Each Day Gets Better

Still two feet of lake ice despite the 48 degrees today.  Perfect day for perch fishing....see the perch path in the photo?  Bike man came back to the house around 7 pm after catching ten perch.  Perch fillets went into the freezer for a future fish fry.....my favorite meal.

Beautiful day for a run, and soon we'll be getting the bikes out for our first spring ride.  Can't wait!

Look to the North

It's happening.  The lake ice to the north of our house is finally opening up.  This can only mean one thing......spring has really arrived and the perch will hopefully start biting!

Just Being Honest

I hope you won't think differently of me, but I have to be honest.  Something made me really, really excited today.  On my run this afternoon (I took a different route), I got a nice good whiff of turkey manure.....seriously, it was a big whiff!  After months of no smells because of the snow covering the ground, I finally realized I was smelling the first sign of spring.  I know that sounds weird, but you have to realize we haven't seen the ground or dirt since last November.  I took couple more big whiffs of that lovely smell as I ran by the turkey farms.  Yup, it made me smile.  Sorry.....  

Peaceful Moments

Life in general has a way of just squeezing all the energy out of you.  Have you ever felt those squeezing moments?  Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and a work issue or work task will just pop into my head  and before I know it, I'm wide awake worrying about not getting a task completed.  When I start to feel the panic rising, I will scold myself and then shut my eyes and try to fall back to sleep.  Most nights when this happens, I do eventually fall back to sleep.  Isn't it funny how the mind plays tricks on you?  Anxiety is never easy to just brush off, but I hope I can learn to deal with that overwhelming feeling of never having enough time....enough time to finish my work-related tasks, my home chores, help my friends in need, help my aging parents, finish a really good book, and to pray for my loved-ones.

Today, I spent a much needed day in slow mode.  Early church service, followed by a 3-mile run and then several hours helping Bike man with his urban stream monitoring.  Walking through the woods breaking a trail in the snow is physical, but also therapeutic.  Of course I never go anywhere without my camera.  All those years tromping around with my father, who always had his camera round his neck, has paid off for me.  I am now finding those peaceful moments with my camera!

Slow Warm-Up

 I had a job to do and it involved shoveling.  Shoveling the snowy steps down to the lake was my Saturday chore....that was just the first chore that needed to be done today.

All of the firewood down on the lake ice needed to be brought up and stacked on the first landing.  Multiple trips with arm loads of firewood equaled exercise for both Bike man and me. 

 Oh boy, we have a problem!  Our wood platform that we use on top of the lake ice with our copper fire bowl, has now merged into the lake ice, snow and lake water......oops.  Bike man spent time trying to chisel away the ice this afternoon, but no luck.   He'll try again tomorrow.

Forty degrees today, whoo hoo!   Look who's wearing his shorts.  With the mixture of sun and clouds, we have melting happening.   Perch fishing was very slow, but at least we spent time outdoors today.

White Mountains

I just felt like playing with Photoshop Elements today!  Stopped along the road today to take photos after a long day at work.

Here's my original photo.  The beauty of the drifting snow just called out to me....Lisa, Lisa, stop and get your camera out!  

 Can you see the road off to the left?  Totally iced-covered from the sunshine and 20 mph winds blowing all day long.

The snow drifts are amazing, especially for this time of the year.  I'd expect this for January or February, but not March.  With the colder than normal temperatures, the snow is dry and dense.  Normally, our March snowstorms would produce heavy wet snow.  Overnight low temperature is forecasted to be around zero degrees.  Do you know what this means?  Our lake will be making ice tonight!  Looks like we'll have lake ice hanging around until May......hello spring.

Another Winter Storm

More snow, slippery roads and lots of wind today....just something to expect in the Midwest.

The snow is accumulating around the back of the house.

And the front of the house......more snow as well!

At the rate we're going, we'll have snow in our yard until the end of April.  Spring flowers?  Probably not until mid May.  Despite the snowy weather, I still love Wisconsin.