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	March 16th through 22nd, 2026

The start of last week was dominated by the heavy, deep, and cold aftermath of Zombie Winter. We endured a one two punch going into last week. The first punch was a little over 10 inches. The second was about 20 inches. Digging out from under 30 inches of doom consumed the start of last week.

Drifting made the big dig a little diggyer.

The start of a big project can be the hardest part. It turns out that the middle and end, while quite eventful, weren't exactly strawberry festivals either.

By day two of the great clean up, we got more snow sign. The lake ended up getting two more overnight snow events with under an inch of total accumulation. It was physically easy but psychologically demoralizing to clean off the additional snowfall.

In between trival yet demoralizing snow events, there was sun.

With the sun came melting. The Bar's ice teeth became quite fearsome. Fearsome enough to bite down and snap the rough cut two by four (Boo!) protecting the cable that connects the Bar to the internet but not fearsome enough to cut said cable (Yay!).

Checking a propane tank first involves carving a path to the tank.

Then digging into a large lump of snow that just last week was the location of a propane tank.

By the weekend, the watts from the sun started to add up and chased Zombie Winter back to its grave.

Just a little more melt and some will be getting mail again.

The men of Knott Lane voted to take this year off from tapping. Others did not. Their taps were running well during the melt.

The roads cleared and joggers were spotted being all runny and fit.

Others chose not to jog.

The squirrels are back and all beggy.

We offered a small tribute to keep the peace. It turned out not to be enough for two and a heated argument broke out.

The resulting squirrel on squirrel violence was quick, savage, and entertained all (except for one).

By the weekend, the nights were chilly enough to turn growing lawn puddles into tiny ice rinks.

Our last task was to check on the ice that covers Lucerne. It took a while to drill the measurement hole.

As of sunset on Sunday, there's 21 solid inches of ice blanketing Lucerne.

The clarity of Lucerne's water is as amazing as ever.

By Sunday, the top of Knott Lane became traumatizingly icy.

The rest of Knott Lane isn't too bad for being less than a week out from the Third Horseman of the Snowpocalypse.

Judging from the looks of things, the lake level is low compared to last year. Lucerne really needed this past snow to hold its current level and needs a wet April to get back to last year's springtime peak. With the cold nights we've been enjoying, a March Ice-Out is not impossible, but is becoming less and less likely. Nine inches a week is the fastest ice burn off rate we've seen. That would put Ice-Out just after Easter. The only thing we can say for sure about Ice-Out 2026 is that if you don't enter this year's <a href='/iceout/IceOut2026.html' class ='defaultlink2' target='_blank'>Annual Knottlane Ice-Out Contest</a> you will not win.<br><br><br>-Nemo shovels decks and drills iceholes instead of jogging.

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