McHenry County Blog

Spring had just begun to pop my daffodils when summer came.

It was delightful driving around my neighbor after attending the First United Methodist Church of Crystal Lake.  Newcomers call it “The Gates.”  That’s probably a real estate salesperson’s moniker for what is about a 400-home subdivision called Country Club Additions.

Taking home one of the two friends who slept over Saturday night, we found this toilet-papered home at the intersection of Broadway and Melrose Lane (Gate 10).

The flowering trees have not yet popped, but some teens gave two decorations of a different nature when they TPed them. Blowing in the wind.

Two fishermen were out trolling in front of CCAPOA’s Gate 7 Beach.

The swimming bouys are not yet up and boats are not anchored, so it was easy to fish this close to Crystal Lake's shoreline.

Two bicyclers had stopped to sun themselves on the beached raft.

Beats getting a sandy back and the view is hard to beat.

A power boat was being launched at the Gate 7 ramp.

"Keys Time " was being launched at the property owners' boat ramp. Any of the 400+ homeowners have the right to launh their boats at the ramp, if they join CCAPOA and buy a boat key.

Since my Class of 1960 high school classmate Mike Firth’s family lived at this home two lots from the boat launching, these scilla have probably been multiplying. I’m been trying to make the land next to Lake Avenue look like this. Maybe 50 years from now it will.

Scillia brighten this lawn on Lake Short Drive in Lakewood.

Both Gate 3 swings were filled with families enjoying the 87-degree day weather.

Gate 3 has a great view of the Crystal Lake Park District's Main Beach House.

Others were walking their dogs.

Gate 21 proven irresistable to this woman who was walking her dog.

Other neighbors were out raking leaves One said she really disliked having to put them in bags, a view I whole heartedly share.

This man has a higher tech solution to putting his leaves in bags. Guess when one lives in an oak-hickory forest, getting rid of leaves is a necessary evil.

This little pooch had just finished romping in Crystal Lake.

This little dog went swimming or at least wading at Gate 13 Beach.

Other dog walkers were at the Gate 13 Beach. In the background, a lake front property owner’s pier has been pulled from shore by the melting ice.

So, if you haven't taken your pier in before the lake froze, how do you retireve it when it ends up out in the lake?

My neighbor has drainage problems which he was trying to fix by digging a ditch toward the dry well in front of his home.

Hostas cover the corner every fall.

Some daffodils on Lake Avenue have made their appearance. The tree house can be seen behind the fence.

In the southeast nook next to the sun porch, the daffodils really made their presence known today. Last night there was only one blooming.

This is what happens when one does not divide and transplant daffodils.

The clouds are rolling in, so it’s time to plant those bulbs I didn’t get in last December that are sprouting the in garage. Maybe I can salvage them.

King of the Raft

The snow day kids camping at our house decided to go to the beach.

What does one do at a beach covered with snow and blocked by a 3-4 foot snow bank?

Playing King of the Raft is one thing.

The raft, in the summer out on Crystal Lake, is now on the beach at Gate 7 in Lakewood.

There was plenty of that today.

Snow drifting off Crystal Lake at Gate 7 Beach in Lakewood before the blizzard officially started.

This lantern was blowing in the wind at about the same time at Gate 9.

More tonight and tomorrow.

I got the boat in earlier this year than ever before.

My son and his junior high friends have been spending a lot of time at our Country Club Property Owners Property Owners Association’s Beach 7. Lots of sand, a raft, pretty warm days.

Zebra Mussels on a stick near Beach 7 on the south side of Crystal Lake.

Before launch date, he told me kids were getting their feet cut on zebra mussels.

I found my first zebra mussels while we had our pontoon boat anchored near the North Shore, where the bottom is rocky. That was July of 2008.

It’s pretty near the Crystal Lake Park District’s boat ramp, so I figured someone who doesn’t keep his boat on the lake had had it in Lake Michigan and decided to bring it into Crystal Lake for day.

How sad that he used such poor judgment.

A month later, they were on the south side of the lake. My son found them.

When I took the boat out last fall, I saw zebra mussels all over the pier poles.

And the photo you see here shows how the sharp-edged creatures covered a stick on the bottom of the lake.

The Crystal Lake City Council has certainly displayed good judgment in not allowing any boats to be brought onto Vulcan Lakes.

Crystal Lake's Gate 7 Beach at the Gate 9 end on the morning of March 20, 2010.

The ice disappeared from Crystal Lake on Friday, March 19th.

March 15th, same location. The ice on Crystal Lake was rotten.

Three boys of summer were out on the raft at Gate 7 in Lakewood, Illinois, about 8 o’clock Monday night.

I had stopped to take a photo of the sunset.

I guess they decided it was time to go in.

The first one let out a shout after his dive toward the beach. Apparently, he had dried out while on the CCAPOA raft on the south side of Crystal Lake.

I kept taking photos and got this one of another of the youths diving in.

Yesterday about 7:20 I drove on Lakewood’s South Shore Drive to Andy’s Family Restaurant for my Walk to Emmaus reunion group.

I saw women practicing rowing on the quiet waters off of Beach 7.

Off Gate 3 Beach were two fishermen casting.

Two reasons besides the water itself I like living near Crystal Lake.

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Men’s and women’s Walks to Emmaus are coming up. There are basically short courses in Christianity. They run from Thursday night to late Sunday afternoon.

In Barrington a Men’s Walk will be held June 11-14 and a Women’s Walk June 18-21.

In Plano there will be a Men’s Walk from Sept. 17-20, followed by a Women’s Walk from October 1-4.

Drop me a line, if you are interested. The email button is on the lower right hand side of the page.

Other articles about Walks to Emmaus:

From ”Head to Heart”

When God’s Messenger Came To My Door (As a Carpenter, No Less)

Of Jonah and God

Weekend at Resurrection Center

The Carpenter’s Helpers

“Detention for Jesus” – Making High School Kids Strong for Christ

Hannah Beardsley Middle School Principal Ron Ludwig Reaches Out to Fellow Christians to Help Crystal Lake Kids

Message of the Day – A “De Colores” Bumper Sticker

It was between 5 and 6 last Wednesday afternoon.

My wife and two of her girl friends were discussing chick books, ones about the stories quilts tell, which one’s cousin had just gotten published, murder solving clubs, stuff like that.

I joked that they should write a book about women getting together on a pontoon boat to solve murders.

Now that I think about it, maybe it would be my murder they would solve.

Maybe they would commit it (after all, I was misbehaving).

Anyway, I’m looking at the late afternoon sun reflecting off Crystal Lake, taking photos of and past the women.

That’s when I looked down beneath the neighboring dock at CCAPOA’s Gate 7 Beach dock.

Above, you see what I saw.

I think it’s the bungee cord that was found wrapped around my neck…in the forthcoming book, of course.

Think I will get a photo credit if they use this picture on the cover?

It was between 5 and 6 last Wednesday afternoon.

My wife and two of her girl friends were discussing chick books, ones about the stories quilts tell, which one’s cousin had just gotten published, murder solving clubs, stuff like that.

I joked that they should write a book about women getting together on a pontoon boat to solve murders.

Now that I think about it, maybe it would be my murder they would solve.

Maybe they would commit it (after all, I was misbehaving).

Anyway, I’m looking at the late afternoon sun reflecting off Crystal Lake, taking photos of and past the women.

That’s when I looked down beneath the neighboring dock at CCAPOA’s Gate 7 Beach dock.

Above, you see what I saw.

I think it’s the bungee cord that was found wrapped around my neck…in the forthcoming book, of course.

Think I will get a photo credit if they use this picture on the cover?

Before we left on vacation, my son found what appeared to be Zebra mussels at Gate 7 Beach in Lakewood on the south side of Crystal Lake.

A naturalist friend was over for dinner and I gave her samples to verify his identification.

The day after my son’s 11th birthday, we went to the beach and I found this shovel handle (no shovel, just the handle).

I called Crystal Lake Park District Director Kirk Reimer to ask if they had been found before.

He told me that Dick Vogelman had found them on his Shore Station two years ago. Vogelman lives at Gate 7 right next to the Country Club Property Owners boat launching ramp.

So, a plausible hypothesis might be that some CCAPOA boater was in Lake Michigan and didn’t clean the mussels off his boat before launching it in Crystal Lake.

As usual, the photo can be enlarged by clicking on it.