Winter's Demise

February 22nd through 28th

Last week started with snow. There wasn't a lot, and it didn't last long, but it felt very wintery. That was to change.

It got warmer. The snow began to melt and many boat lifts looked anxious to get back into the water.

Later in the week, we had a sequel to the movie "March of the Penguins" here. It wasn't as cold and oceany as the original and National Geographic did not do any filming. They were also turkeys.

After making it to the lake, they went back into the woods.

The bottle rocket war forts have suffered under the warmer sun. The Southern fort had issues during the war, but now the Northern fort is falling apart.

One of the local eagles was eyeing active squirrels last week. The squirrels seemed more grumpy than normal.

Knott Lane is in better shape than you'd think for this time of year. It's still icy and snowy, but there was some traction there.

The ice is 15.5 inches thick. That's almost a foot less than expected for this time of year. Now we're not sayin' that that ice will be out before Easter, but it might be a close thing.

You could really feel the Winter/Spring inflection point last week. To be clear, Winter's not over. There will be some cold and snow and ice to come, but the worst is behind us and the best is to come. Unless you are a snowmobiler. Then the best is behind you. <br><br>-Nemo's very close to adding spile to sugar maple.