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	November 30th through December 6th

The trees have long lost their leaves and the frost in the ground goes about 6 inches deep, but the lake spent much of last week looking like it did back in May. The water was cold, but open. Much of that Mayness ended late in the weekend.

Some took advantage of the mid-week seasonal warmth to do some light tree trimming. They piled the neatly pruned branches in a nice stack, too.

If they choose to decorate the shorter, more fun sized pines this year, they will require not so many lights and putting the star at the top will not require a ladder.

Deer, bear, eagles, squirrels, and other wildlife have been crossing the bar's lawn for years, but this guy was a new addition to the menagerie.

Saturday was calm and clear. We sent the drone up to check the ice around Lucerne's islands. There was some ice, especially in the bays, but the lake was mostly open behind the islands. It was totally open in front of 'em.

Over the hill just to the West, Lake Metonga looked open as well.

The North end of the lake, in addition to being dead calm, was ice-free as well..

It was cold at sunrise on Sunday. Very cold. 9°F cold. There was frost on the decks around the lake. There might have been frost on the pheasant, too.

There were also frost flowers on all the lawn puddles that dot the North end of Lucerne.

The most amazing and unprecedented thing was the state of the lake. It went from 95% open to 90% ice covered overnight. It was not quite ice-in, but it dashed the dream of a Christmas day ski run. Closer inspection of the new ice sheet revealed it to be very thin and fragile. It's unlikely it could support the weight of a pheasant.

The lake is at a delicate time. One more cold, still night is all that separates the lake from open to ice-in. Conversely, one warm or windy day could completely clear the lake of ice in under an hour. Our guess is that we'll be sending letters full of congratulations and cash to the winners of <a href='/icein/IceIn2020.html' class ='defaultlink2' target='_blank'>this year's ice-in contest</a> before the next summary page is posted.<br><br>-Nemo prefers his pheasant just to the right of the mashed potatoes.

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