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Deep Winter VII: January Marches On

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January 45th through 51st, 2022

Last week, it was uncommonly cold again. We had planned to make the best of it by planning cool ways of showcasing the boiling water into snow trick during the day and then executing those plans in the cold morning light. The -20°F un-warmth of Friday morning froze the performance artistry right out of us. There was a little snow, some ice, and plenty of wind, too. A strong breeze midweek picked up fresh snow and danced it down the lake. The drifting on the North end was truly horrific. Some drifts crossed the line from ugly deep to stunningly beautiful. It looks like a crashing wave frozen in time. I would have liked to have a chipmunk or squirrel surfing on a little board in this image, but the chippies are all hibernating and tensions between me and the squirrels made that not a happening thing. The condition of Knott Lane can best be described as mostly passable. Mostly. Potawatomi Trail is ice covered, but shiny. As if Lake Lucerne Drive was not slippery enough... In a normal year, the forts from the annual bottle rocket war would suffer tippy walls and worse by this time of year, but the cold has kept them strong and upright. Drifting around the structures has made them seem even more formidable. Barring any snowmobile/wall interaction, the forts could make it to St. Paddy's Day. The squirrels and the deer on Knott Lane seem to be getting along well. The deer have not complained at all. Some blue jays have kept the squirrels from raiding the bar's feeder. Eventually the jays fly off and tubby little furries waddle up and empty the trough. The squirrel is not the neatest diner. Wild turkeys comb the snow under the feasting fuzzy for fallen seeds. When seeds are detected on the ground, some of the big birds rush in with the speed of a snowmobile. To help the big guys out, a path was blown on the bar's drive. We had planned on de-drifting the bar's entire driveway, but the snowblower's auger cable broke on the second pass. A stunningly warm Sunday made the task of fabricating and installing a new auger cable a little bit easier. The warm day also had many asking if January was at long last over. We'll see. Deep Winter has a nasty habit of taunting us with a seasonal temperature or two only to then drop the mornings back down to sub-zero and fill the days with teens and blowing snow for extended periods. If this keeps up, it's going to be a super late ice-out.<br><br><br>-Nemo wants so much to see a turkey slip on a banana peel.

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