Colder here. What's your temp? What ya burnin?

Frosty morning here. About 20* with a little wind. Boiler is working on some oak, hickory, and hedge.

 

I had -14f this morning around 5:00. Cold and clear.

Don't know what the chill factor was, but lit was miserable!

 

Burning birch


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Single digits below zero here due to some cloud cover over night, but areas north of Brainerd, near Leech Lake MN hit -31f actual air temp this morning, which was the coldest overnight low in the nation. It is coming closer to good ice on my local lake for the quad and spear shack...probably this weekend the way things are shaping up. We are due for another couple inches of snow overnight ahead of a mini warm-up.

 

I was just wondering if you dragged it out on the ice yet. Im heading back country ice fishing tomorrow if all goes according to plan. Were pretty mild here 33f/1c right now.

 

I just got off the phone with my spearing buddy who checked conditions today with an auger and tape measure. He found 5" under the bare ice along the cracks and frozen flooding, and 4" under the snow covered areas. So it is a possibility that we make a bit more ice by Saturday despite the snow coming tonight. Either way it is improving out there rapidly.

Hope you can get out tomorrow so you can post some more picture in your ice fishing thread!

 

Little white pine choochin along here, needed a little dinner time fire after this morning's four splits of silver maple carried the day.

20s for the day and currently, only supposed to drop to mid teens so it's more silver maple for the overnight. Maybe a chunk of two of sugar in the back also so I have nice strong coals at 0400 when the morning load goes in.

 

We just had a Jeep go through the ice on a pond in Concord the other day. There was only 5" of ice. About good enough for a snowmobile, but not for a Jeep. 20* here now Hard & soft Maple mix.

 

22 here headed into the teens, 79 inside. Getting ready to load up for the night with mixed hardwood, heavy on the beech.

 

34f here burning oak as always. Well 98% of the time I guess.

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That is crazy. The problem with 5" in one spot means there is less somewhere else. I have seen people drive on 7" , but that is not for me. I drive a quad on 5" knowing that 4" of clear strong ice is still strong enough. In fact during deer season I drive over some pretty big frozen puddles on less than 3" and it doesn't even crack even when parking.

I wait until there is well over 12" before I drive my truck out.

One time I was driving out regularly on 14" on the lake. I decided to try a new spot. After I parked and cut my hole it seemed a little thin. With the tape I measured 10". The ice held fine with no sagging or flooding so I stayed, but had I known there was only 10" I never would have driven over that water from a psychological perspective.

There was a fishing contest on a local lake and a bunch of people decided to park side by side on the lake near the landing on less than 8" of ice. I was surprised how long the ice help before flooding and eventually breaking, sending a number of trucks and cars into 2-4' of water.

In reality clear ice is very strong. Here are the Army Corps of Engineer's ice thickness guidelines for clear ice solid:

Required Minimum Ice
Thickness in inches Description of
Safe Moving Load
1-3/4" One person on skies
2" One person on foot or skates
3" One snowmobile
3" A group of people walking single file
7" A single passenger automobile
8" A 2-1/2 ton truck
9" A 3-1/2 ton truck
10" A 7 to 8 ton truck

 

8F here tonight. Wind was raw today with snow flurries. Clear & Calm with the full moon & just beautiful outside. Oak & Locust in the boiler.

 

How does it work legal wise for you folks in the US regarding vehicles in the lakes? If I dump my Dodge Ram in the drink Im obligated under law to pull er out. I have a vid somewhere showing a helicopter extraction of a quad that went through the ice in one of our shallow lakes. They only had to rig it up from about 30 ft down. At $2500 an hour the helicopter not including divers and rigging that gets to be pretty pricey. (correction... my wife works for a helicopter company and she said it is currently $3118 per hour)

 

5" could take an ATV, maybe, probably. A snowmobile has remarkably small amount of weight per square inch, due to the amount of track and skis that are contacting the ground/ ice. Believe it or not, but I had an experience where I stopped on super thin ice while on one of my sleds on a river. There was open water from shallow water and enough current that it wouldn't freeze, about 150ft from where I stopped. I put one foot off of the sled's running board and without even putting all my weight on that foot, it went straight through the ice. I pegged the gas and got out of there. The sled had no issues staying on top of the ice with zero chance of it falling through.

 

Ice is ice... unpredictable. I scared the livin' chit out of myself 8 years ago, on Pushaw Lake, riding the Suzuki on tracks. It had been cold for many weeks, and I was cruising along a snow covered area... when I felt a slight drop and saw water boiling up to my right. I clamped the throttle to the handle bar, and the 4 tracks churned me up and out of a pocket of water / slush, just under the snow... ... I could hardly pry my hand off the throttle when I got back to shore. Never went near ice again... or that pair of skeevies...

 

It is required that the owner pay for removal of the vehicle. Believe it or not, depending on the insurance company, they will pay for it.

 

If a man can walk on it, it will hold an ATV due to distributed weight over four wheels. I am talking about a 350 to 650 cc ATV, not a huge side by side. I know because I have driven on pretty deep puddles in November on less than 3" no problem. Would I go on lake with 3"?..no way. Ice is not consistent.

 

10* out 66* in this morning. Filled up with ash to warm it back up in here. Sounds like its gonna be a nice day with lots of sun and a high of 34*

 

22 feels like 9, 77 inside burning coals so far. Supposed to be a bright cold day in the 20’s. An inch of rain predicted Saturday, beats snow in my book.