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March 29th through April 4th, 2021

Last week started off just as you would expect of the end of March. The lake was mostly ice covered with a few fringes of open water. The air was above freezing during the day, below at night. Maple syrup season was peaking. The sap ran hard most of the week. The buckets on the maples were filled much of the week. This resulted in collected sap backing up A mid-week cold snap transformed uncollected, full buckets into cold and hard to pour "Wisconsin Coconuts" Harvesting these juice filled balls of ice starts with smacking a pour hole and an air hole through the icy "husk". A little tipping is then applied to get the contents of the nut to stream into collecting buckets. The empty bucket and husk is then put back onto the tree. The cookers were fired hard all week. With the second one burning up, it was confirmed that wood is not a good material for a fire door handle. Eventually there were a few good old fashioned syrupings. All around the lake, nature is starting to wake up and raid the bird feeders. After the cold passed, the lake began to deteriorate fast. The area around the Islands was ice free by sunset on April 1st. The first swimmers of the year were spotted floating around in the growing patches of open water. The first boaters hit the lake, too. The sun and warm that politely greeted Lucerne on Holy Saturday hurt the ice even more. By sunset on Easter Sunday, Wabikon and Riley had their ice-outs. Metonga was one patch of ice away from frozen free. Lake Lucerne had a bit more ice around mid-lake. One more warm day or a strong wind will rid the lake of its Winter coat. In addition to the last vestiges of Winter melting away, tapping season seems to be coming to an end. As the trees stop dripping and start budding, it's time to start planning pier placement and raft location. The first lake level measurement of the year has found Lake Lucerne is down an inch from the end of last year if that helps.<br><br><br>-Nemo maintains the lake is currently a bit too refreshing to swim in.

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