This Past Winter According to Chocorua Residents

Edited by Theo Page

Contributers: Alan Phenix, Pete VanderLaan, Marion Posner, Julie Lanoie, John Watkins

What was the past winter of 2014-15 like for those living in the Chocorua area?

We asked a few of them and they pretty much agreed — it was tough:

• “It was the CONSTANT cold and having to stay in a lot just to keep the wood stove going, zero or below every morning, then wondering if the car or the snowplow would start and scraping windshields after sweeping off 6” of snow every other day.  And roof shoveling!  But my wood stayed dry and the house was never cold.” Alan Phenix

• “Sitting in a cozy kitchen watching a mass of snow and ice moving off the barn roof—easily one foot thick and coming off like sheets of icebergs.  The firewood is holding up—we’re in the third rack now. The horses haven’t been out of their blankets in over a month and they are bored. My tractor is in their paddock and they empty the tool box on it with their amazing lips, turn on the emergency flashes and lower all the hydraulics.” Pete VanderLaan

• “Ice has become the enemy.  It is strong.  It defies my efforts to curb its power with sand, salt, or a multiple of products.  It simply reforms, reinvents itself on top of my warring attempts, in a slick, slithery manner.  There’s the perilous path from the safety of hanging onto the car door to the reassurance of the Post Office’s interior, or the glassy, glistening supermarket parking lot where you cling onto a cart for a semblance of safety.” Marion Posner

• “But then there’s the beauty of ice—Jack Frost’s intricacies on the windows at dawn, the loud sense of silence when you stand on ice in the middle of the lake under the night sky." Marion Posner

• "There was a long stretch of perfectly frozen, smooth ice before it snowed and skating across the lake was a winter highlight.” Julie Lanoie

• “The month of February set records for prolonged cold [according to Ned Eldredge, one morning was thirty below zero]. Now the seed catalogues have arrived in abundance, daylight is longer, owls are mating and eagles arriving to snitch pickerel the ice fishermen leave.  Three eagles ate 20 fish in one afternoon.” John Watkins

• “Winter is such a silent sustained vigil here.  Cars are silent with all the snow and just whoosh as they go by.  But the sun is strong now—we can feel the ice and snow receding.  The pine trees are waking up.  You can just hear them.  And a ladybug walked across my keyboard last night.” Pete VanderLaan

Wildlife Notes—Spring 2010

by Harriet Hofheinz

Welcome to another anticipated spring. This past winter the Basin seems to have been at peace: not a lot of snow, not a sustained bitter cold, and alas no unusual sightings reported.

Our loon pair has come back, always an anticipated and hopeful event. They are taking up residence in their old haunts. We give them our blessings and wish them well for a productive and successful season. The usual Chocorua mammals have been reported including deer, fishers, otters, coyotes, porcupines, and a few moose. Winter birds too, seem to be holding steady: hairy and downey woodpeckers, chickadees, titmice, sparrows, and an occasional cardinal have come to feeders, but are eating less. Both John and David reported that this year seed consumption was way down. In February, a bald eagle graced our shores on its way further north.

Alice Waylett writes a charming report on the beginnings of spring in Chocorua. “Today, I had a visit from a Great Blue Heron that politely perched on the lake edge right in front of my living room window. The phoebes are searching for nesting sites; please not over my doorway again! I had a great view of a fisher cat early March. It came down my driveway, up the kitchen walk and up on the first step of the porch. It seemed to be sniffing a squirrel track through the new dusting of snow. I watched it for about a minute before it ran off. The usual otter clan was entertaining while the lake was partially covered with ice, and quite noticeably skittering along the edges. My little deer herd, down to three this year, paid several visits when the snow started to recede. I only saw them a few times as the winter was such an easy one that they had ample opportunity to find something edible elsewhere.  The Hooded Merganser came by a few times, and for the first time that I have seen, brought along a significant other.  I’ve only seen a few Common Mergansers this year. Maybe the loons have sufficiently educated them to gather elsewhere? Our old buddies, the snapping turtles, won’t appear until it gets a bit warmer so they can sun themselves on the rocks.  Haven’t seen any moose since last fall when Momma Moose ambled next to my house with her two teenagers.  Amazing how near all these critter will come when we have a house in which to hide!”

Wood thrush.

The Thrush Survey will again be held on the weekend of June 19 and 20. This year, I suspect the black flies and mosquitoes will be out in numbers, but we will hope for the best. Please alert me to your bat sightings if any.

Comments and wildlife stories are always welcome. Enjoy your spring and hope to see you soon.

Renovation of "The Grove"

The view of Mt Chocorua from the “Grove”, a piece of private property situated between the Big and Little Chocorua Lakes, has become an icon of scenic beauty for New Hampshire and indeed the Nation. The site attracts tens of thousands of visitors a year who come to enjoy the beauty of the spot, to swim, fish, picnic, and launch non-motorized water craft. The Grove had, however, become badly worn over the years due to the heavy foot traffic it receives. Shoreline erosion, root exposure and soil compaction around the base of the tall pines was threatening the very reason why so many people to by this scenic landmark.

To address this problem, members of the Chocorua Lake Conservation Foundation (CLCF) and the Chocorua Lake Association (CLA) got together and wrote two grant proposals to the New Hampshire Moose Plate Program. One was funded in 2008 for a total of $30,000 and the second in 2009 for $23,128. This money was used to hire a landscape designer (Zachary Berger Associates), a tree and plant specialist (P. C. Hoag and Co.) and an engineering firm that specializes in shoreline stabilization (Certified Erosion Control – NH).

Work to restore the beauty of the Grove began in the fall of 2008 is now about complete. The initial work included the development of a landscape plan and the obtaining of a Wetland Permit from both the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services and the Town of Tamworth.

Planting of new vegetation to better define walking areas began in the fall of 2008 and has continued into the spring of 2009. In addition, use of a new technology (Filtrerxx socks) has been employed to stabilize the shore. Many large boulders have also been set in place to provide sitting areas for visitors and to help direct people along pathways to the water.

It is realized, however, that this restoration effort is just the beginning of an ongoing effort to maintain the Grove’s intrinsic beauty.

Conditions in the Grove will have to be monitored regularly to include the removal of nonnative weeds from the newly planted areas, the watering of the new vegetation, the addition of mulch to reduce soil compaction and,most of all, the education of the public as to the fragile nature of site and the work that is being done to preserve it for future generations.

Mary Scott: A Remembrance

by Toby Page

The other day, Theo and I went to supper at a friends’ house and met Rob Emlen, the art curator of Brown University, and his wife, a fund raiser at Brown. The conversation turned to summer, and Rob mentioned that he used to visit his aunt’s house in New Hampshire.

It was Chocorua, and the aunt was Aunt Mary.

“Aunt Mary got married to Harry Scott in 1906. In those days the house had no electricity. Aunt Mary saw no need for it, and they used kerosene lanterns.

“One time, soon after they first arrived, Mary and Harry decided to take a walk around the field and woods. It began to get dark, and they got turned around, not sure of the way back. There were no lights in the house, you wouldn’t leave a kerosene lantern burning in the daylight when they left for their walk.

"Pretty soon it was close to pitch black in the woods.

“They didn’t worry, they had heard that if you to walk down hill eventually you would come to something you could recognize. They came to a wet bog. They went around the bog, now thoroughly turned around, but no longer going down hill. They wondered if they could be lost forever.

"But eventually they came to a clearing.

"Suddenly they saw bright lights on the tops of the trees, then lower down on the trees, then noise, then a truck coming at them. They stepped out of the clearing, and the truck rolled by.

“ ‘We must be on Route 16,’ they realized (Route 16 was then a narrow dirt road).

“But to go right or left? They went left, and soon they found their driveway, and were home again.”

“When was this,” I asked. “I don’t know, it might have been a little after 1906, or maybe 1920.”

I went home after supper thinking about Aunt Mary and the old Hammond farm.