Today has been another mostly nice spring day. It's been partly cloudy and temperatures have ranged in the 50's and low 60's, but perfect for working outside. We've had a few sprinkles late this afternoon, and the air feels like there's rain in our future.

Yesterday, after all our guests had left, we went down to check the clock and flag. We wanted to get some pictures of the water by the islands, so drove down Sandy Beach Road and used Jack and Sue LaGue's new driveway to get to Meadow Lane. Both those roads were very good. I don't remember ever being able to access Meadow Lane this early before.

While there, we saw some wildlife. They seemed to be paddling down the shore, just following the open water. As soon as Fred got out to take their picture, they flew, but he did get one good shot. We were able to get some nice pictures of the upper end of the pond from there, though.

While there, we took a picture of the dock at Jack LaGue's. If you recognize it, it's easy to haul out now as it's in very shallow water, right in front to their cottage. We think it's in two parts and the steps are probably not attached or at least are only partially attached.

At Homer's, that 175 lb. man who's been testing the ice every day, wisely did his "testing" while holding firmly to the little dock; and this morning he said there was much more water between the end of the dock and the ice. The wind today has been out of the west, so that may shove the ice closer to the shore in front of Homer's. He said the ice looked blacker than it did yesterday, but there was a skimming of "cat ice" around the shoreline at Homer's early this morning.

I took this picture of the open water in back of the islands this morning, but it was overcast at the time and the open water looks white while the ice looks blue. Don't be fooled - there's a lot of open water at the north end of the pond!

I just had a call from Don Walker. He and Audrey were at their camp today and ate lunch on their deck and he said he thought for sure the flag would go down within hours. However, it's still flying. Fred will be checking again soon, though, and we'll let everyone know as soon as anything happens. Everyone is keeping a close eye on it now.



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