Area News Spring 2011

Kukagami Environment Watch                Area News



http://www.kewatch.blogspot.com/        Spring 2011


The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another. The difference between then is sometimes as great as a month. Henry Van Dyke


Ice Out!
Midmorning on May 1st the ice began to move! Strong south winds blew throughout the day, moving the ice up the lake. Masses of ice crystals piled up on docks and rocks. All the ice blew away from Klondike Bay...the big lake is going to take another few days. See lots more photos on the website...

Spring Road Clean-up
The official spring road clean up will take place between May 3rd and May 9th. Dedicate an hour to volunteer to clean a section of road in honour of Mom for Mother’s Day. To register for your section of the road, drop a line here at kewatch@gmail.com.
Bring a friend – it’s a fine way to spend a spring day while at camp.
****Please note! The City wants us to sort the roadside trash into separate bags of recyclables and garbage. We have clear bags for the recyclables, and black bags for the garbage. Please let us know if you need these supplies!****
****Also, the City does not want these taken to the transfer station. They will send a truck out to pick up the bags at roadside on May 10th. They want to keep track of how much and what kinds of litter is collected for their stats.****
Please leave your collection bags on the west side of the road.

Kukagami at the Movies!
Kukagami lake and area will be the focus of a feature movie during the month of June! One person is looking for accommodation for the month of June on the lake or along the Kukagami Road. Anyone who might want to rent out their camp should contact her directly: Her email address is jhacarlson@hotmail.com

Forests!
The Sudbury Forest Management Plan is available for public viewing. You can see the logging plans for all areas of Ontario. If you have a fast internet connection, you can find wonderful maps on this site.
KEW contacted Vermillion Forest Management to find out what's up in our area this year:
There are limited activities planned in the Kukagami Lake area.
There are harvest areas clustered north of Jackson Lake up to the west side of Ashigami Lake. These include several small patches of commercial thinning in red pine plantations that straddle both sides of Kukagami Lake Road. There is also a regular harvest block found along the south side of the old rail line, east of Kukagami Lake Road, but there are no definite plans for the harvest of these blocks.
Lastly, there is the public fuel wood area at the northwest end of Ashigami Lake. No activities are planned north of Ashigami Lake, except for Lakeland's fuel wood patch on the west side of Portage Bay.

Spring Cleaning at Camp
Keep the three R’s in mind while doing your spring-cleaning this year…Reduce - Reuse - Recycle. If you find you have clothes, books, toys, or other small goods, take them in as a donation to the Salvation Army thrift store, the Jarrett Centre, or Value Village. (all in the Flour Mill area)
If you have usable construction materials, donate them to the RE-Store, on Frood Road. Also, plan on shopping at the RE-Store for hardware, paint, sinks, lamps, and lots more. Proceeds go to the local Habitat for Humanity.

Water Watcher
Kukagami Lake is one of the cleanest lakes in the north. Spring fed, and far from industrial pollution, we are indeed lucky to live on its shores. Our water is so clean that many cottagers drink the water right from the lake, as they have for the past 50 years and longer. Is our water as clean as it was 50 years ago?
If you are concerned about the safety of drinking fresh lake water, there are a couple of options. The worst of these is to bring bottled water from the city. Most bottled water comes from a municipal tap somewhere. All of it comes in plastic bottles. There are health concerns with many of the plastics in our lives these days, to say nothing of the pollution from production, transportation and disposal of the plastics.

The best option for ensuring safe drinking water at the lake is to install a water filter. The simplest filters cost less than $300 and will provide pure, delicious water in a single tap you can use for drinking and cooking. For $1089, you can install a complete ultraviolet/filter system that will purify all the water for the entire house. Castle Plumbing and Heating has these systems set up with all the plumbing simplified and ready to install. It's easy!

Beavers?!?
Now that the ice is off the lake the beavers are back, and they are hungry! Are they cutting down the trees in your yard? There are a couple of ways you can discourage beavers from cutting down your favourite shade trees. The easiest is to pee on them. This is a way of marking your territory. And it gives the guys at your camp an excuse to do what they always do anyway. Who would want to chew on such a tree?
Failing that, the next best option is to paint the trees with sand. Use a latex paint, maybe clear or maybe try to match the colours of the tree. While the paint is wet, toss sand onto it. Beavers hate the texture of sand, and will leave the trees alone.


Stories from our Past by Debby MacKimmie

I don't have a place on Kukagami, but three of my Aunts &Uncles and two of my cousins do, as well as some life-long friends.  In the summer of 1970 my mother died, leaving my father with three somewhat wild kids.  After the funeral and some important "alone time"together, the three of us came to Kukagami to be with our family so my father could put our new life together. 

We stayed with Auntie Betty (Royer) for a while and with Auntie Maria (Del Bosco) too and visited with Auntie Dorothy (Del Bosco).  I'm not sure their camp was finished by that summer.  To add to the somber time, my Uncle John's (Royer) mother also passed away shortly after we arrived.  There were some very tear stained children at Kukagami that year. 

Of course, my Uncles were in town at work during the week, so the women were left to mind their own children, as well as their wild nieces and nephew.  We played and played all day long with our cousins and with the "Pella kids"too, leaving a trail of wet towels, life jackets and soggy shoes and laughter and screams echoing down the lake. 

This was long before Hydro or telephones came to the lake.  I can remember my Aunts cooking on their wood burning stoves and doing piles dishes by hand, with little help from us.  Some of my cousins were still in diapers! 

My siblings and I, our cousins and the Pellas recall that time fondly and with reverence and always refer to it as "that summer".  There have been many other summers, family reunions, celebrations and the like, but the poignancy and the hard work of our Aunties and our camaraderie was special. 

Anyway, one of my favourite things my Auntie Maria made for us was Cockeyed Cake.  It is a well known recipe and the only place I have ever seen it is in Peg Bracken's "I Hate to Cook Book", but even she doesn't know who to credit.  It is a perfect cake to make at the lake, as it is fast, simple and doesn't make a lot of dirty dishes.  It is also good for bribing wild children to behave!

1 and 1/2 cups sifted flour
3 tablespoons cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons cooking oil
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup cold water

Put your sifted flour back in the sifter, add to it the cocoa, soda, sugar, and salt and sift this into a greased square cake pan, about 9x9x2 inches.  Make 3 holes in the dry mixture.  Pour the oil into one, the vinegar into the next, and the vanilla in the last.  Pour the cold water over it all.  Beat with a spoon until nearly smooth and you can't see the flour.  Bake at 350 F. for half an hour.

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