Posts Tagged ‘lake ice’
Groaning Ice
We made it safely to the lake place in the middle of the afternoon despite Cyndie’s Honda CRV missing its rear spoiler. Some degenerate scofflaw saw fit to liberate the spoiler from her rear hatch while she was at a hair salon in St. Paul. I’m always amazed that people get away with such brazen behavior in broad daylight.
Yeah, it was legitimate behavior to be removing a body part from a vehicle in a parking lot. If I saw someone dismantling parts of an automobile in a car park, I wouldn’t snap a photo of the goofball to show the police, either. Just keep walking and mind my own business. What’s that saying? All it takes to stop one criminal in the act is one good person to pay attention and say something about it.
We are just out $350-400 bucks and the cost of labor by a professional to reattach it. Don’t even think of contacting insurance. We can’t afford the hit and would have to pay the deductible anyway. Gosh, I love paying for insurance that we don’t dare use since it would end up costing us even more for insurance.
Enough groaning about that.
You would not believe how cool it is to hear the whale-like moans and groans coming from the ice on such a big lake. With the cold air temperature and little to no snow cover, water was expanding as it froze, and the more than 3000 acres of surface area were being pushed and pulled with wild auditory reverberations.
I tried recording a short video to capture the sounds, but it only picked up Asher’s and my bumbling rustling around. You definitely had to be present to enjoy the sounds.
The rest of the groaning last night wasn’t from the ice. It came from me watching the Vikings unsuccessfully trying to score a touchdown from the five-yard line over and over again.
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Icy Adventures
We don’t usually spend much time up at the lake when the ice is about to vanish from the water’s surface. I find it very entertaining. Temperatures dropped far enough below freezing Sunday night that water to the shore, which was liquid when we arrived, had refrozen solid by yesterday morning.
As the sun climbed to a mid-morning angle, the lake began making a percussive symphony of booming and cracking sounds in response.
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There is an almost mystical energy unleashed by the intensity of natural forces pressing in multiple directions as the frozen surface reacts to wind, sun, gravity, the mixing of heat and cold, and the resistance of rocks and sand on the shore. When a fracture reverberates throughout the expanse of acres of ice, rumbling and echoing for almost a minute afterward, it can be felt in your physical core.
I notice my pulse speed up when it happens, and hear myself making sounds of appreciation that don’t actually form words.
The guys –brothers, Jedediah and Caleb– showed up to work on the rotting truss and were quickly introduced to Asher and some of Cyndie’s fresh-baked scones.
They installed extra (temporary) support to the deck and the bottom chord of the truss itself in preparation for assembling scaffolding for the job. After further analysis and some outside consultation, the decision was made to change to a “hammer truss” design for the replacement.
I’m looking forward to what they come up with. It should be easier to build and will eliminate at least one of the key points that was trapping water and triggering the rot. It will change the appearance of the front of the house and may take a little getting used to at first, but I am open to the possibility it may end up being more appealing in the end.
It will certainly open up overhead space on the deck and produce a more spacious feeling.
As the warm afternoon eliminated most of the new ice that had formed the night before, Cyndie and I let Asher have some fun along the shoreline.
He had a blast breaking ice and chewing some of the chunks. Falling into the water as sections of ice gave out beneath his weight didn’t seem to bother him one bit.
Icy cold doesn’t seem to startle him either.
It looked like so much fun, I needed to keep reminding myself I couldn’t step out to join him in the shoes I was wearing. That, and the fact that icy cold would absolutely make an impression on my feet.
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Favorite Photos
Holy cow, this year is flying by. It’s the 3rd day of January already! We are home again, and I’m happy to report that Delilah did great on the 4-hour drive from Grand Rapids, Minnesota to Beldenville, Wisconsin.
Today, I hope to do as little as possible in the way of productive endeavors, unless they involve power-lounging and idling away the time with trivial pursuits (which have their own way of feeling productive sometimes). I will mentally prepare for the return to the week of work that follows the New Year celebrations. Everything that was being held in suspended animation during the holidays will be released for a return to the regular grind.
Our next paid holiday doesn’t arrive for 5-months! At least the daylight hours will gradually be getting longer during that otherwise ominously staid period of time.
On that cheery note, I will endeavor to bring some pleasure to these proceedings with a sampling of a few of my favorite photos to emerge from our weekend visit with Barb and Mike.
The first two were taken by Barb when the lake was just in the process of freezing, and she generously shared them with me. The close-up shot is right out of my bag of tricks, so of course I love it the most. I asked her how she got it to be black and white, and Barb replied, “It’s not.” I love that it looks like there is no color in the captured image.
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This next one is mine. I took a picture of the water flowing beneath a dam, wanting to capture the water droplets on the edge of the forming ice. After zooming in, I was surprised to find the lines that look like a drawn-in animation. A moment after that, the whole thing took on a look of being more a painting than a photo. I’m really happy with it.
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Relative Something 