I'm a little late with my report this morning - we've been busy on the phone making arrangements for getting some changes made to our heating system. However, Fred was down at the "Clock Site" as usual this morning at 7 a.m., and took some pictures, and I made a slide show.

It looks more like winter on the ice except for the open water around the shoreline. We don't know what that open water is on the right of the flag - it is probably a puddle, but it does seem a little strange. It was cold last night - my thermometer registered a very cool low of 13 degrees over night. It's now up to about 22, with bright sunshine, but still a gusty northwest wind.

I took this picture a little while ago - the shallows at the far left are opening, and although very early this morning it looked as if the shallows in the channel area had frozen over, I'm now seeing open water again, so what I was seeing was probably a skimming of snow on "cat ice" that quickly melted under the sun.

We are feeling a bit more confident that the ice will hold until at least April 1st, but we've been fooled before. One thing we know for sure is that the weather is more "spring-like" than "summery," and will remain colder for the next several days. We may have some rain/snow showers, but none of the abnormally high temperatures like we had last week. This will slow down the melting process, but with high winds, the ice could begin to move around, and that would mash it up so the pallet could drift or sink and disconnect the clock, ending the contest.

Speaking of moving around - Woody is very confused by the quick change in the weather. Last night he was all set for a good prowl outside, but apparently found it a bit too chilly, so he was in and out and pestering all evening. This morning, he's completely worn out, asleep by the fire.

I mentioned switching our heating arrangement. We've had a Hearthstone propane heater for emergency use if/when we're without electricity for a long period. It's a lovely stove, and works perfectly, but we never use it. It's great that Washington Electric has been very reliable ever since we got the stove in 2005. Because we're making other changes, we will now be able to have a wood stove as backup in the basement - a much better fit for us. So we're hoping to either sell or swap the Hearthstone for a medium sized Vermont Castings wood stove. We get the urge to move the furniture around every spring (and sometimes more often!), only this year the move is more involved than usual.