December.

Last week started like the end of the previous week. It rained. It was forecast to get colder. The goal was to leave the rain gauge out as long as possible but get it in before it froze.

Yeah. Well, the temperature dropped a little faster than we anticipated. The lake got over one and a half inches plus all the watershed wash.

That, and the rain turned to snow. We didn't get a lot, but enough to festive-up the area.

Soliciting Squirrel! No, we're not interested in a subscription to Seed Stasher Monthly.

Last Thursday, WPS pulled power poles. It was amazing how easily they slid out of the ground.

Bye-bye power pole.

The Northeastern corner of the lake has a new lump.

Beaver lodge! We're not sure how the critters got the permit to put it up.

The lake is at a critical point for ice-in. Ice sheets form, last ski runs are taken, and interesting icicles dot the shore.

Some boat lifts that were thought to be pulled from the lake have been reclaimed by the rising water.

After opening up for the weekend, Devils Lake has re-frozen.

Same for Lake Wabikon. Both lakes are not expected to be opening up again any time soon.

Lake Metonga is still open.

In the Northeastern corner, the creek flowing into Lake Lucerne has an ice cover. Water is still flowing underneath.

Lake Lucerne started to freeze. The North end of the lake had ice extending over 100 feet from the shore. Then the winds came.

Waves and chop broke up the sheet making the lake quietly noisy. The ice shards crashed into each other and formed a fragment buffer area that dampened waves before they could break the rest of the frozen.

Ice-in should occur in December, but it will be a close thing. The lake has a bunch of rain coming this week and then cold-ish. Then snow. The lake's watershed is saturated. That will mutiply the effect of the rain on the lake's level. If predicted amounts come, the lake will be at a high for the year. Huzzah! If you were planning to be up here for Christmas to go sledding, you might want to push that back a week or so. There is some snow but mostly there's not.

-Nemo; Dodging eagles and Cessnas while boring wee holes in the sky.

December.

December 14th through 20th, 2015