Watching the ice melt

It's Day 8 of being "stuck" on the island for ice-out. The temperature this afternoon is a sunny 57 and a west/northwest wind is pushing the ice around. We came close to breaking the record for an early ice out (March 31, set in 2000). We'll miss it, but only by a few days.

The character of the ice has changed from blotchy gray and white to all gray. It looks more like slush than ice. Serendipitously, a crack has opened from the south end of our island to the home of our nearest neighbors, Kathy & Lowell. Perfect! We're tempted to canoe over for a visit, but the crack in the ice keeps opening and closing depending on the wind, so we'll wait a few more days. We don't want to go and then not be able to get back, which has happened before.

The ducks have come back -- mallards, canvasbacks, wood ducks -- and the goldfinches are getting brighter every day, in patches.

There's such freedom in not being able to go anywhere.We're both getting things done to give us a jump on spring: maintenance, spring cleaning, repairs. We're also having some fun, like our Saturday night sauna, during which we sat out on the dock overlooking our front yard (an empty, icy, gray Sandy Lake). I asked Gary what we'd do if someone happened by at that moment. He replied that with the bad ice, we'd be a lot more surprised to see them than they'd be to see us, perched on the dock in our pink Finnish sauna suits as we were.

Our  supply of dry milk is getting low, and we're running out of fresh vegetables. But we still have canned stewed tomatoes, frozen broccoli, and a handful of carrots and parsnips. We're confident we'll be off the island in a few days -- maybe tomorrow? But only if we absolutely have to go...