I have always wanted to go ice fishing --- especially from within an ice-fishing-shanty. The one time the lake on the farm in Mississippi was frozen solid enough to walk upon without breaking through I didn't get to try my hand at fishing through a hole in the ice. Dang! Maybe next time.
TERRY

I'll let Terry do the ice fishing. I prefer ice skating.

Lori,

I'm with you. Ice skating appeals to me much more. Ice fishing must be a guy thing :D :D

Janice

We went x-country skiing this weekend and on the drive up to Jackson, we saw lots of people ice fishing. I don't think I could ever trust ice to be thick enough after my grandpa's jeep he used to plow snow (so we could ice skate) on Ice Lake in Iron River, MI sank through. Granny was NOT happy with that little adventure of Grandpa's but he was fine and the jeep dried out eventually!:)

Liz,

Your Grandpa's truck was not the first, I'm sure, to sink through lake ice that was not thick enough. He was lucky to get his jeep back. On some lakes the sunken vehicles are not retrievable.

Jan

As long as grandpa knew the ice thickness, his Jeep should have been fine. As measured by the Cold Regional Research Lab in Hanover, there are well-measured limits for wandering on ponds: six inches for foot travel, at least a foot of hard ice for vehicles.

Dave,

Happy New Year! A question for you. What is the usual method for measuring ice on a lake or pond. How do you know it is so many inches thick? As my favorite geek scientist, I figure you would know.

Janice

Grandpa measure something?:) Where's the fun in that? I'll never forget that jeep. My parents told him my brother and I could not ride in it but we sort of didn't listen!:) It was beyond junky. It was stick shift but he could barely get it into any gear and then he had to hold the driver side door shut most of the time and the brakes barely worked. He loved that thing though. We mainly used it for silly little adventures out at "hunting camp" - he didn't normally drive it around "town" - that he saved for his "safer" little green bug of a car - also stick shift and a little safer in that the brakes at least worked. Hmm, maybe that's why I prefer to drive standard transmissions. He is the main reason I love winter so much too - we were always outside enjoying it and while he liked to fly fish in the summer and made the best smoked fish I ever had, he hated ice fishing. I never did understand that about him. He was so much fun, especially for kids as he was a big kid himself. I miss him very much.

Liz,

Your grandpa sound like a handful (as my gram used to say) lol. Sounds like you inherited his sense of adventure and love of the outdoors, a wonderful heritage.

J

I never ice fished for them, but I loves me some of them crappies and smelt.

A crappie is the same thing as a crapweasel then? (big grin)

Janice