Newsletter18 Armstrong St. Box 160, New Liskeard ON P0J 1P0 JULY 2010

Stewardship Plan - Public Meeting Summary

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The Hudson Lakes Association held what was possibly theirfirst “public” meeting at the newly-renovated Hudson Com-munity Hall on Thursday, June 24. The purpose was to of-fer an opportunity not just for our members, but also to thepublic, stakeholders, and others with an interest in the lakesto become acquainted with the recommendations of theHudson Lakes Stewardship Plan. 39 people were in atten-dance, including representatives from Hudson TownshipCouncil and several non-residents.

President BruceTaylor openedthe meeting withintroductions,and presented abrief history ofwhy the Associa-tion thought itnecessary to de-velop a Steward-ship plan, andthe steps that

were taken to get to the point where we now have a compre-hensive Background Information Report, and a StewardshipPlan. Bruce then introduced Randy French, the Lake Plan-ning Consultant who, thanks to a Trillium Grant, providedoverall direction in developing the plan.

Randy proceeded to give a power-point presentation outlin-ing the 29 main recommendations to come out of the report,along with background on each of the Natural, Physical,Social and Land Use elements in the plan. In his presenta-tion, he stressed that the background information was gath-ered and written by a committee of several volunteers, andthat this public meeting was another step in getting commu-nity response to the plan. The plan was mailed out to all res-idents of the lakes, and recipients were asked specifically toprovide comments, suggestions and criticisms by mail,phone, or e-mail.The main objections raised at the meeting were in the areaof the rights of property owners to remove trees and shore-

line vegetation, and to provide beaches for swimming ontheir own properties. Randy answered these concerns bystating that it is not the intention of the plan to prohibitthese activities, but to follow Federal and Provincial regula-tions to prevent wholesale stripping of vegetation from theshoreline and to prevent destruction of fish and wildlife hab-itat.

Septic tank inspection was another concern, and it is appar-ent that most lakes residents would support periodic inspec-tion of septic systems to prevent excessive Phosphorousrunoff into the lakes. This is a touchy issue, because of con-cerns about physical entry to private properties and manda-tory inspection, and the Ministry of the Environment iscurrently enacting legislation to address these issues. TheAssociation will be encouraging the Township and theTemiskaming Health Unit to carry out such inspections inthe future.

The presentation resultedin some good discussionson how we are to preservethe water quality, aesthet-ics, and quality of life thatresidents enjoy on the Hud-son Lakes. Both Randyand Bruce pointed out thatthe Stewardship Plan isnot cast in stone; it is anongoing project that canbe amended and modifiedas required in the future.

Apart from comments thatcan be sent by e-mail,snail-mail or by telephone, the next opportunity to commenton the Stewardship Plan will be at the Association’s AnnualGeneral Meeting on Wednesday, July 28th at 7:00 at theHudson Municipal Hall.

Military Land Grants HistoryRegatta - 60 Years

Duck Nesting BoxesIn Profile: Donald Bisson

Our Animal NeighboursCottage Recipes

Inside:

A portion of the crowd at the Public Meeting

Consultant, Randy French, ad-dressing the meeting

Some of the land in the Hudson Lakes area was origi-nally granted to veterans of the Fenian Campaign(1866), the Red River Expedition-also known as theFirst Riel Rebellion (1870-1871), and the South Afri-can Campaign - The Boer War (1899-1902). In manycases, particularly for volunteers of the Fenian cam-paign and the Riel rebellion, the grants were not givenuntil many years after military service was completed,and some of the veterans had passed away; althoughsome grants were given to next of kin.

In 1901, an act was passed by the Government of On-tario, “to provide for the application of certain landsfor volunteers who served in South Africa and the Vol-unteer Militia who served on the frontier in 1866.” Bythis act, an applicant, upon furnishing evidence satis-factory to the Commissioner of Crown lands, was enti-tled to a certificate of location for 160 acres of land.The lands granted were set apart by proclamation andlocated in the northern half of the Province of Ontario.

Fortunately for researchers, the indexes to applicationsfor land grants, and the registers of Fenian and SouthAfrican land grants are available on microfilm from theArchives of Ontario. I was able to order these filmsthrough the New Liskeard Public Library, and througha somewhat laborious process, was able to identify theland grants in Hudson, Lundy, and Firstbrook town-ships. These made for interesting reading, not only be-cause I found grants made to my own family members,but because the registers contained the name of thegrantee, the place of enrolment for military service,rank, regiment, years of service, the location of thegrant (township, lot, and concession), acreage, the dateof location, a description and date of patent, and re-marks concerning crown land sales.

Most of these grants were made in the period 1901-1903, so one must keep in mind that theHudson/Lundy/Firstbrook area was remote at that timewith no road access or other services. The grants weregiven sight unseen. Three of the grants in our lakesarea are as follows:

South ½ Lot 12, Concession II (now owned by the Ped-ersen family) was granted to Evangeliste Laponsie,

from Vankleek Hill, a small town east of Ottawa onthe Quebec-Ontario border. Laponsie volunteered dur-ing the Fenian Scare as a Private in the 18th Battalion.He joined up at Prescott in 1866, and served for justone year. He located his grant on May 4th, 1903, andthe land was patented on May 19, 1909. There is noindication that Laponsie ever occupied the land.

Almost the entire shore of Jones’ Bay was originallygranted to Absalon Greeley Allison of Toronto. Heserved as a Lieutenant in the Grand Trunk Battalionduring the Fenian scare of 1866. He was awarded partof Lot 10, Concession II, consisting of 109 acres onOctober 10th, 1913. The land was patented on Novem-ber 24, 1913. It is not known what relationship he hadwith William Henry Allison, who, along with a partner,John Shouldice, owned the adjacent lot on the westshore of the lake. W.H. Allison and Shouldice weredescribed as “saw mill owners”, and operated a smallsawmill west of Simmons Bay for a short time about1905.

The south half of Lot 6, Concession I consists of 146acres on the west and north shore of Spring Lake, nowowned by Brett Medland. The original grantee of thisproperty was William Henry Eagleson, from Ottawa,who enlisted in an Ottawa artillery battalion as a Cor-poral during the First Riel Rebellion of 1870. He ac-quired the land on May 4, 1903, and was issued apatent on September 26, 1905. There is no record ofhim actually accompanying the troops of the WolseleyExpedition on their cross-country trek from ThunderBay to Fort Garry, and it is unlikely that he ever setfoot on the property granted to him.

In the next newsletter, I will list a few other militaryland grantees in the area once I have completed tran-scribing the records.

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In Profile: Donald Bisson

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Although born and raised in Toron-to, Donald Bisson comes by hisTwin Lakes roots honestly. He isthe grandson of George and LouiseSimmons who built a home in Sim-mons Bay in the 1930’s. Donaldremembers his grandfather fondlyas “the handyman of Twin Lakes”.His parents, Ruby andEmile, moved to Toron-to before he was bornbut he spent summershere every year as hegrew up. After graduat-ing from Humber Col-lege as an ElectricalEngineer, he startedwork for the TorontoTransit Commission(TTC) in the electricalengineering departmentand remained there for14 years.

His mom became inter-ested in reflexology inthe late ‘70s after under-going successful treat-ments herself. Throughher, Donald felt himselfdrawn into the field aswell. Both were certified in Reflex-ology in 1978. After he and his par-ents moved back here to settle onthe family property, Donald estab-lished the not-for-profit OntarioCollege of Reflexology. The Col-lege has been in operation since1996 and, under Donald’s leader-ship, oversees about 35 teachers ofreflexology working throughout theprovince. In addition to running theCollege, he teaches, trains teachers,practices reflexology himself, haswritten 4 text books, primarily usedby the College, and has contributedarticles on Reflexology to medical

journals. He doesn’t have any cours-es scheduled locally right now butis hoping to get one going in theFall. If you are interested in gettingmore information on the College,the website is www.ocr.edu.

In addition to his accomplishments

in the field of reflexology, Donaldis proud to have built his parent’s9-sided house on the Twin LakesRoad. He still remembers trying tofigure out all the angles.

He has also had a long-time interestin the law and whereas he doesn’tsee himself tossing everything infavour of law school, he has beentaking law clerk courses online andhas just two more exams to write inorder to graduate.

It doesn’t sound like he has a lot oftime for other things but both he

and his wife, Valerie, made the timeto volunteer for the Hudson Library.They got involved when their chil-dren, Carina and Yannick, startedas volunteers. Donald is now in hissecond term as Chairperson of theLibrary.

In his spare time, he in-dulges in his love of an-tique clocks. He collectsthem, builds them andrepairs them. He huntsthem down on eBay andin antique stores. He fo-cuses on Westminsterchime clocks but is inter-ested in any that have acomplicated movement.I’m sure that if you askedhe would be glad to showyou his clock shop.

If that is not enough, hehas a keen interest in hiscommunity and intendsto run for Council thisFall. He says he believesthat Hudson has a lot tooffer and he wants to beinvolved in the future of

the Township and in making ourcommunity stronger.

Finally, it turns out, he’s also a bitof a technophile. He likes new tech-nology and is quick to adopt it anduse it to his advantage. Self-taught,he can set up computers, printers,programs, networks, and websiteswith ease and does it all for his busi-ness and, luckily for us, our Library.Maybe he’s not so far removedfrom “the handyman of Twin Lakes”after all.

The format will be the same this year with the boat parade starting at 10 a.m. from Jack McKnight’s dock, goingfirst to the boot, then around Jones Bay and finally on to Taylor Bay. The more boats, the better. Let’s make our60th Anniversary parade our best ever!

There will be no M&M’s BBQ this year but everyone is invited to bring a special picnic lunch. The best lookinglunch wins a prize. So get your crew together and create something unique. Judging will be at 12 noon.

There is a new category in the baking event – chocolate chip cookies! The other categories are for blueberry andraspberry jams and, of course, the perennial favourite, fudge.

With this being the 60th Anniversary, it seems like a good time to remember some of the good times from regat-tas gone by:

Dances at the pavilion Elwood Kidd and George Carragher in the 10 h.p. motorboat race Water ski shows Kite flying Twin Lakes Cuties, David Taylor and Don Hosking Scotty Grant & his float (made up of 2 canoes with boards between them) sinking en route – Hawaianpalm trees and all

Charlotte McCullogh and Sue Taylor as Daisy Mae and L’il Abner with a live pig Katherine Whitely’s photos and David’s game inventions Betty McKnight and the huge loon float Pavillion days – free orange crush pop and Epletts ice cream (Gordie Ross) Elizabeth Bowman and the diving contest Graydon’s little tugboat Dorothy Huston playing the piano in the pavilion and a whole set of fireworks set off at once at Beggs’cottage by mistake so no show!

Jousting event – standing on canoes and and jousting with boxing gloves tied to a pole – Tricia Hosking Spencers and Smiths always representing Fairy Lake Long marathon swims around Hawkins’ Island Don Hosking winning top boy in 1950 – 12 year-old group with Kevin O’Grady Bill Ramsay, Susie Aquino, Jim Ramsay, Cathy Ross, Ian Ross competing in swim races Ola McKnight and Gert McCullough in paddle boat race with Kay and Lowery Taylor – 80 and underage group

Reeves always coming up with a laugh with their annual float in the parade Bruce Taylor winning the underwater swim every year Bon fire on a raft in Taylor Bay – John Begg, Terry Haine, Pete Taylor, Don Hosking Motorboat races – 2 ½ h.p. – Larry Francis Armstrong’s party the night before Always having the regatta at the same spot, Taylor’s, – but we will be missing Ralph this year.

Thanks for the memories. Come out and make your own this year!

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American Marten – The Hudson Lakes area is an ideal habitat for marten, with extensive conifer forests and abun-dant prey, resulting in numerous marten. The marten’s main prey is mice, voles and squirrels,and the marten population fluctuates depending on the availability of these small mammals.They hunt day and night, and often a very vocal disturbed group of red squirrels means that amarten is on the hunt. The marten is opportunistic in its hunting, and will eat bird eggs, chicks,insects, fish and carrion. It will even kill hare; prey that are larger than itself. Clear cutting ofthe forest has a drastic affect on marten because of its reluctance to travel more than 30 metresacross open ground. They need a mature forest with conifer trees at least 4 metres in height. Themarten is numerous enough that it is not endangered, and trapping quotas, 24-32

individuals/year per trapper are reviewed annually. Marten are shy animals and are not often seen in the lakes area.

Fisher – The fisher, like many of its cousins of the weasel family, is quite common in the Hudson Lakes area, althoughsightings are rare because of its secretive nature. This animal is a vicious killer, and is extreme-ly agile even in trees, where it preys on squirrels. It is one of the few predators of the marten,and has a speciality that few other predators have; it kills porcupines by attacking that animal’sface, avoiding the defensive barbs, although trappers note that many fishers have porcupinequills embedded in their flesh. The fisher is larger than the marten, typically weighing up to 5kg, compared to the marten’s 1.5 kg. The male is much larger than the female. Fishers are goodswimmers, but despite the name, do not usually feed on fish. They prefer the marten and inhabitdense forest of conifers.

Weasel – Both the short-tail and long-tail weasel variety are present in the lakes area, although they are not numerous.These shy animals inhabit the dense bush along streams and in open conifer forests.They are quite small in comparison to mink and marten, and are a brown colour during the sum-mer months, turning white during the winter. They all have a black tip at the end of their tail.Weasels feed almost entirely on mice and voles, but occasionally prey on amphibians, birds andeggs.

Mink – There is an abundance of mink in the Hudson Lakes area. One trapper noted that “mink are everywhere”, buttend to prefer the sides of streams and the shores of ponds and lakes. Some even take up resi-dence under cottage docks, tormenting the family dog, which is never able to catch them. Duringthe winter, they tend to live under the ice of small lakes and beaver ponds, and are extremelyagile swimmers, able to catch and eat small fish. Mink have a lustrous brown to black fur, with awhite patch under the chin or on the neck. They are larger than the weasel, weighing up to 1.5kg., and anal scent glands produce a rank odour similar to that of the skunk. The male is almosttwice the size of the female. Like many of their kind, they are opportunistic predators, and willeat frogs, fish, waterfowl, eggs, rabbits, snakes and even crayfish. They are predators of themuskrat, which inhabit a similar habitat.

Northern River Otter – This playful animal is plentiful in the Hudson Lakes area, and in the spring and fall can of-ten be seen in family groups fishing in area lakes. They range in size up to 11 kg, are very curi-ous, and have been known to swim close to docks to observe people and dogs. They areextremely good swimmers, and can catch large fish such as lake whitefish and herring, oftendragging their catch onto a dock or raft to consume it. They tend to travel long distances eventhrough deep snow, leaving a furrow in the snow where they toboggan down slopes. Otters havebeen known to destroy a beaver dam to drain the pond, making it easier to catch fish, thus put-ting the beaver at risk of freezing. Otter have also been known to share a beaver’s house with theoriginal inhabitant during the winter.

Information on the Weasel Family in our Lakes area has been taken from the Hudson Lakes Plan Background Infor-mation Document. For more information on the wildlife in our neighbourhood, please visit www.hudsonlakes.ca 5

Getting to know our neighbours..........The Weasel Family

2 Heads Romaine, washed cut into size you wish and wrapped in a tea towel and refrigerated for same day use. It will rust if more than a day or if you use a stainless steel knife to cut it

2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed¾ Cup olive oil2 egg yolksJuice of half a lemon or to tasteSalt and pepper to taste1 cup of grated or shredded mozzarella1 cup Croutons

If you like anchovies add two or three to oil and using the back of a spoon belend into oilIf you like Worcestershire sauce add ½ teaspoon to ingredients before blending all.Place oil in salad bowl, add egg yolks salt and pepper, crushed garlic( anchovies and Worcestershire sauce) and lemonjuice. Whip all together until creamy.Add romaine fold salad over and over until covered with dressing.Sprinkle cheese and croutons liberally over the top. They will mix in as people serve their salad.

For the annual barbecue I did not use anchovies or Worcestershire sauce.Contributed by Elinor Armstrong

Great for Caesar Salad and pasta dishes too!

Sauce4-8 oz olive oilgarlic to taste (2-3 garlic cloves)½ teaspoon mustard powder2 squirts of Worcestershire sauce¼ teaspoon sugar2-3 inches of anchovy paste (from tube)ground pepper2 egg whites1 egg yolk

Add 2-3 oz of olive oil and everything (except eggs) into narrow container. Emulsify oil (about 30-60 seconds of blendingon high speed). The next step is the tricky part, gradually add remaining oil (in small batches) and continue to blend on highspeed to make sure the mixture is fully emulsified (about 1 to 2 more minutes).  Add eggs to mixture and continue to blenduntil the sauce becomes thick (almost the consistency of mayonnaise).  If sauce is runny, it did not emulsify properly andyou can try adding another egg white, or start again.  Sauce can be stored in frig for a couple of weeks.

Frenchies’ secret garlic saucecroutons – ½ loaf of french bread1/2 lb baconparmesan cheese1 head romaine

Croutons – Cut french bread into slices, butter both sides, then cut into medium sized cubes and sprinkle with garlic powder.Put on cookie sheet and heat in 300F oven until slightly brown.  Stir occasionally so all sides are evenly browned.Add sauce, bacon and parmesan cheese to hand torn romaine and toss thoroughly. Add croutons and toss again.  Garnishwith lemon chunks.

Contributed by Randy French, French Planning Services

The Cottage Recipe Box

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With the assistance of Pete Gilboe and Dick Mongeon,the Temiskaming Anglers and Hunters Youth Groupundertook a project this past year to construct andplace duck nesting boxes in the lakes area. They decid-ed on this endeavour as it was “kid-friendly” and mak-ing duck nesting boxes is a common, inexpensivewildlife project that provides habitat that is generallywell used by the wildlife. To fund the purchase of ma-terials needed, they applied to the MNR CommunityFisheries and Wildlife Involvement Program(CFWIP*) for a grant. They then built the boxes overthe winter. Shawn Foley of Pike Lake, with his knowl-edge of the area, helped in choosing the sites and erect-ing the boxes in late winter.  He has made and placedboxes on Pike for several years so was invaluable.Many other TAHA members (adults and youth) helpedwith the assembly and placement of the boxes. In all12 boxes were placed: 2 in the the "back bay" of Bartle,4 on Pike and 6 on Lower Twin. The boxes are de-signed for wood ducks and goldeneyes (another duckspecies that naturally nest in tree cavities). Sometimes

“other critters” use the boxes but as Pete tells us, “hey -it’s all habitat!”.

The boxes will be checked this winter to see if therewere any users (Mike Anderson advises that it's oftenYear 2 before the female ducks use new boxes), and toconduct any maintenance needed. This will be an annu-al job to ensure that they are properly maintained.No banding is done of the ducks in the boxes; the birdsare only there during nesting season and can’t be dis-turbed. All of the ducklings (if there are any) should begone by now, so summer lakes users can usually ap-proach the boxes after July 1 without fear of disturbingthe residents - but it's best to observe from a distancewith binoculars just in case there's a late brood still inthere. Certainly by late summer you could go right upto them.    Please don’t open the boxes to lookinside (they have a hinged side for cleanout) becausethe group still needs to inspect the contents to see ifthey've been used - and by whom.

 In addition to the duck boxes, the group has built twoloon nesting platforms, but got them made too late forthis season. These will be placed on the lakes this fall;if anyone has suggestions on where to place them,please let pass on your suggestions to Pete Gilboe orDick Mongeon. The idea of these (there are alreadysome on Twin) is to protect the loon nests from flood-ing (or from being stranded high and dry) by water lev-el fluctuations, and also to protect against wash fromboat wakes. Loons nest very, very close to the water'sedge (if you think they're awkward flyers you shouldsee them try to walk!) and so they are very vulnerableto even very small water level changes. Incidentally itappears there is one baby on Bartle this year and IraMurphy reports 2 little ones on Fairy.

 The group also built several bat houses (very easy tomake out of plywood) and put them up around Bartleand Pike in the hope that maybe they'd encourage bats,thereby discouraging mosquitoes.

Do you have any ideas for other fish or wildlife proj-ects in the Lakes area? Do you want to help out thegroup or be part of the winter monitoring? They havenot applied for any funding yet but the applicationdeadline is early to mid winter for the 2011 season soif you have a great idea or just want to help out, pleaseget in touch with Pete or Dick.

*The CFWIP program is run by MNR to provide funds forany project that benefits habitat for fish and wildlife. TheLakes Assoc. could certainly apply if there is interest - ei-ther to continue this project or start something new.

Duck Nesting Boxes around the Lakes

TAHA Youth Group members proudly displaying theirhandiwork.Goldeneye Wood Duck

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e DIRECTORS e

Bruce Taylor, President (Twin)Don Hosking, Vice-President (Twin)

Bill Ramsay, Secretary (Twin)Brett Medland (Bartle)

Richard Mongeon (Pike) Maria Breunig (Fairy)

e ADDRESS e18 Armstrong Street,

Box 160,New Liskeard Ontario P0J 1P0

Newsletter EditorPenny Graydon (Twin), 647-5870

Website: www.hudsonlakes.ca

705-432-2976705-647-7804705-647-5362705-647-4635705-647-3829705-647-4975

Hudson Lakes AssociationBackground Information Report

Get your own copy of this fascinating report - full of interesting facts and informationabout the Hudson Lakes.

Only $20.00Contact Bill Ramsay (647-4010) or Bruce Taylor (647-4863)

Hudson Lakes AssociationAnnual General Meeting

Meet the Stuarts. Paul (47) and Andrea Stuart-Blain (42)inherit the family cottage after their mother Edna passedaway. Their grandparents built the original part in 1966. in1980, when their parents Richard and Edna inherited it, anaddition was added and a bunkie for each child was con-structed. They have now grown into individual family cot-tages, and they share the original cottage for familyentertaining. When Edna, (predeceased by Richard) passesaway in January of 2010, the family cottage was willed toPaul and Andrea's families. What a gift! Or is it??

The cottage was inherited by Richard and Edna in 1980for $38,000. In today's market, it is now valued at$225,000. At the time of transfer of the cottage to Pauland Andrea, Edna is deemed to have disposed of the prop-erty at its current market value of $225,000, resulting inan immediate capital gain of $ 187,000 of which 50% or$93,000 is taxable at a personal tax rate applicable to Ed-na's estate. Furthermore, had Edna elected to use her$100,000 capital gain deduction in 1994 the capital gainexposure would be even greater.

What could the Stuarts have done to avoid the sizeablecapital gains tax payment on the transfer of the cottage?Firstly, they should keep track of all improvements to thecottage. These reduce the amount of capital gains tax tobe paid. Secondly, if Edna is life insurable, and she hadgone to see her agent at Tench MacDiarmid InsuranceBrokers, she could have gotten a Legacy Bond - a form oflife insurance that pays the capital gains tax when she dies.The monthly payments for this bond are quite reasonable.