Why I Oughta...

The largest park in Walworth County that runs a few hundred acres and gives visitors the ability to get down close to the White River during all seasons.  On this recent Winter visit, the River was a mix of frozen and moving.  I visited (and posted) about this very park last year in mid-January .   If you get off the main trail a bit, you can get down to enjoy the sights and sounds.  This visit was a reminder about being 'present'.  Spend a few minutes listening to the running river and you can forget about whatever is on your mind - both past and future.  And just be present.  Jimmy V's famous speech talked about doing three things everyday:  "Number one is laugh. Number two is think -- spend some time time in thought. Number three, you should have your emotions move you to tears." This sure feels like a spot to do #2:  spend some time in thought.  Our visit to Walworth County feels like a good reminder to do all three everyday.  Or try to.  Then, you'll have

Check out that shoreline!  That's what they call Ice Jacking or Ice Heaving.  And best I can tell it is quite common in Minnesota.  There's dozens of stories like this one about it happening and damaging both the shoreline and occasionally, someone's property.   I took these photos a bit ago before the lake ice melted completely. We dealt with heaving with our old gate and the pavers underneath it as each winter they'd rise up by a small fraction of an inch, but it was enough to make the gate stick underneath it. That curling up of the earth and movement of the stones from the riprap is something I've never seen before in all my years spent around a lake.  Paw Paw didn't do this, but we also had a lot of beach area with a zero-depth entrance, so perhaps the ice had room to expand? If you look in the photo below, you can see it happening in the neighbors shoreline, too.  But, it doesn't occur everywhere.  Just in *some* spots. Based on what I'