is quickly wicked off into the surrounding dry shoreline. The other reason is that at this lake elevation, adding more water to the lake mostly makes the lake bigger, not deeper. Continue reading
Ken and Dedi Rapp have been Clary Lake shore owners and Association members for as long as I can remember. The family camp, originally built by Ken’s parents Bill & Catherine Rapp on property purchased from Paul MacDonald in 1967, is over on the northeast shore of Clary Lake, next north of Thomas & Delph Gillette. Ken’s daughter Jennifer Rapp Goyet reached out to me this morning to inform me of her father’s passing. Here is Ken’s Obituary:
Kenneth Sperry Rapp August 22, 1945 – June 22, 2021
Kenneth Sperry Rapp, 75, passed away peacefully on June 22, 2021 with his wife by his side. Ken was born in Pensacola, FL and has lived in Virginia Beach since 1988. He was the son of the late VADM William T. Rapp and Catherine A. Rapp, and was also preceded in death by his brother Richard Rapp. He was a proud veteran of the USMC, and served as a Marine Embassy Guard throughout various countries. After his military service he started out in banking as a Foreign Exchange Trader, then later became a Real Estate Broker. Continue reading
Shanna Pease is organizing the 2nd Annual 4th of July Boat Parade on Clary Lake. This is not a Clary Lake Association sponsored event but it is nonetheless a Clary Lake event and we are happy to help promote it and participate in it! Hope to see you out there!
