Ice that is! We've got only 6" here in SW Michigan but that was before the deep freeze. I doubt we'll add much due to the over two feet of snow since Sunday. Who's got the most ice?

Ours was up to about 15 inches of reasonably packed snow, then we lost most of it in a warm moist breeze on Sunday night. Hard, hard freeze at -6F with exposed ground. At least the pond is worth skating on now! Nice thick, shiny ice.

I haven't checked since this last cold snap...prior to that the little pond was right at 4 inches. I'd guess this last round of really cold temps added another inch? Maybe more?

10-12" on most lakes around here. And little to no snow on top of it.

16 inches

How many inches do you have? Kind of a personal question don't you think?

zero

Not nearly enough. All you southerners have been hogging winter.

Nothing..... Are you surprised?

Any snow on any of the peaks?

I will drill a hole tomorrow when I get a sec. Have to still dig out. Been years since I have seen snow like this. 24"s with a 60km wind has it drifted into drifts four feet high everywhere and in my yard as high as my lifted dodge ram with 33's on her.

Don't wanna brag but close to 30 inches of ice here now.

Don't know how thick the ice is but we have about 20 inches on the ground. About 6 from the last storm and another 14 with the latest. Here's my driveway before I cranked up the snowblower.




Was doing the neighbor's driveway as the husband is out of town, and just before I was done I choked it out with too much snow. Went to pull the starter cord and it snapped! Torro 4.0!

Time to flatten it out with a roller.

Riiiiiiight!

Wow here is mine today before I got it moved. Didn't finish because the wind is to be up till Friday.

I am not a Chrysler fan, BUT I am glad I have a Rubicon!

That's what I needed today!

Hey, it's been plenty cold around here as well, but nothing compared to what you guys have had to put up with....

My friend Sunil will be disappointed if I don't post his favorite "Hef" picture.


One of these days I'll tell the story - Al is having my Arctic exploration slides scanned for me.


You guys stay safe - that stuff can be lethal!
G/

Brag on. You deserve it.

Our snow is mostly gone - replaced with ice. On Sunday morning we still had about six inches, and it was about 10 F degrees. It got up to 46 F degrees overnight, it rained like crazy, and then the temp quickly dropped to -5F.

I wanted to use my utility trailer yesterday evening. The tongue jack and tires are solidly frozen to the ground! It's at least warmer this morning. +3 F.

Well just checked the ice. Had to dig 20"s of snow off and we still have 15"s of ice under there. Good ice too no grey soft or slush spots. It is good solid ice the black kind.

The mopar started right up in this cold even faced into the wind. We had a record broke here of -26.5C and with the 50Km wind it was -45C and the dodge started right up with out being pluged in. Good battery is a life line in this cold.

Cheers Don.

When we got several inches snow last week, and the temperature dropped down to about 0 F/-20 C, I wanted to use my diesel tractor to plow the snow. It didn't want to start. Even the glow-plug light was dim.

I got my trusty old battery booster out. It had never before failed me in about the 12 years I've had it. I guess that is about the maximum life of a battery booster. So, I now have a new battery in the tractor and a new battery booster.

In about two days, we'll be about 60 F degrees warmer than we were two days ago.

It got to about +25 F/-5C here today. I took a chance and jacked up the tongue of my frozen-to-the ground trailer, backed my UTV to it, unjacked it as far as I could, and pulled the trailer out. The tires stayed on the rims and the jack broke free of the icy ground.

Now it is time to go unload the trailer I've got loaded with "stuff."

Stay warm.

Ken

Those metric measurements are confusing for me, however, after consulting a conversion chart I was pleased to learn that 5.75 inches is equal to 14.61 centimeters.

Why the US failed to switch to the metric system is telling.

Rain for this Friday and Saturday.

Got in the car for the first time since Sunday evening. Had to work at getting the tires unfroze from the ground (parked on dirt floor in the lean-to).

Heat wave - it's in the +teens here. They are calling for +40F on Sat with rain.

This will help with my dwindling wood pile and I think I just heard a sigh of relief from my propane tank!

Probably short-lived but exciting none the less (from my perspective ).

Yes it is still a wonder why the US has not made the change even still. Pop or mix is still sold in liter not oz. All my life we had to learn both. I use inches all day for work and convert to mm. For manufacturing mm is much easier to convert for a computer. I do wonder if machine shops use mm or convert inches to thousands of an inch in the US?

I find my self using both but inches more then centimeters or millimeters. Half inch plywood is sold here as 12.5mm one inch plywood is sold as 25mm but a 2X4 is still sold as s 2X4 but it is 1.5"X3.5"s dressed four side.

So when I said I had 20"s of snow that would be 50cm of snow and 15"s of ice would be about 38cm or 380mm's of ice. Tee he he. It is kind of easy to remember 25mm is one inch or 10"s is 250mm or 25cm.

And for a close to temp conversion take away 30 then divide by two. If my grandma would say it is 90 in Florida I would end up with 60 divide by two would be 30C that is hot.

Cheers Don.

I just want to kick the guy in the nut's whose running the weather machine

I really like the temperature part of the metric system but the rest isn't very handy.
All of our roads were built in miles. Land is in sections 1x1 mile.

What makes more sense then celcius. Water freezes at 0 and boils at 100.

The machine shops that I'm familiar with (and all the drawings that I've dealt with) take inches and convert it to thousants of an inch.

I had to convert it so much that I have just about all the fractions to thousanths memorized. I even bought a couple of tape measures that read in inches and tenths of an inch, not 16ths.

I have anywhere from 8" to 12"...Actually cleared the center on pond and bought some ice skates for wife and boys...Hopefully the warm up holds off so they get to enjoy them a little before it is unsafe..

Which brings my next question.. How long does before ice becomes unsafe with day temp pushing 40° and night temps at just below freezing...

I know every situation is different, but never really paid attention of ice on ponds...

It depends

Best bet is to measure your ice.

The roads are set at 1 1/4 miles up here. I was told something about so many rods for the frontage of the 100 acres and so many of these across and only two farms deep to make it to the next mile and a quarter.

I do know if you look at ice and as it starts to honeycomb it will change from nice and dark to grey or snow like. This ice is very weak and would want 10"S or more before I would walk on it. IT gos out much faster than it is made for sure. 6"s of ice can be gone in four days if the temp of over 0*C or 32*F.

Cheers Don.

I would guess at least a week with 12" but as you said, it depends. I've gone through the ice at -30f with 4' of ice all around me while beaver trapping so you never know.

Just using the decimal format. Some people get so frustrated if things don't work out to a fraction

If a tape measure is involved, then I go to the nearest 1/32" on the CAD files.

I've been known to scribe a line on a part with the tools, then toss it in the mill and split that line down the middle within a grand or so, without measuring. I don't think my peepers work that well anymore.

From -15°F on Monday to +34°F and pretty heavy rain this afternoon. It's not supposed to dip below freezing until Sunday sometime.

I looked at my pond, and it looks like there are 2 spots where water is running into the pond through the ice, and the white snow on the pond is mostly blue and completely saturated with water.

I'll walk out on the pier and drill a hole before taking a step on the ice. The end of the pier is in 8' of water.

If the metric system is so great, why do we need conversion tables?

Pretty much frustrated, spent 2 nights clearing the pond and checking ice for safety and now an inch of rain and 40° plus weather.. Chalk up that ice to experience!!!

Because the greatest country in the world will not change to metric.

I don't really mean for this to be political, I don't even know who was on what side, but one of this country's greatest waste of money in the last quarter of the 20th century was to try to convert us to metric. What a boondoggle.

Jut goes to show you how stubborn we are!

Funny stuff on the metric system!

http://youtu.be/5q4FjKU3tFw

(Keep the volume down if the kids are nearby due to some language in the clip)

PS - The Etch-a-sketch comment is worth the wait!

I respectfully disagree Bing. We never really tried IMHO. Too me metric makes so much more sense and is much easier to use once you get the hang of it. You can't read scientific papers and not use it.

Not sure we are great in anything anymore. Other than military might we lag behind other developed countries.

In my line of work, I've watched the push, and the resistance!

Funny thing tho. Many products I deal with now from around the globe are all in US Customary units as primary, and metric as secondary. IE; fractional!

Guess they got their butt whooped!!

18.5 inches (47 centimeters) of ice this morning.

I would respectfully disagree as well. I remember being in grade or maybe middle school when the change was supposed to be happening. We were taught both. IMO metric is by far more consistent, easier to learn and use. I am kind of surprised that we never made it over the hump.

Metrics has nothing to do with consistency or accuracy. It's just another set of units that all equate back to the same. The real stuff.

Supposed to be simpler because it's based on 10, and so the effect on dumbing down. Most people can remember the number 10

We have a base-10 numbering system. That is why the metric system makes sense.

I'm not surprised at all. But I won't go there due to the fact we'd be going somewhere we shouldn't.

Absolutely.

And a foot came about because that was the length of a king's foot. (Albeit probably exaggerated).

What if a new King took the throne while you were in the middle of a project.

Let's say with the previous king, you needed 800 feet of wire to hook up your pump. The new king has short feet and now you need 1200 feet of wire, even tho it's the same distance, and they charge for wire by the foot!

There is a reason for standards!

I don't mind metrics at all.

Cecil. have ya had warm enough weather and enough rain to clear the snow from your ponds?

Bob,

Yes snow is melted off the ponds and in places on the ground.

Speaking of inches I read something funny the other day. When we were allies with the Russians during WWII we sent them supplies of all kinds. As a boast the Russians said they needed 13 inch condoms. We sent them boxes of regular sized condoms labeled "medium."

I have what looks like open holes in the center of the pond, 12" or so in diameter. Water running back into the pond thru the ice?

Cecil, do you have anything like that on your pond?

Scott,

Not at this time but I have seen smaller holes before it got really cold.

I'm going to drill a hole off of the pier tomorrow afternoon, and if the ice is safe enough I'll walk out and see what is hungry.

Be careful! Remember what happened one year when I stuck my boot in a tiny hole off the pier to see what the deal was?

Oh, yeah. I remember! That's why I'm standing on the pier when I drill the hole.

Well I had ONE foot on the pier!

Out last evening and caught 15 nice gills. Still had 10" of good ice even after the rain and warmer temps.

Maybe this is hijacking will bring us back closer to the original topic.

I've had a craving for some smoked trout and cream cheese spread. THEE VORTEX cleared out a couple of days ago. I was afraid to go out on the ice this afternoon since the temps are in the 50s F, and the ice is covered with water.
I drove the tractor to the edge of the pond that has trout. I dropped the front end loader on the ice till it lifted the front of the tractor. I finally broke: some ice by sliding the front end loader teeth down the edge of the dam, underneath the ice. The ice finally gave way. It is still over 8 inches thick.

No trout yet.

Absolutely no snow, but a nice solid layer of ice on the pond, some of it pure glass-clear. So cool to see smack to the bottom and see the whirlygigs frozen into it several inches down.

Some areas getting blasted by the sun are only an inch or two, but other areas upwards of 10 inches or more.

Speaking of which, any recommendations on a drill bit that works better than my wood auger? The thing jams up with ice and stops drilling.

We have been fighting snow all winter... Will be out tomorrow afternoon to check it again.. Expecting below freezing for the next 2 weeks.. Hopefully enough to fire up the ice skates..

I have been using a wood boring spade bit that is 16" long to check mine... Works much better than the wood boring auger bit..

I've never had a problem with my StrikeMaster® Lazer™ Hand Ice Augers clogging up.

When I checked Sunday, the pond had 7.5" of ice roughly 100' from the open water from the diffuser. They are calling for a clipper snow system to come thru here this evening, and temps to drop below zero again next week, with highs in single digits or low teens. I expect more ice to be made. My duck decoy that marks the diffuser in deep water barely has the top of it's head sticking out of the water. Snow has melted and froze, melted and froze. The fish cages are almost the same way, the top of them are almost under the ice.

Still have around 10" of ice.. Spent most of the afternoon scooping off the snow so the boys could try out their new ice skates.. We probably had another 6" of fresh snow.. Thinking about going and borrowing a snow blower tomorrow to clear them a good rink.. Need to do a little surfacing prep to get it a little smoother for better skating..

I used the 4 wheeler and plow to clean our ice after a suprise 3 inches last night. It was a giant pia! Took a long time and I froze my butt off. Then the ice broke near the edge and water welled up and poured all over. Arg! Probably ruined the skating due to snow clods still around. I'll see in the morning.
Was planning on having friends over for hockey.

The ice here on the pond's is like the bottom is good and clear, but ya have layers of snow, then freezing rain, then more snow and the sun melting it back, then more snow.

I will be surprised if any fish survived in the pond out back.

Saturday morning Jan 18 I had 5" of ice above one of my diffuses and 8"-9" of ice in most other areas. I have about 3" of cloudy ice comprising the top ice layer. DO down to 3ft was around 8-9ppm where as deeper and at bottom it was around 2-3ppm. I am going to start the diffuser and remove snow to see if I can increase the DO in most of the water column. I removed about 1000sqft of snow around the diffuser. Will test DO again in a couple days.

Wow Bill only 2 to 3 ppm in deep water? That's scary! Have you ever had it that low?

Yes I've seen DO under ice as low as 1-1.5ppm and still have YP survive. Evidently fish, esp YP, FHM, GSF, mudminnows, and pike, can survive in low DO cold water a lot better than low DO in warm water. I probably has to do with metabolism.

I think you're right. I believe Dr. Willis said as much.

Well, turned out perfect. The leak didn't spread much, and the ice is the definition of BLACK. Skating was great! Only a few bruises and friends looking in amazement at rocks on the bottom a few feet down. The stress cracks look pretty cool.

I wish the pond had a little more greenery to assure a bit of DO. I am hoping the small creek running at about 1 gal a minute is enough to bring in reasonable DO. My pond does not have very many fish in it though, and hardly any organics on the bottom. Still a baby.

Up to 12 inches. Had a guy drive his pickup truck on the lake that a friend lives on. Nobody around the lake can remember seeing a vehicle on the lake before. It's been an old fashioned winter this year!

I don't care if the ice is 20" thick. No dang way I am putting my vehicle on the ice! Not unless I wanted rid of it. I have a knack for finding thin spots. I would probably park it where there was a warm spring unknowingly.

I managed to break through the ice plowing my pond off yesterday, it sped my heart rate up a it picturing my 4-wheeler (and myself) embedded into the ice until late spring! I managed to get it out since the sheet of ice that broke only angled down to the shoreline. It was only a few inches thick where there was snow piled on the ice. I pushed it over too far and broke it. Whoops.

Out in the middle, I cannot get my 8" drill bit to get to water. I suspect after today, even thicker. It never got above 5F.

Wow watched our 8 foot around open hole shrink down to 8 inches in 12 hours. Its -16C today with the wind is -35C and were expected 20cm of snow or 8"s of snow with this wind and cold.

Crazy cold winter burned twice the wood in the shop. Colds been here since November.

Chh Chhh Chheers DDDDon.

21"

Meanwhile Alaska is in the upper 40's to low 50's for highs. A ridge over Alaska and the west coast is creating warmer than normal temps (and a historic drought), and a trough over the rest of the country is doing the opposite.

If the ridge moved east or the jet stream shifted we could go the other extreme.



Please note this post is not about GWing and please don't make it so. It's just meteorology 101 and I thought some of you might find it of interest. I'd hate to see Dwight's thread deleted.

Dwight have you done any measurements to see a rough correlation on the speed the ice thickness increases vs. present ice thickness and air temps? Of course snow cover plays a part too.

E.g., I noted a few years ago in my big pond, that single digits for 24 hours added an inch of ice, once the ice was already formed an inch or two. An inch or two of snow didn't seem to slow it down. Not sure about subzero temps as this is the first year we've actually had them consistently for some time!

All I know is ice is weird in my pond. Not much snow on it, and it still blew a hole and leaked water after several days of not getting above 10. The areas I have been plowing are all thick, but the snowy areas (maybe 4") are questionable.

Cecil, I'd be interested to measure the ice on Sunday evening, then again Wed morning. High Monday is supposed to be +5, high on Tuesday is supposed to be -2 with a low of -16.

Snow drastically reduces ice growth. It insulates the ice from the air and the water from under will take the ice away. Something you learn with spring ice in the north is to say away from the points that have snow drifts on them. Yes the water is shallow there but its still cold.

If the snow is on the ice in a large mass it will insulate the ice and the water below will melt the ice.

Best ice we had up north was 40"s and my knuckles were on the ice when drilling ice fishing holes. Drilled 14 holes that day and the young guy in the group. Uggggg.

Don.

My neighbor say she heard on TV or something it's another "Polar Vortex" but this one may be a little colder. How is that possible. LOL

Yep, they said on the news last night that this batch of cold air coming will be colder than the last batch. Possibly the coldest of the season.

Lake effect to the North, cutting across South Bend. Cecil, I wouldn't be suprised if you got some of it. Supposed to snow on and off thru Tuesday.

Bring it on! I remember once when I was first married we lived in Avilla, Indiana, which isn't that far from the Allen County line. For some reason lake effect kicked in all the way over there and gave us 10 inches! That doesn't happen very often.

Edit: It's here. Visibility down to 1/10th mile with Sea Gulls in between with the sun out!

Just my luck! Igot out of the portable heater business last year.

I was considering getting into the Stock Market back in 2008. Then it crashed.

Just measured in several different spots..

12"-13" on the clear ice I have for skating..
10" under snow just outside clear area..
16" plus just off dock where snow melt was heavy..
4" where diffuser hole was open 6 days ago, would probably be thicker except it was snow covered..

1st day of no snow in a couple weeks.

The sun even poked out for a while and melted some!

It'll be over soon enough, but February is usually our worst month!

No January thaw as usual, but I think the clock is off a month or so.

Too much wind for me to drill a hole. Will tomorrow if I get a sec. I am betting 24"s minimum.

Cheers Don.

23 inches today

Just drilled a few holes yesterday and we have 23"s as well. All good solid ice froze top down.

The trout pond has only 10 1/2 inches. May be so thin due to so much on and off heavy snow cover and the duffuser in this small 55 by 88 pond?

I was very concerned recently as the diffuser hole got quite small even pumping in 4 cfm's of air. No doubt due to the subzero temps and the fact that the diffuser was only set in a couple feet of water. In a normal year that is all that is needed...

I was able to chop a hole 10 by 12 feet with a spud and move the diffuser out to about 5 feet of water on the deep edge of that hole, which should eventually make the hole even larger.

I then cut a hole with the auger some distance from the diffuser and dropped a hookless jig into it and immediately had trout fighting over it. I had one trout try and come up in the hole after the jig. I can't imagine fish being this active if their were low D.O. Issues. So I'm thinking I wasn't too late expanding the opening and moving the diffuser to deeper water.

The total sale value of these brook trout when they are 4 to 6 pounds in the fall is somewhere between 5 to 10 grand. You can see why I don't want to lose them. And I've already been feeding them for a year and been running the well 7 months of the year for a year.

Some pictures:

The ice opening I made looking toward shore showing the boil from the diffuser.



The ice opening and boil looking out from shore:




Some of the ice I chopped out with a spud and pulled out with a large landing net to make the hole larger. There is smaller pile on the other side of the hole not shown outside of the picture.

You guys got my curiosity up and I had to check my pond. Only 7", I was surprised it wasn't more. Only 5" looked like black stuff you guys say is good and solid.

Cecil, are you feeding the trout once in a while at the opening?

I haven't fed them in at least 4 or 5 weeks. Even though I have had them go the entire winter without feeding them, I'm going to shut off the compressor this afternoon for a short period and see if I can entice them to the hole with some hydrated pellets.

Edit: They were spooky but they couldn't get enough. Had to be careful not to overfeed them in the cold water.

Yesterday's rain and warmer temps put a hurtin' on our ice. The edges are soft, but still accessible, and the junky, white ice now extends down for approx. 3-4"....three to four inches of black ice under that. The spud hits water a heck of a lot faster now than it did just three days ago.

We now have a water sandwich. 1" of ice, 2" of water, then 15" of ice. It rained on top and the entire surface just kind of "sunk". I am now waiting for the jelly to soak into the bread.

24 inches this morning.

We're at 8-9 inches now. Had the 4 wheeler out on the pond plowing the snow off yesterday. Always a little nerve wracking even when I know the ice is thick. I hate white ice.

There is about 10" of snow on top of the ice, about 3" of water/slush, and 13" of ice.

The diffuser hole is about 30'-40' in diameter.

25.5" today.

I have 15" right now with a few inches of snow cover.

I was on a pond today shoveling some snow off to check the temp and DO. Pond had not been shoveled since first snow. We've had 67" of snow since Jan 1,2014. Snow was mostly from 6" to 8" deep with it being deeper on some of the shorelines due to drifting onto the pond. Ice was 13" thick with around 5" of cloudy ice from wet snow that refroze.

Snowiest winter ever recorded in Indy.

When I was in Muncie the other day someone from Lafayette confirmed they got 5 more inches.

3 to 6 more inches in the forecast for tomorrow in my area farther north.

I ain't even up north but ENOUGH already !!!! My pond and aquifer can certainly use the added water but I'm going to have some major erosion problems about Thurs or Fri if the weatherman is even close to the highs.

Bob, don't worry about the high temps, worry about the 1"-2" or rain that is predicted!

I see the NWS backed off on the highs a little for us Scott.. Max temp of 44 now with highs in the 30's before that. But one day may have an inch of rain and some freezing rain Wednesday night.

26 inches

New record yet Dwight?

Scott, frankly I'm worried about both. I've got low spots at both ends of my beach and during quick dumps of water it drags lots of sand and clay down into the pond.
My son went up to the pond on Fri and got his 4 wheel drive stuck in the drive. Took a John Deer ta get him out. The rain may have melted some snow but there was lots of ice under the snow. I see that the average water accumulation for all of Feb there is 1.48 inches and as of today it is 3.08. Bad part is the ground is so frozen that most will probably not make it into the water table. That's just a guess on my part.
My friend who has been down here in Fl visiting (mooching) for a month leaves for In next Friday and is already whining. Really can't blame him cause as Cecil has mentioned next weeks lows will be in the low single digits. Someone also told me that according to the Farmers Almanac that there will be another blast in March. I may just delay my return to In till May.

Get your butt up here and take care of your pond! You can turn the heater on, your fish can't!

Predicted high temp Wed/Thurs is +15°F, lows in South Bend (in the city) are -1°F.

Bob,

Not sure what you can do if you come up here with everything frozen up.

He could enjoy the beautiful weather like the rest of us! Just saw the weather. Wed 10°F, Thurs and Fri 15°F.

Most likely below zero all 3 nights.

Here's the 30 day temps outlook on the right:

I'm glad I don't mind winter. Otherwise I'd feel like these folks last year when April was colder than March.

Cecil, your 2nd post above just goes to show me how much difference lake effect snow can have. O'Hare Airport, NW of Chicago had a record snowfall in '78-'79 of 89.7". South Bend, Indiana during that same time frame had 172" of snow. This year (so far) South Bend has had 92" of snow. O'Hare Airport to South Bend is approximately 89 miles as the crow flies.

Misery loves company!

In other words Bob, Scott wants you to come up and be miserable too! Don't listen to him!

Yeah those Great Lakes can really make a difference! They can also drop temps significantly close to the lakes in the spring when the wind is coming off the lake. I've even seen that in the summer up in Alpena.

The record is from 03/05/2009, 26.5 inches.

I think Bob has misery all wrapped up in a pretty basket! Can't be a comedian without misery and pain...

Looks like you should be able to break that with the temps predicted and 11 more days right?

I predict Bremer pond ice record will be broken next Sunday.

I predict much sooner than that.

It's probably been broken while he was watching the lefties.

Scott, thanks for your concern for my fish and your indifference to my suffering. My son turned on the shallow diffuser while waiting for the neighbor and his tractor. Called me yesterday around noon and had just turned it off. A hole opened about 12'X25' and as you previously stated that should refreeze clear. Cecil, I doubt Scott is the only one punkin me for layin around in the sun while they shovel slush. It was 76 yesterday and today. JaKoB, you are close except it's not misery I have all wrapped up, I believe it's called folly. See ya all when it warms up.

Bob, that means you should be coming back in May, right? Just make sure you don't bring any Tornados with you.

I've got a good 25" of ice, and my diffuser hole is frozen right over. W have had really cold weather for 3 weeks now and I cant keep the hole from staying open at all right now...

I'm hoping this cold snap ends soon.

Is anyone using those floating de-icers at all? are they worth the $100? or would they even be able to keep up with multiple days of -20 weather?

I won't be checking it until Saturday so the that will be the day of record and recording.

The forecast lows for the next 4 days are -10F or below and daily averages of -4.666666666F pretty much guarantee a new record.

People are paying $750-$1000 to fill their propane tanks (near $4.00 per gallon) and filling them a lot this winter. I am very happy to have geothermal climate control!!

In case you need more road salt, they are making more here in Bonaire, N.A.

Salt piles coming off the conveyor belt.
Reddish ponds are condenser ponds where salt is concentrating. When the water dries out, they harvgest the salt. Ocean water is pumped into evaporation ponds, then when it concentrates some gets pumped into condenser ponds and is the reddish color, then finally dries to harvest.

Use a harvester that is pulled behind a dozer that picks up and conveys salt into waiting center dump trucks. Front loader and grader cleans up scraps and loads. Grader drags bottom down smooth before pumping evaporator pond water back into the condenser pond to strat the process of drying all over. Desert climate here. Always wind.

Same conveyor system loads the salt onto ships for north bound areas that get way too much snow. No snow here.

fantastic diving

For us American Rock Salt is just down the road from us. Huge natural salt deposits right under most of Western NY, and they are cranking out salt production this year! If you ever pass through NY, the mine is visible from RT390 near Geneseo, NY. From what I understand, the tunnels down underground are huge.

https://www.americanrocksalt.com/

But back on-topic. Weather models for early next week are not pretty. Getting uglier with each run for us... into the cold, and a possible long-term major series of snowstorms. I am sweating it out as I am down to a few nubbins of wood.

Hopefully you have back up heating system!

Yeah, propane. Probably a better way to say it is pro-pain in the wallet. I cannot even sleep well when the furnace is running as I can envision my hard-earned money going up in fumes.

Drilled 5 spots on my lunch hour with a 16" boring bit and never broke through anywhere in the middle of the pond...

Have had my shallow water diffuser running for 48 hours..It opened up a 6 by maybe 8 foot hole around the dock but seems to have stopped there...Shut it back done again.. Now to wait and see what this next storm is going to do..

Didn't the thaw last week raise and break up your ice? My pond went up a couple of feet. So the old thick ice is still in the middle (broken up a bit) but around the edge for a ways out it is new ice and not that thick. Haven't check it yet, waiting for this weekend and may ice fish.

I bought a house with a pond that everyone here warns people about...LOL A ground water pond with very little natural drainage..

So no the pond ice did NOT break up...Most the snow areas melted and added to the already thick ice that was below...The ice has tightened back up and is slicker than snot in the smooth areas.. The area I was keeping clean is still pretty clear, but kinda of messed up because I just pushed the slush in piles...

Thinking of letting the boys go ice skating tonight when we get home if they want to... Should be plenty of area for them to have a little fun...

OK, I am going out a limb; 30 inches of ice within the next 2 weeks.

Does anyone know how many inches Devils Lake, ND has now? I couldn't find a recent update on Ice Shanty.com other than a 6 inch extension is not enough.

I fished the lake the first week of March one year and there was four feet of ice. It was not an unusually cold year if I remember right.

I think that limb prediction could hold some weight!

End of Feb. going into March, usually put's the melt on things around here. Not this year!

Last week with the bit of warming and sun, the birds were out, but they got the heck outta here!

If this stuff melts quick, there will be issues.

I had good friends that had a house on Old Woman's Bend on the Muskegon River. This was back in the mid 80's. It was a comfortable dream house, with everything they wanted.

Well, Spring time melt ensued a flood that all you could see from high ground was the chimney sticking out of the water a bit. House and pole barn were destroyed and gone, with all their belongings, and only a couple slabs of concrete were left. Clean slate at that point, to start over. They never did! Perfect Isn't so perfect, and it was really nice

The house trailers that got ripped out in this area, they found them a couple miles down river clogging stuff up.

High ground is good around here on one of the larger rivers.

Liquidsquid, I feel your (pro)Pain!



On both accounts

Here's the before and after, from 11-1-13



And our 7-day forecast doesn't help

13 and dropping outside, low 80's inside.

Thank you, Esshup!

Looks very familiar, including the tubs!

Awesome pic that speaks a thousand words!

I really wish my house was about 1/2 the square footage. We bought it for the land, not the house. PIA to heat this thing, and just too much space for storing useless crap.

With that quickly off my chest, we moved to the new supplier (yay!) and a ~60% full 500gal tank: $385. In part due to a discount for signing on, the other for locking in at $1.47 when I signed on! Huzzah!

I would have been better off with a conventional built well insulated home vs. a log home and without a cathedral ceiling. Even though I have a geothermal system my electric bill was over $500.00 last month.

We've gone through something like 150% more wood this year than a normal winter and the propane furnace has also been working overtime. No end in sight yet. High today is 14 with wind chills around 12 below zero.

I've just about had enough of winter.

This winter just keeps coming. The next big storm is supposed to hit Illinois this weekend. Right now they are saying "significant" snowfall, but who knows what that means. I have read somewhere between 6"-12". I am so happy that I bought a snow blower last year.

We only had an inch of fresh snow but with the high winds we had whiteout conditions this morning. While I was blowing out the driveway so the wife could get to school I heard an ambulance which indicates another accident on the highway. Sure enough traffic was backed up for over 2 hours.

We average 1 accident a day on this highway when it snows, floods, or drifts from high winds. Massive farm fields with nothing to stop the snow from blowing across the highway. There's one particularly bad stretch about 100 yds. long that would benefit tremendously by a snow fence.

According to friends in the area the ice is 35" on Devils Lake, ND. Giant YP are biting like fiends. They couldn't recall ice over 40" and they have been there since before Devil's Lake became the huge lake that it is today.

We lived about a 100 miles (1 hour or less in those days) from Devil's Lake (the town) in the early 1970s. At that time the lake was a slough.

Well maybe the guys that made our holes with the power augers were exaggerating for our benefit? I do know the augers bottomed out with an extension whatever that is. I didn't get the tape out to verify or anything as it was thicker than anything I had ever seen.

I do know I took pictures. I'll see what I can dig up.

Found out there was five car pile up and a power line pole had to be replaced. That particular section of the highway was closed for about 6 hours with a detour. Sure glad my wife had a school delay or she could have been in the pile up.

We get accidents on this stretch of highway ever year due to a huge open field blowing on to the highway. Seems a snow fence or something could be installed.

It was a blizzard this morning with only a couple hundred feet of visibility, unless you were in one of the white out's.

Had to navigate by GPS coming up to a 4 way stop that I go thru every morning. Couldn't see a darn thing!

It ain't over...

Ugg tried to make it to Toronto yesterday. Left at 8:00am made it to woodstock about 45 mins out then had to turn around. Got turned around then right in front of us there was a 8 car wreck two tractor trailers and one fatality. Grid lock with no way out for 2.5 hours. Driving in the snow squalls home got back at 3:00pm. Pulling about 1200#s on my 18 foot deck over.

Have to plan on the trip next week now.

We got lucky the 400 had 85 car pile up.

Will drill a hole lat today see what we have. -33c over night crazy fing cold. Global warming my A$$.

Cheers Don.

Well this won't cheer you up Don.

90 day outlook:




Of course I've seen them wrong on extended outlooks like this, but apparently somebody thinks we will be locked in a pattern of mild air up the west coast pushing down cold air in central Canada, and the U.S. If this holds I don't see ice out even down here until April, which is unusual for us.

If this does hold I hope the jet stream is not positioned so above average temps in the south collide with below average temps up north. If so, we could be in for a prolific tornado season. OTOH if the jet streams stays south we may be in for a very calm tornado season up here with below average temps.

Spring is no longer on the horizon. 28.5 inches.

We built another 2.5 inches of ice since last weekend. That blew right through the old record with every night below zero and days not a lot better. Temperatures going forward look the same: -6F tonight, -15F tomorrow night and -16F on Sunday night.

My auger will go to 36 inches without an extension so I have that going for me.

There are no auger extension shafts in my future, needed or not.

So total inches is...?

So total inches is...? 28.5 inches, Yikes!

Just had a reliable source tell me a local lake has 24 1/2 inches on it. Says he's catching perch in only 3 feet of water on this lake. Not a good sign.

Our INDNR is predicting fish kills. Really?

There will be plenty of fish kills this year.

MDNR equates this winter back to the mid 90's when a lot of inland lakes and streams froze for an extended period producing numerous fish kills. Feb. is the critical month.

The 3 ponds here have been plugged off since early December when this mess really started around here. One down the road is open with a diffuser.

It will be interesting to see what transpires after it's all melted.

We have 24"s of good solid ice.

Cheers Don.

Nice thing around here is Lake Michigan is much more open than the chicken little's have been proclaiming on the web. We may get a bit of Spring!

Just think, we'll have to go thru this again, soon!

I wonder which scientist is pushing the weather buttons? They may need a control systems upgrade

O.K. Cecil. Since I'll be drilling holes to check ice in my pond tomorrow, I'll run to the lake house and check there too.

Since I have relatively sharp blades on my auger, it will take longer to drive there than it will take to cut the hole. (Unlike a taxidermist I know.... )

O.K. rub it in!

IF you remember last year how the super cold air was slumped over the other side of the north pole down as far as England?
They had snow in England that was the worst in 60 years. This super cold air is slumped off center of the north pole and wobbling around the north ice cap. Seems to be the trend but could be a very good indication the climate is changing but nothing we have not seen before.

Cheers Don.

We have much different weather here than you fine people up in the frozen tundra.

Today it will get to about 56 degrees. Its already 45 and really nice out.

Tomorrow it will snow, a winter storm warning is calling for 5 to 8", then tomorrow night it will drop to about 7 deg.

Hows that for a fast change in the weather? That's almost a 50 deg change in less than 2 days.

Yeah the extremes are annoying. I'd rather have it continuosly cold. After our last thaw the snow that is left is as hard as ice. Got about three inches fresh snow last night. Now we go back in the deep freeze again until next weekend.

Cecil, the State still has not been able to stock the ponds around here here with trout. They are a month late. I know you said the trout are just getting bigger. I'm ready. And so is my fryin' pan.

They could be as much as an inch and a half bigger per month, which can add a lot of weight once they get to be a certain size!

Our average high for this time of year is 44°F, and our low is 28°F. We are not even getting close to our average lows. Right now it's 17°F out and is supposed to get below 0°F tonight.

I was reading a DNR fishing report this morning.
SOUTHWEST LOWER PENINSULA
Shallow and weedy lakes are starting to show signs of poor dissolved oxygen. Fish are becoming lethargic and suspending higher in the water column. Try fishing a few feet below the ice.

If your pond needed a stocking redo, this winter may be a blessing in disguise. I know my bosses 3 acre pond needs one. The guy who stocked it put in pretty much everything but WE and Trout. Said the trout would not survive and the WE would eat everything. But then he stocked NP, LMB, SMB, CC along with sunfishes and YP. The YP seem to be gone, and there is an abundance of bullhead now.

Was just told by someone that had friends come back from Devil's Lake you now need TWO extensions to get through the ice up there. Thickest they've seen it in years.

Just checked today. 14.5", the thickest I've seen on my pond. Cecil, I didn't try to set a speed record, but I'll bet it took less than a minute for me to get the hole cut with the Lazer hand auger.

Good for you Scott. You probably have more weight to bear down on it too.

Cecil, probably! But, with the Lazer augers, you don't put weight on it, all I needed to do is put my hand on top to steady it. Sharp blades.

Whatever you say Scott.

32" on my pond but I Haven't checked since the cold snap. We have had -35c and colder for over a week now. Forecast is for a balmy +7c by Sunday. Time to fish again. I'll have to find my longer auger extension.

Where have you been hiding Wood? You're getting as scarce as Adirondack Pond.

I plowed a rink off tonight, and when the ice was exposed to the much colder air, the ice snapped, cracked, and popped like crazy. Kind of disconcerting feeling it through your feet.

Hey Cecil, I'm still kicking. Quit my job and started my own company. All-consuming it is. Still ice fish when I can.