Wouldn't you like to have a dollar for every time you heard someone say, "Didn't winter seem much longer this year?" Funny thing is that I have uttered the same phrase multiple times.
It did seem like a long winter. For the winter sports related-businesses, it was a blessing compared with some recent years. It definitely was good for Michigan's economy.
According to the National Weather Service, we received around 120 inches of snow this past winter, with more in some areas. At our location, we had a winter low temperature of 19 below zero on March 8. In other parts of the country, flowers were already blooming on that date.
After church on Easter Sunday, we gathered with friends to devour a delicious ham dinner. We looked out on our lake and saw a few enthusiastic ice fishermen sitting on their buckets with their pick-up truck parked beside them. This got us to speculating about both their sanity and the thickness of the ice.
After dessert, we wandered out on the lake with an ice auger and measuring tape in hand. All of us were surprised by how long it took to punch a hole through the ice. Applying basic measuring skills, we found that we were standing on 18 inches of solid ice. Someone muttered that a freight train could roll across the lake and not bust through. As thick as the ice was, it took three weeks longer to go out this year as compared with last year and it finally left us on April 15.
Although I like winter, I'm not disappointed that it's over. A two-week trip to the southern states whet my whistle for spring and now it is finally here.
Spring offers us another beginning, a start of something new and wonderful. Our grass has now turned from what I thought was a permanent brown to a lively green. Daffodils have popped up where we left them last year, day lilies are several inches tall and the trees are exploding with new foliage. With recent rains, the mushroom hunters are heading into the woods looking for the elusive morel.
Around the lake, docks are reaching out from the shoreline and a few boaters are beginning to appear in an attempt to catch that first fish of the new season.
At the bird feeders we are seeing old friends that left us last fall and now have returned. Merganser and bufflehead ducks are feeding on our lakes as they pause in their migration north to the summer nesting grounds.
Springtime marks a new chapter, a new beginning in our lives. The call of a loon in the evening confirms that winter has ended.
Hopefully, you will be able to get outdoors and take in some of nature's treats. Who knows, maybe we will bump into each other out in the woods or along the shore.
Ed Hungness and his wife owned their cottage on Fife Lake for six years before moving there after his retirement in 2005. His writing draws from life experiences and a love for the outdoors and northern Michigan. He can be reached at edhungness@yahoo.com or care of the Record-Eagle.
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