Here we are, a few days before Christmas, enjoying a beautiful "Winter Wonderland" with a fresh blanket of snow, but oh, still miserably cold temperatures. And Ice! Roads do have some patches of ice under the snow and that can be tricky. However, it has been a bit warmer today and we've had a lovely amount of bright sunshine. Everyone feels more chipper when the sun is shining!

Joe's Ponders have seen just about everything at one time or another, and this year we've got a new sport to tell you about. We aren't sure who it was (there is speculation it might have been Jay Chatot), but someone was gliding over the pond with a hang-glider on Friday. Here's what Shelly Walker wrote to me:

Yesterday, Friday, there was someone out on the ice with some kind of board and a large kite.  I think it was Jay Chatot.  My first thought was "how beautiful!" , then "OMG the pond has only been frozen for two days! ". He must have been having a grand time; he was out there for more than two hours.

This morning, I looked out on the lake to see the first ice shanty at this end of the pond.  It is one of those tent shanties.  It looks like it is right on the edge of the ice or maybe still on the, access area parking lot.

Well, we knew it was about time for the intrepid ice fishermen to show up - somebody has to be first out on the ice, right? It has been very cold for several nights, but like Shelly said, it is still really early. I wouldn't trust the ice. Somebody (I'm not at liberty to say who) told me the other day that when he was a teenager, he thought nothing of driving his Volkswagen "bug" across the ice - a shortcut from the fishing access to West Shore Road; but now, he said, "I won't walk on a frozen mud puddle with boots on!" We do get smarter with age!