Wednesday, March 17, 2010

The 17th day of the third month of the year of the Camellia

Happy St. Pattys Day!


Looks like ice out on the big lake is imminent. If so, this is one of the earliest years in a long time.


The process is this.


The ice doesn't just melt and is gone....it's faster than that.


Warm weather will start to melt the ice from the top of course as the sun warms and the warmer than freezing water below does it's part.


The whole sheet of ice then becomes honey-combed with air pockets and when the time is right--


Those little holes fill up with water........................and,


The ice becomes heavier than water--------------and,


Sinks.


As I have said before, which my most intelligent readers will recognize, the people in the lakes region guess the ice out time. To the minute in some cases and not just the hour and day. Amazing! My guess is Friday or Saturday and that as close as I could get.


The above photo is not mine, but a clip from the web cam right now in Wolfeboro Harbor. Jim Warner's store was just to the right of where this image was made and you can see that almost a third of the harbor is ice free. Looking straight ahead, the first piece of land is "Rattlesnake Island". Named so because of it's shape and not the inhabitants. One of the best places on the lake to fish for landlocked salmon and lake trout.


More fiction and fact from Skip's almanac of garbage knowledge!


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