NEW CARS

This past fall, 2011, a friend drove up in her brand new car... a 2012 Toyota Highlander!  After sharing in her excitement and feasting on all the new features that these new machines bring to the table, I made a comment...  I told her that I have had a couple of car that were painted black and how difficult it is to keep them clean and that they can get mighty hot in the summer time.  Furthermore, I told her that I doubt that I would ever own another dark car because of that.  (Even though my pickup is a dark red.) 

Now we'll jump ahead to today, February 2012 and take a look at my new Jeep...  Even though I said what I said, and the fact that my old Jeep is black, what colour do you suppose my new Jeep is?????  Could it be Dark Charcoal Grey?????  Any thing wrong with this picture?  Or anything wrong with my thought process????

FROZEN FINGERS.....

The Frozen Fingers Festival was in Minot this past weekend, February 11-12, 2012.  Every year since they have had the festival, I have wanted to go.  It is always held in the middle of February.  So why didn't I go to it in years past?  Simply put, there was either something else going on that weekend or the weather was so bad that I didn't wish to travel on icy roads.  But this year was the exception.  We have had one of the most mild winters we have ever seen in a very long time.

I actually didn't even know that the festival was going on this weekend.  But when I got up on Sunday morning and settled down with my cup of coffee, I saw the notice as I read the morning paper.  The decision was made at once!  I would go to church, leave from there to go to Minot, and take in the festival for the afternoon.

So what is the Frozen Fingers Festival?  The Frozen Fingers Music Association of Minot bills it as "a dedication to the preservation of Old Time and Bluegrass music".  And that it is!  I love Bluegrass music and there was plenty of that.

There was also lots of Folk and Country music.

Plenty of Western and Cowboy music as well.

And this group who is from the Wildrose, ND area (near to where I was born) entertained with mostly gospel music and Bluegrass.  Seven very talented children and a couple of very ambitious parents!

And what better way to end the evening than with a rousing rendition of The Orange Blossom Special ! !

19 DEGREES OUTSIDE

Yes, it was 19 degrees outside today with the sun shining and the sky clear.  The fish weren't biting as well as they should have been (or was it the "catching" of the fishermen that wasn't so good) but such an enjoyable couple of days on the ice it was. 

So with just a few perch in the pail, I decided to sit outside of my fish house in the afternoon and "rough it" instead of sitting inside of my 70 degree home-away-from-home.  What an enjoyable winter this has been so far.

THE SOUND OF ICE

You've heard “The Sound of Music”, right? Well did you know that the ice on a frozen lake makes beautiful music too? And by beautiful music I mean crashing crescendos, explosive cracking, painful popping, and giant groaning. No, not even my feeble attempt to use descriptive words comes close to describing the sounds that ice makes. If you haven't heard the sounds first hand, you wouldn't know what I am trying to describe.

I would liken it to, perhaps, the sound of an avalanche, which of course most of us have not heard first hand or up close. Or maybe the sound of a giant glacier when it calves. That sound I have heard while in Alaska. But I was so far away that I had no way of appreciating the sound it must have made up close. I could also describe it as the power and rumbling of an earthquake, several of which I have been through. The only way I can describe the sound that ice makes, though, is to think of the wildest 4^th of July pyrotechnic show you have ever been to. Or the most severe summertime thunderstorm you have ever experienced. Perhaps, even, if both of those events were happening at the very same time, you would come close to what the sound of ice moving and building on a cold night would sound like.

As I lay in my bunk one night when the temperature was well below zero, the lake came alive. When ice is forming, or “building” it expands and contracts. It's hard to understand the awesome force and power that a chunk of ice can have. The LOUD popping, cracking and groaning is perhaps like all of the above sounds put together. Especially when you hear the crack starting in the distance and the sound of the crack gets closer and closer and finally the crack goes right under the fish house and the house shakes a bit. I closed my eyes as the groaning, popping and crashing started and visualized a fireworks show that went right along with the sounds....Ooooh,.... Ahhh, isn't DAKOTA LIFE great ! !

FISHING DEVILS LAKE

The Devils Lake Volunteer Fire Department's annual ice fishing tournament was a great success in that many fish were caught and between four thousand to five thousand participants were involved. Not only that but the weather was so good. Yes, there were a couple of snow showers that weekend but the temperatures were in the 30s during the day.

Even though sufficient fish were caught to make the tournament a success, overall the catching was a little slow on the lake. By slow I mean that the Walleyes that I caught were mostly pretty small. Usually the Walleye population in the lake is quite substantial in size. In fact, just a couple of weeks ago an eleven plus pound Walleye was caught near to where I was set up. Devils Lake was once renowned for its jumbo Perch too. I did catch one of these jumbos on this trip and that is always a thrill to pull one of those up through the hole in the ice.