Deep Winter's Untragic Demise

Early last week, Deep Winter continued its reign. It started off cold, -30°F cold. As the week progressed, its grip weakened. While many days did not win any warmth, the lake area did get a consolation prize of plenty of sun. And it wasn't too windy. Still, nobody swam.

During some of the colder mornings, the -30°F in particular, some entertained themselves by making bubbles and watching them freeze.

The surviving bottle rocket war fort still stands but is showing signs of its age.

The interior and rear wind wall are still in surprisingly good shape.

The sun combined with some warmer temperatures later in the week to grow an impressive crop of icicles.

The clear, cold rods can be used as wands to block curses from roving bands of dark witches and wizards or to throw curses at passing snow devils or squirrels.

Road conditions have been described as "not so good". West Shore Drive, shown here, is bad. Knott Lane is worse.

The snow that came with warmer temperatures later in the week did not help.

Under the fresh white is just under an inch of hard, cold ice. Under that, we think we remember an asphalt road, but it's been so long we're no longer sure.

It's strongly encouraged to brush off your windshield before slipping around on those roads.

As the week warmed, the sunsets got better.

It's been a few weeks since we've seen an eagle on the North end of Lucerne. That drought ended last week.

There wasn't many fish or cursed squirrels to munch so It didn't stay long.

With the warmer weather came frost covered reminders that the sapping season is close.

A glance at the cookers would seem to imply that it's not that close.

The sugarmen thought it was close enough and swapped wheels for feet. Injuries were light with reports of only a muscle pull and a bonked knee.

The snow and mild(er) has made last weekend peak snowmobile. Remember when sledding included walking up a steep hill?

On Sunday, a hole was cut into the lake ice on the North end. There's 19 inches of ice under all that snow and sled.

By Sunday, it was clear that Deep Winter 2021 was over. Huzzah! The overly optimistic and and maple sap filled sub-season of Thaw is upon us. Thaw is the time to celebrate the clearing of roads, the coming gathering of sap, and thinking about your date in the Lake Lucerne Ice-Out contest. The contest page will be up as soon as we can get the code monkeys to stop casting curses at squirrels, put down their wands, and start coding.

-Nemo's knee will be fine.

Deep Winter's Untragic Demise

January 46th through February 21st