Oh, what a gorgeous day it has been, today! Warm enough that, after dropping my daughter off at work, I went and parked by the beach and actually went walking.

The lake and beach were very busy. There is an ice structure on the beach right now, and many people drive right up on the frozen sand to take pictures.

Why, I’m not sure, since the parking lot is, like, right there.

As you might guess, this was built for something sponsored by Mercedes. 😀

I saw it in various stages of construction, and it was lit up quite beautifully. There was what I think was a stage built as well. It was done for a 1 day event, and was then supposed to be demolished, but so many people wanted it to stay that they just took away everything but the ice and a couple of barrels for garbage cans, tucked away inside.

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Even is it slowly begins to melt and break apart, it still looks quite lovely.

A lot of the ice blocks had this texture to them.

This is why.

As the ice begins to rot in the sun, it forms these long shards of candle ice. When the ice is like this, it can shatter apart very easily. This can be very dangerous on lakes and ponds, as the ice is still very thick and appears to be quite strong, but can be broken through without warning.

The lake, however, is not at that stage yet. These walls are degrading more quickly, since they are so exposed.

There is a lot of activity out there! To the left, extending well beyond the edge of the photo, is the ice track. Also sponsored by Mercedes, people can use the track to practice ice driving, and Mercedes brings out an entire fleet of vehicles. I’m not sure, but I believe people can actually pay to get ice driving lessons in them.

The hockey rink in the middle is fairly new.

In front of the ice rink is a “road” for snow mobiles. You can even see a tiny traffic sign in front of the barriers at the rink. These little traffic signs can be found in ditches all over, along major roadways, as part of a groomed snowmobile trail system.

To the right of the hockey rink is the road to the ice fishing village.

While walking around and passing by some restaurants, I was amused to see signs promoting 10% off sales, just for snowmobilers! It’s not unusual to see the machines parked in lots and roadsides as cars would be, with some areas set aside just for snowmobile parking.

With the lovely weather we’ve been having lately, there have been a lot more snowmobilers out lately, taking advantage of the warmth, and getting out before the snow melts. Yesterday, we heard a bunch of them going past our place. I saw about 5, maybe 6, machines through the trees, and was looking forward to seeing them when I checked the trail cam files this morning. Much to my surprise, I counted 9 machines go by – and since the first machine that triggered the motion sensor would have gone by too fast to be recorded, that means there were actually 10 machines in the group. Most were single riders, but I saw at least one with two people riding together. It’s the largest single group of riders I’ve seen yet. 🙂

It’s been a long time since I’ve been on a snowmobile. I wasn’t old enough to actually drive one, but I remember it was such fun!

To follow up on how things are going with our septic problems, I’m happy to say that everything is still working properly! The basement was still quite wet, so I set up the big blower fan that we have down there, aimed at the largest wet spot, and turned it on before heading into town. My older daughter checked it after a couple of hours, and it has been doing a great job of drying things out. Tomorrow, I will start working on the big clean up down there.

I’ll have to make sure to wear mask and gloves!

The Re-Farmer