This was a day of mixed weather - a little misty rain, some snow showers - pretty typical April weather, I suppose.  We were able to get the pallet out onto the ice with no trouble at all.  It went very smoothly today.  The clock is running and now all we need is for the ice to begin to melt.  I took some pictures of the setting-up  process and made a slide show so you can see some of what goes on.  I didn't get Larry hauling the pallet through the snow onto the ice, nor Diane slogging through the snow to the garage to find No. 10 fishline, but I did get Larry hitching things together and Fred and Diane getting the clock set properly.  Click here for the slide show.

We were surprised that there was hardly any snow on the ice at all.   That's hard to imagine when there's been up to three feet of snow at my stake until very recently, and there's still plenty on the ground - just not on the ice.  I'm thinking the wind must keep the pond swept free of snow.  Fred took snowshoes because we thought it would be easier going on the ice, but he didn't need them at all.  Once they crossed the lawn and got on the ice, it was good and solid - still about 24 inches, according to last report.  We're confident the ice will finally be diminishing rather than increasing now we're getting more seasonal weather.

It was very pretty early this morning.  Everything had a thin coating of ice and there was a little mist or fog in the air.  When I went out to collect the rain gauge, there was about a quarter inch of slush on the deck - that was all that was left of whatever snow we'd had overnight.  I noticed the overnight low was in the range of 26 degrees, and it was above freezing most of the day, but still snowing off and on, so everything was dripping slush.

After the warm day yesterday, we lost another couple inches of snow pack.  This is my stake in the back yard this morning - reading 20 inches left on the ground.  Those 20 inches are honey-combed and gradually turning into water as long as there are above freezing temps - slowly seeping into the ground, we hope, to replenish the water table.

My anemometer was solidly frozen in place until mid morning.  I got this picture at around 9 a.m. when I was measuring precipitation in the rain gauge.  Last night there was a lot of wind, but I couldn't get a reading.  Tonight it's much calmer and 30 degrees; the anemometer is showing a WNW wind of about 6 mph.  And that's the news and weather from here!