TCC for 1/25/08

The Caretaker's Concern 1/25/08
Ghetto temp. 55 F. and dropping (Heater is shut down for maintenance).
Island tmp. 21.5 F. Yesterday's L/H: 13/22.5 F.
Cloudy, occasional wind from the south.

With ice-in it was a rather slow day on the Island. One of today's highlights for the Caretaker was that he rearranged his sock drawer, literally. Well, not just his sock drawer but the entire bureau which is something that has been long over do. Other than that not much else to report as far as what the Caretaker has been up to today, at least nothing worth mentioning.

The Lake kept a solid layer of ice for most of the day but by around 2 in the afternoon a large spot opened up just off of Cocktail Point. The opening in the ice continued to expand as the wind and sun continued to work it open, which now appears to reach all the way to the Sagamore. So technically, if the Caretaker wanted to he could take the canoe over the Island, make his way across/through about 100 yards of ice to the open water and then paddle to the mainland via the Sagamore, but he has no need to do so. This opening is actually a good thing, when it freezes over again tonight it will be black ice thus replacing the snow crusted ice that was originally there. This should provide a substantial amount of black ice for skating, at least hopefully. To be honest the Caretaker was mildly surprised by the ice opening up, in the morning while out and about on the Island the Caretaker could here the ice ping. The ice makes all sorts of noises once it has reached about an inch in thickness, more or less. The variety of sounds that come from the ice are not exactly easy to describe, but perhaps the Caretaker will do so at a later date. In the meantime the Caretaker will share the cause of these noises. The Lake "sings" as a result of air pockets moving around underneath the ice, it is also a result of the wind pushing on the ice. There are probably some other causes but the Caretaker doesn't know what they are--he is by no means an expert on the science behind ice. He does know of someone who is, perhaps he will track this person down to get the proper low down behind why the ice sings.

Given today is such a slow day the Caretaker will take this time to explain a bit about the photos that accompany these entries. The first photo, on the top, will be a photo from the day of the entry. The second photo, the one on the bottom, will be from the Caretaker's back stock of photography. The first photo is to serve as a documentation of the day, the second photo is to serve as just something nice, or interesting, or odd, or what have you, to look at.

--The Caretaker