I WOULDN'T TRUST IT

A WARM, CLEAR, BREEZY MORNING

ICE IS MELTING FAST

AFLOAT IN A BOAT?

NOPE!

WALKING ON WATER

Saturday, 8:30 AM.  40 degrees F, wind W, light with occasional stronger gusts.  The sky is clear except for some low clouds on the eastern horizon and a few puffy white clouds moving briskly across the blue.  The humidity is 79% and the barometer is trending up, now at 30.10".
   I cut the end off of a low branch of one of our red maples to track when the sap starts flowing, and I called the folks at Highland Valley Farm to see if they had started collecting sap.  They haven't tapped trees yet, but will next week.  The sap will begin to flow when we have some crisp, cold nights followed by warm days, which is predicted for next week. The weather has been too consistently warm day and night for sap flow.
   Yesterday being Friday, we had our usual fish evening meal.  I bought some frozen bluegills a week ago and was anxious to fry them up, so we did not go out for fish fry, as we often do.  I was thinking about those bluegills all week.  They were over $8.00 per pound but I haden't eaten a bluegill in years, and I thought how fine they tasted when I was a boy and my Dad and I would go fishing and bring home a mess of panfish.  They were always so good, fresh from the lake and fried in a buttered pan after being dipped in milk and dusted with seasoned flour. We usually ate them with fried potatoes and eggs.
   Alas, the frozen bluegills did not meet my remembered expectations.  Had I noticed when purchasing them that they were farm raised in China I wouldn't have bothered.  Oh, they were edible, but not much more.  They tasted like they were chipped out of some late Pleistocene glacier.  Memories will have to suffice I guess, and the next time I purchase fish they will be fresh Lake Superior whitefish.
   The Ice Road is closed, as are the Ice Caves. Slush and water create a soupy mess on the ice, but folks continue to go out on it to fish, or even to take a walk.  The scenes above, from the Sioux River beach, show a resolute ice fisherman doing his thing while staying in or near his gear toboggan, which I assume floats; and an adventurous couple strolled out on the decaying ice off the mouth of the Sioux River.  They may think the watery ice is O.K., but there are strong currents in the area and I wouldn't trust it.