Not much news to report tonight as far as the ice is concerned. It's getting pretty dark, and the water level has come up today quite a bit - we had rain last night after all that very warm weather, and even today it remained in the 50's, so lots of snow is melting and running off the hillsides. Homer told me this morning the ice still looks pretty white and secure at that end of the pond.

Evelyn Richer reports the loon arrived yesterday (Monday). She said the lake is open at their end (Loon Cove). From my house I can see open water stretching along the west shore past Pearl Island. It's still pretty solid behind the islands, though. Just to put things in perspective, Bob Labrie, the guy who started an ice-out contest much like ours in Goshen, MA, said in a recent e-mail the ice there is still on the pond, several days later than it has been in 20 years of record keeping. The block went down on Saturday, stopping the clock at noon. In years past, their contest has been over between one and two weeks before ours. We all agree, though, this has been a different sort of year with records of all sorts set or broken. Bob said there were only 32 picks left when the block went down there.

I didn't get a ticket report from Chico today! I guess he's entitled to a day off, come to think about it. I'm sure I'll hear from him tomorrow and will post how many picks are still left in the game.