how to make good ice...

flood an already frozen--but rough--pond or lake with inches of rain and then drop the temperature--

pam and i went out skating for a couple of hours saturday and again sunday, enjoying the resurfacing from the "inches of rain" wednesday and thursday and solid cold friday night.


saturday ice was pretty hard with a few rough spots where snow had built up. the temperature in the teens, twenties maybe, and not too much wind. you could skate just about anywhere and not slow down too much. the first two pictures were taken saturday. the one above shows smart's mtn in the background. we saw three groups ice fishing folk and stopped to talk to a few we knew. nobody had caught any thing of note--yet...


sunday was much warmer. in fact it was so warm--close to fifty--that by the time we left around 1:00, standing water was starting to cover most of the lake. one had to be careful as if you got off the darker, solid areas your skate blades would sink into the softer ice. the fish holes were still about a foot thick out on the main ice.


the edges were a different story. we tried first to get onto goose pond, both south at the dam and north at the boat ramp. the ice was thin to none from the shore to five-ten feet out, some places even wider. i suppose with a plank or waders one could get to the thicker stuff and i assume that is how the ice fishing folk got out there. we saw one spot by the beach that looked all broken up out to the solid ice--that was probably where the people parked at the dam went across. all the rain we have had over the past couple of weeks has raised the water level of lakes, ponds, and rivers. there is a good amount of flood water in the usual low areas too.



still a fine day to be outside and playing around. we saw josh l. fishing again today and his wife and daughter were skating about too. as we skated into the wind one time, i thought about the kite. conditions like this would not be all that bad for a little power kite action. a little wet if you fell, but at least you would go screaming across the surface. water slows things down.

 i made a few videos of pam and loaded one up for your enjoyment. the noise at the beginning is from a four wheeler racing across the ice. it was one of my former students going to pick up a fellow fishing buddy back at the town beach. after that stops you can 'hear' how soft and quiet it was skating.

ice is certainly the salient cover these days. i don't think i mentioned that thursday last week, my neighbor bob and i went up cardigan in the am. the icy sections that i had encountered the week before (with billy b and fam) were even icier this time. the water fall section was super thick ice with six inches of water rushing down different sections. fortunately we didn't have a dog with us--vader elected to stay home.

we are expecting warm with some rain for tomorrow and then "ice pellets" on wednesday. the ten day forcast has nothing all that cold coming in anytime soon...maybe hannah was right, i should set up the ice boat. winter can be strange in new england.