OK--Humongous

I have an old sailing buddy who was fond of saying, "Life is a word-eating contest." On my earlier post you may have noticed that I said we never had humongous snow--just a lot of accumulation over winter. I stand corrected as of last Wednesday--as you can see. Here is a picture from Main Street in town.

Snowfall

We are mercifully out of the Great Lakes lake effect snow belt--so we never get a humongous amount at one time. However, as the termperature seldom strays above freezing in the winter, we do find quite a bit on the ground about this time. Here are some pictures. The point in winter--for those of you who have enjoyed it--is a bit less hospitable this time of year, but it is every bit as pretty.

Coyote on Country Club

I would include a picture--but it would just be a black dot on the snow field that is the lake. The furry fellow was moving from the Elks toward Rain Creek--about even with Doc Fritz' place. If I had a little dog on Country Club--I'd keep him on a leash! He seemed confused as viewed in the binoculars, lots of looks over the shoulder and hesitation. We saw some tracks around the island a few days ago that we thought belonged to a dog--perhaps not. The snow creates a good record of visitors--but I'm not the best at deciphering whose feet belong to whom.

The Ice Puzzle

More like a jigsaw puzzle. The recent run from way above freezing back to freezing has left the lake in distress. The surface is carved into triangles--many not much bigger than a coffee table. The question: Do these fractured seams have the same strength as the surrounding ice once they re-freeze--or will they break again at the first opportunity? It is a bit unnerving to walk across the surface with so many cracks and with such a clear view of the lake bottom! It looks very cold down there. So far so good.

A Winter's Scene

A color photograph--but a world in black and white.

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS

From our family on Treasure Island and Lake Manitou--to your family. May your holiday be joyous and your New Year safe and prosperous.

Ice

When you are on an island, ice takes on a whole new interest when winter comes. Will it bear my weight? How slippery is it? Is there anyway I can cross to shore? I've done some reading on the subject--and I thought I'd share some things I've learned.

If you want to walk on water, the consensus seems to be that three inches of thickness is needed. You can get away with a lot less if you are on black ice. That was the condition we found at the beginning of last winter. After a rousing storm which truly stirred the last vestige of warm water from the bottom, we entered a quiet time which promoted a "perfect" layer of ice of about one inch in thickness. The still air and cold temps allowed for a uniform freeze that allowed a perfect crystalline structure to form in the ice--a structure of great strength. We enjoyed a full winter of this strong underlying surface, as additional layers were built.

This year looks to be a white ice year. We started with a nice one half inch of black ice, but it was quickly lashed with a warming rain, and now we have a hodgepodge which will probably serve as our base layer for the year.

For Cookie and myself, it means walking across with the kayaks close by. For those of you on shore, I'd recommend watching the ice fishermen. When they venture out to open areas of the lake, it will probably hold the average pedestrian as well.

Remember to take care wherever warming current may run. The channels where we are located fill with warm roof runoff from the channel homes and flow the water along the west shore toward the damn. Add to that the radiant heat of the seawalls in the morning sun and you have a pretty threatening combination on a sunny day. As we found with sailing, sometimes the greatest danger lies just before making port. The last few steps can be pretty exciting.