Someone has asked if the ice looks the same on the west side of the pond where our Ice-Out Contest block and flag will be set out, as on the west side where Nancy Buttura observed open spots earlier today.  The ice on the west side seems to be solid.  I checked the web cam as soon as I got Nancy's message (at noon) didn't see any holes then, although I could see with I thought was probably ice patches where water on top of the ice has frozen.  I just checked again (using Internet Explorer to log onto our website) and except for a spot very close to the shore where Rossi's well overflow runs into the pond and keeps the ice from freezing, the ice looks solid enough.  I'll ask Diane and post her response.  In the meantime, Nancy reported a couple hours ago that the holes are getting smaller, so they are freezing over again.  That there are open spots proves the ice is very unstable this year and it is probably best to stay off of it.

We will be watching the weather and the ice closely and if we think it's necessary, we'll get the block out earlier than normal; but we hope we don't have to do that as there still is a good chance we'll have lots of snow that would bury the lines and also there is a  chance that someone could get tangled in the lines with snow machines.  We'll keep everyone posted as the weather changes over the next couple of weeks.