The Bear Essentials...

I think I've found the true test of whether you're cut out for lake living or just a pretender. Here it is:

When you wake up one morning to find a bear on your patio do you...?

1. Shake in your boots too freaked out to move

2. Call the kids to look, get on the phone to let your neighbors know and notify your local game warden

3. Whip out your gun and start shooting

Pretty obvious, right? Well, you'd be surprised. Seems we have a new visitor this month to our Lake Anna development (won't tell you which one, you'll understand why in a minute) and he/she's furry, big and black with a passion for trash cans and bird feeders.

The community reacted just as it should. Emails started circulating and the homeowner's association spread the official word from our local game warden about what we need to do to keep ourselves safe and to encourage our visiting black bear to move on.

Here is a link to the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries on the Virginia black bear. This really isn't anything new for Lake Anna and Louisa county, we have bears here. Truth is, they've been here a lot longer than we have.

But based on the reaction in our development, you'd think this was some menacing beast just prowling around waiting for the opportunity to eat our children and pets. In fact, one of our residents promised he'd take care of the bloodthirsty "vicious wild animal" himself and he was well-armed enough to do it. What nonsense.

Ultimately, I think the outrage from our community and a repeated recitation of the law forbidding the killing of this bear may have finally sunk in for this vigilante bear hunter. Alerting the game warden probably didn't hurt deliver that message either. But this is a lesson for everyone living and loving the limited wild Lake Anna can still offer. The wildlife (big and small) which we share this space with deserve our respect. A little common sense goes a long way ensuring we can coexist happily.

As one neighbor put it...if you can't live with that then you should stick to the suburbs.

So Much Lake News...So Little Time

OK...I have to make a full confession. I have violated one of the most important rules about blogging, DO IT. Between Spring Break, work and all of this really awful weather limiting our lake time , writing on the blog has been certainly been ignored in recent weeks. So, consider this a massive catch-up alright?

The Central Virginian reported this week on the lake's newest commercial development, Lake Anna Island. I personally was very excited about the original plans to bring another (desperately needed) lakefront restaurant to Lake Anna and the other commercial proposed for the building. But the developers were really run through the zoning/public 'outrage' gauntlet and I give them credit for coming up with this final incarnation. Apparently, the first phase is ready to begin...

"According to B.J. Blount, a partner in the development company BBCR, the necessary permits are in hand and the group is ready to begin leasing the first of 100 permanent covered docks that will be part of the project. Once the first 50 have been purchased, Blount said, construction on the piers will start, a process he hopes will occur within the next couple of months."

The North Anna power plant received it's annual safety review from the NRC. The Freelance Star reported:

"The NRC concluded that North Anna operated safely with all inspection findings in the green category. That means there was very low safety significance, and at levels requiring no additional NRC oversight. As a result, the NRC plans to conduct only routine baseline inspections at the plant for the rest of this year. Safety is an issue at North Anna because Dominion has applied for an NRC permit that could lead to the construction of up to two more reactors at the site."

And we've got to talk about the passage of new boating safety rules by the Virginia Assembly. As a boater, I say bring them on. I'm tired of sharing the water with people who haven't got the faintest idea about the rules of the 'road' or how to share the waves.

But that's a conversation for another day.

It's Tourney Time...Not Just for Hoops Fans

While they may not have brackets and rankings, it's tourney time too for Lake Anna's anglers. The Lake Anna and Potomac River Bass Anglers Tournament is one event underway here at the lake.

I gotta hand it to these guys and gals...I see them out in rain, cold and wind each and every day working our cove and surrounding environs. They've got far more patience than I do!

If you're coming to the lake anytime soon checkout any of our local marinas and you'll find more information about local tourneys and fishing events.

Lake Anna Hodge-Podge

What the heck!!?? From sunny and 75 to snowing and 30. To say it's been a weird week would certainly be an understatement. I'm so thankful we didn't fully de-winterize last weekend. As it is the water levels on the lake were so high on Saturday that someone walking on one of our neighbors piers it looked like he was walking on water.


In spite of the cold and windy weather there were a couple of interesting lake tidbits I found this weekend...both from bloggers. One is a post from a woman walking and biking to Florida and took a side trip for her first visit here and the other from a wine afficianado who made his first visit to Lake Anna Winery and provided a very nice profile.

Tap-Tap-Tap...It's 6:30 AM...or is it 5:30?!?!?

Now, I'm not a fan of this whole seasonal "spring ahead, fall behind" nonsense (especially "Spring ahead", anyway) but it was especially unwelcome this weekend when we woke up to rapping on our door at the ungodly hour of 5:30am on Sunday(like 6:30a isn't bad enough on a weekend). Who could possible be tapping at our door this early?

Imagine our suprise to find it was a beautiful male cardinal. And he was incredibly persistent. His first round of wakeup calls began from our main level deck. Once he saw us shuffling around inside dazed and confused, he quickly flew away. Within minutes he was back again, this time from the patio below the deck.

He tapped away at our sliding glass doors for hours. The kids were really worried he was going to knock himself silly...I personally can't imagine how he didn't end up with a doozey of a headache (he'd certainly given us one, by the second consecutive hour).

Later that morning we found signs that he's also been tapping away at a window at the front of the lake house. What in the world could he be after? Given the beautiful lake weekend we finally had my advice to him is "stick outside buddy...Spring will be here soon!"

Highways and Bi-ways

Construction has begun on a bypass that should make it alot easier for folks traveling to and from the lake in Spotsylvania County. The Fredericksburg Freelance Star says:

"The new road will provide traffic relief at the T-intersection at Spotsylvania Courthouse, which handles about 20,000 vehicles a day. In 2029, the bypass is projected to carry 48,000 vehicles a day. The first segment is a three-mile, four-lane road that will peel off Courthouse Road (State Route 208) near the Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park and Plantation Forest subdivision. It will go west of the courthouse, crossing Brock Road. It will end 1.5 miles south of Robert E. Lee Drive. The second phase will continue around Post Oak, cross the Ta River and reconnect with Route 208."

But this is a big project that won't see the first phase done until the end of 2008. So, it will probably mean construction headaches for travelers in the short term...good news for Lake Anna travelers in the long term.

So what's in that water anyway?

One of the joys of lake living are the constant reminders that we are merely sharing the space we call home. The woods, the water and the air at Lake Anna are constantly filled with all kinds of fish, fowl and other animals which we love watching each and every time we may cross paths. There have been a number of bear sightings at the Lake in recent years and months...but more on that later. First, I wanted to share one of the best descriptions of Lake Anna's creation and the fish which now populate the lake.

C.C. McCotter has been a fishing guide on Lake Anna since 1992. His website details biological surveys done on the local fish populations and lists an impressive array:

"Here are the original 40 species according to family group; American eel,gizzard shad,threadfin shad,blueback herring,eastern mudminnow,mosquitocfish,white sucker,creek chubsucker,shorthead redhorse,northern hog sucker, chain pickerel,Northern pike, common carp, bluehead chub, river chub, goldenshiner, satinfin shiner, swallowtail shiner, spottail shiner, pirate perch,white catfish, brown catfish, yellow bullhead, channel catfish, margined madtom,bluespotted sunfish, redbreast sunfish, pumpkinseed, warmouth, bluegill, redearsunfish, mud sunfish, largemouth bass, black crappie, yellow perch,walleye,tessellated darter, white perch and striped bass. There are rare,unsubstantiated reports of a smallmouth or two but they are not established in the lake."

And the biggest surprise for me (as an acknowledged and admitted fishing neophyte)...eels?!! In lakes? Apparently it's not all that unusual. Even so, I don't think I'll share that one with the kids.