Time To Guess the Ice-Out!

 This is it - the last few weeks of the big Joe's Pond Ice-Out Contest. You have only until midnight, April 1st to get your guesses in! If you don't have your tickets yet, you will find them at the usual outlets, plus several new places in the St. Johnsbury area - the Elks Club; 98 Mill Restaurant on Mill Street; the St. Johnsbury Country Store at 537 Railroad St.; Center Tower, on Memorial Drive in St. J. Center; and Mooselook Diner in Concord. Or, if you aren't out and about, just log in to the Joe's Pond Association website . You will find lots of information there, plus a page where you can purchase Ice-Out tickets. And they are still only $1.00! After all these years, the price of these popular tickets hasn't gone up! What has gone up is the amount you may win if you guess the closest date and time the flag will go down and the clock stops. Each year we sell more tickets than the last - and the cut was over $7,000 last year.

When the clock stops all depends on weather. We have had deep cold this year, but also lots of snow, so the ice appears to be more the white variety than the clear, solid blue ice that forms from just the lake water freezing. I haven't had a measurement from my fishing friend recently, but he will try to get out there tomorrow. Several weeks ago he reported over two feet of mostly white ice, that is formed from snow mixing with the water and freezing. FYI: Four inches of clear, blue ice is safe to walk on, but it takes twice that amount of white ice to be safe.

The recent warm weather may be the reason the fishing shanties were taken in this past weekend. Shelly Walker let me know today they are now all off the ice. Tere is a lot of water on top of the ice right now and the forecast is for rain tomorrow, and then some much colder weather coming through, so the ice shanties would be solidly frozen in place if left in these conditions. Best to get them off while they can. By law, they all have to be off the ice by the last Sunday in March. 

The Ice-Out paraphernalia is on the ice and the clock is ticking, as of early this morning. Larry Rossi and his crew got out there early and now we're counting down to the final moments. The surface was crispy and frozen this morning - the temperature dropped to just below freezing overnight. Right now I'm showing 59.8F and there is no sun. It is going down steadily and will probably get below or at least near freezing. Great sugaring weather!

Pictured on the left, setting the block and flag; on the right, Larry and the guys hitching the rope that is attached to the block arrangement to Diane's boathouse deck. There is a connection to the electric clock that is attached to the rope so that when the block goes down, the tension on the rope disconnects the clock and it stops. The only way to make the contest fair is to wait until the block has dropped sufficiently to stop the clock. There may be lots of open water near the shoreline, but it takes longer for the broad lake to open, where the block is set up. The clock is monitored regularly and the information will be posted here immediately so everyone knows the date and exact time. However, it takes longer to find and verify the winner(s). Yes, we have had more than one winner - sometimes two or three guesses are the same. In that case, the winnings are shared. 

Good luck - it all depends on the weather - and we all know how unpredictable that is! But your guess is as good as anyone's!

Today was beautiful - warm sunshine that sent the temperature on my porch to 70 degrees. I was out there briefly, but only to enjoy the sun and brush off some of the winter debris left on the furniture covers. I'll wait until the snow is gone and there's no danger of another snowstorm before I set up the porch for the summer. I am always anxious to have that done - it's so nice to be out there in nice weather. My plants will be happy to be back outside, too, I expect. 

Enjoy the spring weather, but watch out for ice jams and flooding if you live or are driving near a river.