Ice and Snow

Where I come from (sort of…), there is ice on the lakes. Maybe on the rivers. But it doesn’t happen overnight. And most rivers don’t freeze. In Minnesota, everything freezes.

I thought the guy in the truck towing his ice fishing trailer a couple of weeks ago was jumping the gun a bit. Apparently, he knows much more than I do. For just last Saturday, the tried and true Minnesotans were out in their ice fishing houses on some of the lakes. And my guess for the “Ice On” contest at work was about three weeks off. The lake at camp isn’t completely frozen, but it’s about 90%. After this weekend (we now have about 6 inches of snow with more expected tonight before temperatures drop to a high of 3 with lows at nearly 20 below for three days), it will be ready to be set up for Broom Ball.

According to people up here, the ice is right on time. It’s pretty amazing to wake up one morning and find a lake nearly frozen solid. But more amazing than that is the Great Mississippi. Before this past February, I would have said the rivers in the United States don’t freeze through much. After all, we don’t live in the Arctic and rivers and running water. Not so. When I arrived here, the Mississippi was frozen solid and people will snowmobile on it. It’s well on it’s way now, and I find it amazing when I drive near it and then over it every Sunday on my way to church. I’ve never seen a great river freeze – the flows that crash upon one another making parts of it smooth and other parts a pile up of huge shards of ice. What is even more staggering is that, in time, it will freeze perfectly smooth.

The Mississippi as it freezes over.

Meanwhile, we braved the first round of the winter storm on Monday and drove out to another camp about an hour and a half northeast of here for a two-day Staff Retreat. It snowed into the afternoon that day – the perfect wet snow for beauty and snowball fights. (Yea to Andrea and I for three successful sneak attacks!) It started up again just as we drove back to our camp yesterday late afternoon. I braved the not-very-well-plowed county roads to spend three hours at camp today so I’m ready for the last quilters to arrive tomorrow, but the snow hasn’t let up all day. And so, I now live in a Winter Wonderland!