Ice Fishing--more than a sport

In the Northwoods, when you say "winter" to some people it means one thing and one thing only--ice fishing. I am not one of those people. I never think "ice fishing", never.

I have been thrilled with the two-week warm spell that has cleared the snow and made the outdoors accessible to me once more. We drove by the park a few days ago so the boys could get a look at the open baseball fields (no snowblowers in April THIS year). This was the beautiful view.


We took a close-up to reveal that we also were seeing this.


But it doesn't really hit home just how die hard this guy is until we back up a bit and see this.


You would not get me to set one foot on a lake that had even a hint of open water. When we lived on the lake I made my boys wear life jackets if they wanted to walk on the lake after the first drip fell from the thawing snow. This must be the true meaning of "die" hard.