Pontoon out, fishing boat in

Gary, motoring to the island

It's mid-November and the ice-up transition has started. Gary pulled the pontoon onto shore last week, and I covered it for the winter. All three docks are up on dry land.

Me in the fishing boat, with ice-up provisions

We were out in the world the past couple of days, and came back yesterday afternoon with a carload of provisions: last-minute groceries, new fuzzy sweat pants and polar fleece shirts from Fleet Farm for us both to wear around the house, the mail.

Speaking of the latter, we used to hold our mail during ice-up and ice-out the old-fashioned way: We picked up a big yellow Hold Mail card at the post office, filled it out except for the date, and left it with our neighbors, Kathy and Lowell, to give to the mailman the moment the ice started to form. Now we can hold our mail by informing the post office online. Just one more way that technology is making island living easier. Satellite internet, dish TV, and cell phones have transformed island life in the ten years that I've been on the scene.

We were reading our journal this morning to see what conditions were like last year during this time. We were surprised to read that we were still going to shore by fishing boat up up until December 2nd. By December 15th we were snowmobiling off the island.

We can likely still get off the island by fishing boat for at least another week, maybe even two or three, but getting to shore is now dependent on the weather being fair. If it's too windy, I refuse to go out in a fishing boat no matter how reassuring Gary tries to be. I'm not too proud to buckle myself into a life vest, although I don't know what good it would do me if I end up in the icy water. Still, I prefer to err on the side of caution.

Time to pull out a crochet project. Ciao!