Hey Mik!
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So moving to Montana for the weather is working out!
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The lake is freezing over. I’m told it used to freeze solidly every year and that people could drive on it.
This is the first time I’ve seen it freeze since we moved here.
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Former co-workers who used to ice fish told me the first rule of ice fishing: Always take your buddy's pickup truck out on the ice.
My friends used to brave the elements, simply driving out there, drilling a hole, and fishing. Maybe a tent for some shelter from wind.
Both Lake Michigan and Green Bay used to freeze over, Green Bay so much so that ice fishing hut villages would appear across from some of the towns that border the bay. They were pretty rudimentary, pretty much equivalent to a storage shed.
I just did a search for "ice huts" and it's amazing what came up. Damn things look better than my house.
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Former co-workers who used to ice fish told me the first rule of ice fishing: Always take your buddy's pickup truck out on the ice.
My friends used to brave the elements, simply driving out there, drilling a hole, and fishing. Maybe a tent for some shelter from wind.
Both Lake Michigan and Green Bay used to freeze over, Green Bay so much so that ice fishing hut villages would appear across from some of the towns that border the bay. They were pretty rudimentary, pretty much equivalent to a storage shed.
I just did a search for "ice huts" and it's amazing what came up. Damn things look better than my house.
Always take your buddy's pickup truck out on the ice.
When we lived in WI, we never did ice fishing or anything like that, but we used to see all kinds of cars and ice huts (and fancier ice "houses") out on the lake all the time. But at the same time, there would be warnings when the temps would go up just a little, and I always felt that it would require so much vigilance... I wouldn't be comfortable with it.
I would love to go ice skating outside on a lake though, in some pretty spot, surrounded by woods... I haven't done that since I was a kid. There was a place like that we used to go when I was a kid, I loved being out there! And of course the hot chocolate in the lake house afterwards was always my favorite part!
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The pond behind our house has also frozen over. I daresay it’s solid enough to skate on as it been frozen for over a week and it’s pretty small. I think it would be pretty cool to skate on it.
But it’s not going to happen. The HOA strictly forbids it and unless we get a big wind there is too much snow on it to skate anyway.
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It's not just the number of days frozen, but the thickness of the frozen layer. I can't remember what the ice thickness guidelines are, but there's a whole set of them, whether it's skating, or driving a car across etc.
I can understand the HOA's strictness, but too bad, skating outside is just neat. (I'm feeling awfully nostalgic this morning... maybe I should go make some hot chocolate...)
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The talk of ice fishing reminded me of the winter I worked through in northern Minnesota. With 10,000 lakes, you might well imagine that ice fishing was common during the winters there.
Some of the ice fishing houses/huts were quite substantial, with heating and cooking provisions and even bunks for sleeping in a few. They were dragged from the shore by pickup trucks when the ice became solid enough and normally stayed through the winter. With the coming of spring, they were pulled back to shore, but there were a few that tried to extend the season a little too far. You could see them floating, usually kitty-cornered, in the lake as the ice gave way.
Ice skating and hockey were also naturally very popular. Almost every town of any size had an arena for the local hockey teams. They were normally unheated and left open at night to freeze the rink. Infrared heaters made the stands reasonably comfortable with just a sweater or light coat during the games and the restrooms and concession stand were heated.
I remember sitting in a fellow worker's home one winter evening looking at the lake nearby. A young boy, maybe about eight years old, came down to the lake with a hockey stick and a broom slung over his shoulder. By the light of a nearby outdoor luminaire, he proceeded to sweep snow off an area of ice, Then he laid down the broom, picked up the hockey stick, pulled a puck out of his pocket, and tossed it down on the ice. He skated around for a while, working the puck on his stick, then picked up everything and headed home. I thought to myself that he really had a love for the game.
Big Al
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The lake is freezing over. I’m told it used to freeze solidly every year and that people could drive on it.
This is the first time I’ve seen it freeze since we moved here.
@Steve-Miller said in Hey Mik!:
The lake is freezing over. I’m told it used to freeze solidly every year and that people could drive on it.
This is the first time I’ve seen it freeze since we moved here.
My great grandfather lived on Point Pelee as a young adult in the 1920s and they used to drive on Lake Erie frequently in the winter. He used to do some small scale rum running during Prohibition, until some of the bigger fish gangster rum runners caught them and started shooting.
