Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Water chemistry Hot Dog! Gained one foot in Clarity!

Oh Boy:
GF Lakechair is in flint caring for her mom, and nobody around to celebrate with! I have been doing Secchi Disc readings for over a month - THOSE BOYS OF SUMMER HIT ON GOOD ONE! Our lake has been holding its own on every other week treatments, lots of rain early in the season. Today they tried a new product, and I just got a 5'2" reading, best before this was 4.2" I am so happy!!!!! I can't wipe this smile off my face.................

Lynda,

Did you have your fish kill yet?

Hey Cecil:
No fish kill yet, what is taking so long? The company they picked is out of Ohio, so they got the MDEQ & DRN permits, then the Michigan applicators license, set to go, then told to get Mich Dept of Agriculture license. They should have known this all along. So I don't know what the status is at the moment - maybe wait till the fall, isn't the water too hot at 75 now?
Cecil, a big factor in improving our lake is the water dye.
We weren't getting any - Boys of Summer changed us to a Certificate instead of a permit which allows for it. They built up a base of it starting last year, and of course treating the CLP starting around April 15th instead of May 25 like the old company (and old LakeChair) so I only see a sprig here and there of a very immature plant (1-1/2 ft long) washing up, instead of hundreds of pounds of it. Banning the phos., and getting the storm drain vacuumed out, and the street sweeper is here all the time.
It has been one week since the last treatment and it has held! Normal pattern is for the lake to go green after a very windy day around the 2nd week in June, which we had last Saturday and we did not go green! We have also had 2 rain events, nothing coming in through the drains, it is still holding through the heat wave and WE ARE SWIMMING IN THE LAKE!

Lynda,

No offense to Michigan (I got my fisheries degree in Michigan and also went to highschool there for a year), but this sounds par for the course for the state bureaucracy you have up there. I doubt it's the applicators fault. There is so much crap to wade through in Michigan's regs it wouldn't surprise me if he wasn't told or some other agency came up at the last minute and wants a piece of the pie as in fees or just to make them feel important in the scheme of things.

I'm not that impressed in the MDA as I sent them a letter to find out the scoop on some regs regarding the legality of the import of dead fish for taxidermy use. Never got an answer. I even talked to their head person at an aquaculture meeting and still no response in writing.

As far as using a dye I'm a true believer in it now. I have twice the recommended rate for my big .62 acre pond and it's not only doing the job it looks pretty good. I wished I would have used it earlier. All the fish in that pond are feed trained anyway.

glad things are going well up there for you, 2 cat. Sounds like some really worthwhile improvements. Enjoy, you deserve it. You have done a good service for your neighborhood.

Couldn't have said it better Burger.

More Good News!
We are swimming in the lake, there is no problem with it at all at the moment. I counted 13 people in my section last Saturday, it is like the lake we used to have when I first moved here!! Truly I am overwhelmed and moved about it - just can't believe it. The treatments they are doing are lasting for at least two weeks. I think The Boys of Summer used something that binds the dissolved solids and sinks them to the bottom, it is a combination approach of things that they use. This is the combo of what has been done to bring about the improvement: Proper early treatment (5 weeks sooner) for the CLP, shutting off the overflow valve, clean-up, clean-up by residents, better fertilizer practices (we send letters to anyone who has any on a paved surface and we promote Scotts for reduced & 0 Phos) Vacumming of the storm drains by the city, and having the street sweeper here more often, and the Wonderful Boys of Summer who are just excellent.
I have a "posting date" with my Fav Guy, I am strutting around this lake with him so all these old ladies who gossip about me (denied anything wrong here, they haven't been in the lake for 15 - 20 years) will really have something to talk about, can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!! So happy. It will be the first 4th of July we could swim in our lake since 2003! There will be fireworks parties, just like the old days. I am landscaping all my new retaining walls and back yard myself, planting over $1,000 worth of shrubs. My dream is coming true, I moved here to garden by the water.

Cecil:
The water dye was a key here for many years because the lakes are so shallow. The DEQ changed the rules and took the one you use off the list of approved products - reasoning: if a swimmer goes under, can't see them to rescue" which is so silly cause it makes and keeps the water clearer. When the BOS came in, they divided up the lakes instead of getting one general permit for them all - over 10 acres, permit, under 10 acres, certificate. So the under 10 acre lakes get another product (not quite as nice/pretty as the one you are using). Once a base was built back up we began to see improvement. I would not want to live on a lake that could not have it. That pretty color just drives me wild! I love it. We used to have tonage of CLP to clean up (imagine how much sank to the bottom) now I see a piece here or there of an immature plant about a foot and a half long, instead of hardened, tough 10 ft. long masses of it. I can stand in the water at waist high (about 40 inches) and see my feet! That is all I ever hoped for.
Yesterday I was at a feed store garden supply, and a woman walked in from the MDA for a spot check of pesticide products they were selling.
GF and I just went to a forum about the great lakes, and nailed the drain commissioner on banning phos., he was supposed to stay and answer questions, but made a bee line for the door and left. (Give me two steps, give me two steps, give me two steps toward the door!) The city Env. Chick showed 2 maps of the watershed here: one from the 1800's and one from now. We are not on the map - I think we have to get designated as a bonified watershed with these six lakes. If we can do that, we can get lots of money (the county eng. told us the watershed people get all the money). I have requested those maps from her, as I am in a Watershed Planning Workship at the Lake Leader Institute at the end of this month. That should be our ultimate goal, get on the map, get the money, make a difference forever!

+1

2cat, your neighbors should be lining up around the block to thank you. The amount of time and effort you have put into this project is amazing. Talk about public service.

Jeff:
Most of them don't say much, it is surprising. However, we are not in this for them, we are in this because it is worth it and the right thing to do. My tools are headphones, and leaf blowers when I see those original owners, coffee clutch women coming on their nightly walk around the lake. I have not participated in their social functions where they argue over whose sandwich cost 50 cents more. They gossip about me, things like "Are Lynda and Stephen still married, I never see his car there."
It wasn't Stephen's dream to garden on this lake, it was mine. We work together for 30 years, his deal is his deal, he is a guy's guy. Golf, Racquetball, Poker, Wallyball, - I like it this way. This is Urban Stepfordville to the max, and I was the newcomer.....

Well I applaud you 2cat. Sounds like the "coffee clutch women" aren't people you'd want as your friends anyhoo.

That would be correct: this is how bad even the new board is, I sent in $146 in receipts for 6 months, postage, cards, photos, etc. They denied reimbursing me $30 business cards - a power trip! How sad is that? I'm paying my own way to the LLI, and it cost me $500 to get GF LakeChair elected. It's too funny!

Nope, it's HOA.

Dave:
What is HOA? A Texas term? I don't care what they say or what they deny me, I cannot wipe this smile off my face! Where is Bruce the dentist? I had TMJ from being upset way back with the Lake Chair idiot, gritting my teeth at night - now I can't stop laughing and smiling, so much that this TMJ is back, I cannot keep my face relaxed - I am loving this, I've never been this happy in my whole life, I love my lake and am very proud of what I have accomplished without having any real legitimate power. Smile on!

When hard work leads to the fruition of the goals you set out for, nothing is sweeter!

HOA: Homeowners Association. Also defined as cheap.

Got it: these people trip over dollars reaching for pennies like you would not believe! It is their mismanagement and neglect and ignorance that got us to this point in the first place.

The great treatment lasted 12 days. I see a turn for the worse, we made it through 2 gale force windy days, but the 3rd was too much. There were no significant rain events. The BOS will be here today - we are on the golf course schedule of treatments. I am not discouraged at all. If we can get these treatments to work with that amount of clarity, we will be able to get beneficial submerged aquatic vegetation going back in the lake which will take up some of these nutrients, and hold some of the sediment down. Looks like GF and I will go and harvest some Chara and try and get it going again, and do some clean up in places where people don't care over the holiday weekend. It is 61 degrees here on the 2nd of July, what is up with that?
LF

I envy you. I just heard that it was 85 degrees in downtown Dallas this morning before sunup.

62 degrees here this morning. Only supposed to be 85 and low humidity on the 4th of July here. First time for nice comfortable weather around here in a long time!

57 here 2 nights ago, and it's supposed to be in the low 90's by the end of next week. No rain to speak of in almost 3 weeks. The farmer that's 1/2 mile away fired up his irrigation system, and I'm seeing a drop in the ground water level.

Thankfully this has been a VERY wet spring and even early summer so far... If this keeps up, I should have great hold over survival for my trout. Any time the water levels don't drop too low they do better.

I hear those irrigators pump a lot of water. Is that true. Any idea how much in gpms?

I have a new one in the farm field across the highway. He's been going 24/7 the last two weeks. I guess growing corn for ethanol really pays!

Next time I see someone who knows I'll ask. If my 4" well can pump 100 gpm, I wonder what those 8" wells can do? A company over towards Knox wanted to put in a 16" well, but the county would't give them permission.

Well, it was the best 4th of July since 2003, the lake was swimable and enjoyable, the one sunny day, however we lost our clarity. The third gale force windy day did us in. The Boys treated the Thursday before the weekend, and got it better, but not as good as it was, so we appear to be in the same pattern, however with some improvements. The treatment was good for only 12 days. When the bad guys were here the treatments made the lake worse. Now, no green bubbles, no scum, no floating clouds of lime green, or green hugging the bottom. Secchi Disk yesterday was 2'2", but the lake looks good, which I don't understand.
This idiot woman caused a big stink (2x) over a posting issue, a "staple in my birch tree!" and how the sign is posted at the access site. This really puts me over the edge, as we killed ourselves to get these guys in here, and they are the best. I told GF Lakechair if I ever let my hair go gray and get a tight curly perm like that , just shoot me, I'd rather be dead.