Brushing

Highland East municipal workers have been doing an excellent job brushing between top of mill hill to Tusk Rd.  Unable to get them to brush beyond Tusk towards our association area.

Sad day

Reserving Xmas Trees

It appears that 'Tis the season' to reserve a tree on the causeway.  Decorations much appreciated by  all.

Some ice

Winter approaching

Beavers again

It looks like a new family of beavers have moved in close to the causeway.

Monster wind storm

    At 10:30 am today (Friday) the hydro power was lost and not returned until  5:15 pm.  Over 10,000 residents were without power in the Baptiste Lake/Bancroft area.   The strong winds resulted in 7 trees having to be chainsawed to clear the road between the island and Ojibway Road, perhaps a record.

    Although there are some trees down on some cottage lanes, no visible cottage damage on residences that could be viewed.  Some heavy rain but no washouts on the road.

Final road work

Four loads of 2" minus placed on the sandy stretch of the new road and another load placed at 'chipmunk springs' last week.   It is the same material that solidified the lower end of maple hill.  One more load will be applied to the end of Guest Road which gets washed out.  With hunting season starting tomorrow, there should be plenty of traffic to pack it down.

With fingers crossed, there is a chance that an excavator will remove the 'LC orange rocks' that decorate the road before the snow comes.  It will make our 'painter' very happy.

Getting ready for freezing

Well, most of the seasonal people have departed.  Hopefully the cottages are drained of water and antifreeze placed in drain traps.  Remember Jet pumps have a drainage screw!  If at any time you need information about your cottage from a distance, you know who to call.

The following site might be of interest.  It allows you to impose property boundaries directly onto the map of the island and mainland.  You might have to play around a bit to find the fit.  But it does work (if the site was copied properly).

http://www.giscoeapp.lrc.gov.on.ca/matm/Index.html?site=Make_A_Topographic_Map&viewer=MATM&locale=en-US

Still some gravel to be added for this year.  The incline at the end of Guest that washed out this summer and the sandy area of the new road.

With the start of cold weather, mice make major attempts to get into cottages.  A pail of antifreeze with a pop can with wire through it across the top attracts the mice to peanut butter on the can.  Apparently the antifreeze stops the mice from smelling after they fall in.  It works, but unknown if it can work for 4-5 months.  For some reason, mice like getting into the insulation in ovens.

Three storms in one week

Well, the roads are taking a pounding from heavy rains, three in the past week and each one seems to be harder on the road.  We'll try to keep the road fairly passable, but some caution is needed.

Storm

     Yesterday, Tuesday Aug. 12, around 3:30 pm the cottage area was hit with a hail shower, followed by 45 minutes of heavy rain.  All the cottages that floated into the lake have been recovered and are jammed into the boat launch area on the causeway.

     A cottager forward this photo of the hail pellets.  Thanks

   

Plein Air Arts Festival

If you are in the area, Sept. 10-13, you might want to participate or to view this outdoor painting activity, which centres around Highlands East.

Excellent description found at: highlandseastpleinair.wordpress.com

Grading from top Maple Hill

The road has been graded after the big rainfall on the weekend. Grading from the top of maple hill to the end of the annex on Clarke Road and down the causeway hill to the causeway.

The stone crush with fines on the causeway hill is quite deep and will require some traffic and rain to pack it down.

Bear alert

Small bear on the island.  It was peeking into a cottage through a window yesterday.  No sign of a mother bear around.  Watch you dogs.

Grading of Road

Saturday June 27

                                               STRAWBERRY SUPPER

                             Highland Grove Community Centre,  4 to 7 pm
Cold Plate
Adults $12, Children $6

                              Proceeds go to support the Historical Society

All welcome.

A new problem?

      According to a tradesman on the island, he working on a cottage that has a major infestation of carpenter ants.  He said that it may take most of the summer to clear them out.
      This is the first time that there has been a mention of this problem, according to this editor.

Poison Ivy Alert

     A few cottagers have come down with a poison ivy infection.  A well informed local resident says that poison ivy is definitely in Bancroft.  Thus, by extrapolation, it could be in this area.

    Respond to this posting if you have detected or been infected with poison ivy.

Bear alert

A very large bear seen east of the top of maple hill.  Also, tracks along the side of the road leading to mill hill.

Occupier's Liability Act

Several cottagers have asked about liability when someone comes onto their property and this results in legal action against the owner.  This Act seems to answer this situation.  It seems that if the owner does not create a dangerous situation, the person who enters the property takes the risk themselves.

file:///Users/johnjamieson/Desktop/Occupiers%20Liability%20Act%20Ontario.doc

Français

Occupiers’ Liability Act

R.S.O. 1990, Chapter O.2

Consolidation Period:  From December 31, 1990 to the e-Laws currency date.

No amendments.

Definitions

   1.  In this Act,

“occupier” includes,

    (a)  a person who is in physical possession of premises, or

   (b)  a person who has responsibility for and control over the condition of premises or the activities there carried on, or control over persons allowed to enter the premises,

despite the fact that there is more than one occupier of the same premises; (“occupant”)

“premises” means lands and structures, or either of them, and includes,

    (a)  water,

   (b)  ships and vessels,

    (c)  trailers and portable structures designed or used for residence, business or shelter,

   (d)  trains, railway cars, vehicles and aircraft, except while in operation. (“lieux”)  R.S.O. 1990, c. O.2, s. 1.

Common law duty of care superseded

   2.  Subject to section 9, this Act applies in place of the rules of the common law that determine the care that the occupier of premises at common law is required to show for the purpose of determining the occupier’s liability in law in respect of dangers to persons entering on the premises or the property brought on the premises by those persons.  R.S.O. 1990, c. O.2, s. 2.

Occupier’s duty

   3.  (1)  An occupier of premises owes a duty to take such care as in all the circumstances of the case is reasonable to see that persons entering on the premises, and the property brought on the premises by those persons are reasonably safe while on the premises.

Idem

   (2)  The duty of care provided for in subsection (1) applies whether the danger is caused by the condition of the premises or by an activity carried on on the premises.

Idem

   (3)  The duty of care provided for in subsection (1) applies except in so far as the occupier of premises is free to and does restrict, modify or exclude the occupier’s duty.  R.S.O. 1990, c. O.2, s. 3.

Risks willingly assumed

   4.  (1)  The duty of care provided for in subsection 3 (1) does not apply in respect of risks willingly assumed by the person who enters on the premises, but in that case the occupier owes a duty to the person to not create a danger with the deliberate intent of doing harm or damage to the person or his or her property and to not act with reckless disregard of the presence of the person or his or her property.

Criminal activity

   (2)  A person who is on premises with the intention of committing, or in the commission of, a criminal act shall be deemed to have willingly assumed all risks and is subject to the duty of care set out in subsection (1).

Trespass and permitted recreational activity

   (3)  A person who enters premises described in subsection (4) shall be deemed to have willingly assumed all risks and is subject to the duty of care set out in subsection (1),

    (a)  where the entry is prohibited under the Trespass to Property Act;

   (b)  where the occupier has posted no notice in respect of entry and has not otherwise expressly permitted entry; or

    (c)  where the entry is for the purpose of a recreational activity and,

           (i)  no fee is paid for the entry or activity of the person, other than a benefit or payment received from a government or government agency or a non-profit recreation club or association, and

          (ii)  the person is not being provided with living accommodation by the occupier.

Premises referred to in subs. (3)

   (4)  The premises referred to in subsection (3) are,

    (a)  a rural premises that is,

           (i)  used for agricultural purposes, including land under cultivation, orchards, pastures, woodlots and farm ponds,

          (ii)  vacant or undeveloped premises,

         (iii)  forested or wilderness premises;

   (b)  golf courses when not open for playing;

    (c)  utility rights-of-way and corridors, excluding structures located thereon;

   (d)  unopened road allowances;

    (e)  private roads reasonably marked by notice as such; and

    (f)  recreational trails reasonably marked by notice as such.  R.S.O. 1990, c. O.2, s. 4.

Restriction of duty or liability

   5.  (1)  The duty of an occupier under this Act, or the occupier’s liability for breach thereof, shall not be restricted or excluded by any contract to which the person to whom the duty is owed is not a party, whether or not the occupier is bound by the contract to permit such person to enter or use the premises.

Extension of liability by contract

   (2)  A contract shall not by virtue of this Act have the effect, unless it expressly so provides, of making an occupier who has taken reasonable care, liable to any person not a party to the contract, for dangers due to the faulty execution of any work of construction, maintenance or repair, or other like operation by persons other than the occupier, employees of the occupier and persons acting under the occupier’s direction and control.

Reasonable steps to inform

   (3)  Where an occupier is free to restrict, modify or exclude the occupier’s duty of care or the occupier’s liability for breach thereof, the occupier shall take reasonable steps to bring such restriction, modification or exclusion to the attention of the person to whom the duty is owed.  R.S.O. 1990, c. O.2, s. 5.

Liability where independent contractor

   6.  (1)  Where damage to any person or his or her property is caused by the negligence of an independent contractor employed by the occupier, the occupier is not on that account liable if in all the circumstances the occupier had acted reasonably in entrusting the work to the independent contractor, if the occupier had taken such steps, if any, as the occupier reasonably ought in order to be satisfied that the contractor was competent and that the work had been properly done, and if it was reasonable that the work performed by the independent contractor should have been undertaken.

Idem

   (2)  Where there is more than one occupier of premises, any benefit accruing by reason of subsection (1) to the occupier who employed the independent contractor shall accrue to all occupiers of the premises.

Idem

   (3)  Nothing in this section affects any duty of the occupier that is non-delegable at common law or affects any provision in any other Act that provides that an occupier is liable for the negligence of an independent contractor.  R.S.O. 1990, c. O.2, s. 6.

Application of ss. 5 (1, 2), 6

   7.  In so far as subsections 5 (1) and (2) prevent the duty of care owed by an occupier, or liability for breach thereof, from being restricted or excluded, they apply to contracts entered into both before and after the commencement of this Act, and in so far as section 6 enlarges the duty of care owed by an occupier, or liability for breach thereof, it applies only in respect of contracts entered into after the 8th day of September, 1980.  R.S.O. 1990, c. O.2, s. 7.

Obligations of landlord as occupier

   8.  (1)  Where premises are occupied or used by virtue of a tenancy under which the landlord is responsible for the maintenance or repair of the premises, it is the duty of the landlord to show towards any person or the property brought on the premises by those persons, the same duty of care in respect of dangers arising from any failure on the landlord’s part in carrying out the landlord’s responsibility as is required by this Act to be shown by an occupier of the premises.

Idem

   (2)  For the purposes of this section, a landlord shall not be deemed to have made default in carrying out any obligation to a person unless the landlord’s default is such as to be actionable at the suit of the person entitled to possession of the premises.

Definitions

   (3)  For the purposes of this section, obligations imposed by any enactment by virtue of a tenancy shall be treated as imposed by the tenancy, and “tenancy” includes a statutory tenancy, an implied tenancy and any contract conferring the right of occupation, and “landlord” shall be construed accordingly.

Application of section

   (4)  This section applies to all tenancies whether created before or after the commencement of this Act.  R.S.O. 1990, c. O.2, s. 8.

Preservation of higher obligations

   9.  (1)  Nothing in this Act relieves an occupier of premises in any particular case from any higher liability or any duty to show a higher standard of care that in that case is incumbent on the occupier by virtue of any enactment or rule of law imposing special liability or standards of care on particular classes of persons including, but without restricting the generality of the foregoing, the obligations of,

    (a)  innkeepers, subject to the Innkeepers Act;

   (b)  common carriers;

    (c)  bailees.

Employer and employee relationships

   (2)  Nothing in this Act shall be construed to affect the rights, duties and liabilities resulting from an employer and employee relationship where it exists.

Application of Negligence Act

   (3)  The Negligence Act applies with respect to causes of action to which this Act applies.  R.S.O. 1990, c. O.2, s. 9.

Act binds Crown

   10.  (1)  This Act binds the Crown, subject to the Proceedings Against the Crown Act.

Exception

   (2)  This Act does not apply to the Crown or to any municipal corporation, where the Crown or the municipal corporation is an occupier of a public highway or a public road.  R.S.O. 1990, c. O.2, s. 10.

Application of Act

   11.  This Act does not affect rights and liabilities of persons in respect of causes of action arising before the 8th day of September, 1980.  R.S.O. 1990, c. O.2, s. 11.

____________________

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Power outage

Hydro One has a planned outage, Thursday May 28, 9 am to 3 pm.

Drying out

The lower maple hill is looking better.  Some drainage still happening.  

Road names

This weekend

     A number of people are planning on arriving this weekend.  The road is very passable.  But two areas are a bit of a challenge, but should not prevent vehicles from passing.
     The lower maple hill has some washouts, but the area is becoming compacted and one should be able to take small vehicles around the washout areas.  Still some drainage and too soft for gravel trucks.
     The bottom of Clarke Road before the 90 degree turn had a wet area.  It seems to be passable and fairly drained.

Road Inspection

     Donny Bamford has toured the complete association roadway and made a list of repairs and upgrading to be done.  The most difficult area is the lower maple hill.  It is badly washout out and will need to be built up.  Donny suggests 2 inch minus stone topped up with A gravel.
     Sections of the road are too wet to bring in heavy equipment and will need some time to dry.  We would like to have work done by the long weekend but further damage to the road has to be avoided.
     Several trucks have travelled down Clarke Road and steer around the washed out areas of maple hill.
   

Blackflies

Say no more.

Lower Clarke Road

Sad and disturbing

This picture and the following message came from a cottager on the southern part of the lake.  In addition to theft, nasty vandalism is present in our area.  Keep vigilant. Please.

I just thought I would share some pictures of my dock. It made it through
the winter and ice just fine. Trouble is someone decided to take a chainsaw
to it just before the ice broke up. Pure vandalism for no good reason. 
When the police came to do the report, the officer mentioned that barbeques
are going missing all over. From 2 burner colmen to large outdoor kitchens. 
Feel free to post any or all of these pictures and if anyone knows anything
it would be appreciated. Maybe someone in east bay saw or heard something.

Strong culvert

The biggest of the culverts in our area of responsibility is just north of the start of the new road.  It carries a large amount of water from a lake in the southwest.  This lake has a beaver dam which can affect the volume of water.  The water has overflowed the road by about 2 feet at least on one occasion but the culvert is well constructed and was unaffected.

Thanks to wolves, the beavers have not been a recent problem. But, there has been some erosion of material around the outlet of the culvert which is working its way back towards the road.  It will require some large boulders to slow down the erosion.  Not an immediate problem, but it will require attention in the next few years.

Mushy

The lower 1/3 of maple hill, just before Africa Trail starts is very soft.  Caution if you come in.  Water is still flowing under the surface.

Smart metres

Hydro One came in today.  Fortunately the ground is frozen and he was able to come down maple hill.  Who knows if he'll get back up!

Anyways, apparently all our cottages have smart metres, but the one he replaced was "not so smart".
A new one was installed.

The smart metres transmit their signal through the air to some sort of repeater.  Last fall a contractor for Hydro One came in.  He had a detector in his vehicle and recommended that one particular metre be replaced due to a weak signal.  Thus the trip today.

The installer says that going into Hydroone.com will allow you to get a password and inspect your consumption.  Maybe someone can try that.

Keeps eroding

The lower 1/3 of maple hill keeps eroding.  Water got under the road and just keeps flowing under the surface.

Map

Lake open

Bottom of maple hill, just before start of Africa Trail, seriously eroded.  Water unable to go through culvert since it is too high, went under the culvert and undercut the road.  Water can be seen at the end of the culvert going under the culvert.

Lake is open.

Lake 'n mud

Road at 1040 Guest is like quicksand.  Be careful if you come in.  Lake ready to breakup.

Leeks

The leeks are up.  Too small for eating.

Not boat ready yet

Today a Hydro One pickup truck tried to make it to the island to install a smart meter.  It seems that we are all on smart meters, but one was not working properly.  But, the truck turned around at the 'blowout' on maple hill.
    Unfortunately the truck 'chewed' up the road pretty good.  Now is a difficult time to come in since the frost is still coming out of the road.  These ruts have a tendency to persist.
    Turkeys are mating.

Washout

Culvert problem

     The left side of the photo is north and the right side is south.  Notice that there is no water flowing out of the south end of the culvert (can you spot the end of the culvert?)
     All the water flowing down the north side ditch ends up, not going through the culvert, but reverses itself and pushes up through the middle of the road and heads north again.  The magic diversion.  Really.
   

More of road showing

Gravel appearing.

Hello mud!

This is the shot at mill hill pointing north.  The East Bay people cleared the road all winter and now they are seeing the frost come out of the ground much earlier than cottagers north of Tusk Trail.

Lots of snow still on Clarke Rd, but some patches of mud showing.  Snowmobiles still on the lake.

Road condition

The coming week will be the most difficult of the year since the road transforms from snowmobile friendly to ATV friendly, and back again!

Snowmobile traffic on Clarke Rd heading to the 'riffles' on Baptiste Lake.  The snowmobiles run over open water.  A waiting boat and staff haul out machines that don't make it. Machines are heavily covered with duct tape to prevent water from hitting the belt, which could lead to instant sinking.

Pumpstand

This might be of interest to people pumping water from the lake.  BW had this installed by the Pump Shop in Haliburton.  The bottom legs are filled with concrete to stabilize the unit.  The pump sits at the bottom of the drilled unit and is held in place by a 4 by 3 inch reducer.  The drainage pipe fits over the top to stop the dreaded beavers from chewing the potable water line (can you image the beavers doing this in the winter--I can!)

Sap

First day sap flowing, Tuesday March 10.   It is so warm that streams of water flowing down Clarke Rd south of mill hill.  Get ready for muddy season.

Traffic to the lake

Lotta traffic down and up causeway hill to and from the lake.  Deep snow on the lake.  No slush.

Marker

Someone had placed a 1 inch metal pipe, about 3 feet high at the south end of the island, solidly in ice.   Probably a marker for snowmobiles.  Unfortunately, at night with a blowing wind this pipe is a danger to a rider.

Ice carving

Artistic display in East Bay community.

Name your dock

Every year docks become detached from the shoreline and drift away.  Fortunately for this dock it has a sign to show the owner.  Good idea.  There was another smaller dock at the southern end of the lake this winter.   Sadly someone decided to set it on fire and it was destroyed.

Getting eady for Maple sap

Six weeks until sap flows.  Time to snowshoe around the trails to make collection by pails easier.

Wanna see your cottage?

Thanks to a friendly southern neighbour who forwarded this to us, this reference might be of interest to you.  It has most of our cottages shown, but not all.

http://ecottagefilms.com/#topSearch

Drifts

It just takes a little wind, usually from the south, to make the causeway very difficult to cross.  There is lots of snow around, but cross country skiing on the lake is difficult due to the slush that waits to greet your skis.

Causeway 'ramp'

The bottom picture is looking up at the interior of the ramp at the metal covering.  It looks like some of the metal covering could be cut out, exposing a hole which would allow for filling at some future time. It looks like the entire bridge could remain in place.  But perhaps gabion baskets would be needed at the ends to maintain the interior.  Thus, the bridge could be left in place and no need to disturb the surrounding soil.

The little rink

Well, it was once a good sized rink, but a foot of snow is hard to push with a blade on an ATV.  So this it it.   Flat ice, but very small.