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	December 31st through January 6th, 2019

A new year started last week, but more importantly, the clouds thinned, the air warmed, and there was sunshine. A few of us felt as if it was time to tap the maples. A check of the forecast and calendar put a quick end to that talk.

It was (is) time to pull up an ice hole and plant some bait. Not on Lake Lucerne, though. We contend that there are no fish in Lake Lucerne during the Winter. Lake Metonga, on the other hand, has plenty as the many ice fishing shacks indirectly attest to.

Located just to the North of Lake Metonga, judging from the lack of shacks, Surprise Lake doesn't seem to have many fish, either.

Just to the North of Surprise Lake is the Court House. Again, no fish, but after sunset, lots of lights.

During many days last week, temperatures went above freezing for several hours. Snow in the open is essentially gone, but there are still significant drifts, up to 6 inches, on the shore and in the woods.

The snow is gone (mostly) but there's plenty of lake ice. It took awhile to drill through it to see just how much.

There's just an inch shy of a foot of very clear, hard ice covering Lake Lucerne.

There's ice on the roads, too. Being careful on the curves will keep your fenders happy and the trees less bruised.

The wild turkeys are back. They're the most skittish creatures in the Northwoods.

Just as last week ended, we finally got a significant amount snow. Storm totals ended up on the lower end of the forecast amounts, but there should be enough (4 to 5 inches) to get the snowblowers out of the garage and the snowmobiles out onto the trails. The heavy, wet nature of the latest white blanket will combine with plummeting temperatures to grow the lake ice past the foot thick mark. ATV and snowmobiles falling through the ice will not be a thing for many weeks.<br><br><br>-Nemo still laughs derisively at weak sauce snow storms.

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