So here we are, still frozen in.  Crazy winter, crazy spring, crazy contest this year.  Mother Nature is surely making life more interesting.  Today is beautifully sunny, but the temperature is only in the teens, and there is that cold north wind - the one that likely helped to tip that block in such a wild way.  We had snow squalls most of yesterday, but nothing stuck to the ground - only the ice.  There's a skimming of fresh snow all over the pond, but that will go away quickly if we ever get warmer weather.  Right now we're in a holding pattern again.  I'll keep you posted.

We have all the Ice-Out Contest tickets in our possession now, and Henretta is laboring intensely to get them logged in.  We have no idea how many there will be at this point, but we'll be working hard to get final figures ready for when the block sinks and we can declare a winner - or winners.  Sometimes we've had as many as five people guess the exact date and time.  Scary, isn't it?  We're thinking this year has been so unusual in every way so far, it's almost certain something unusual will happen in who the winner turns out to be.  

Over the years we've had lots of April guesses, and even some in May.  The ice hasn't gone out in May since 2007.  We've had eight May dates in 28 years - and 20 April dates.  May 6, 1992 was the latest, and April 5, 2010 the earliest.  It's pretty certain we won't break any records this year - unless the weather continues with these really wild temperature swings . . . Oh, my!!