Cold weather coming this week, get those hose bibs covered...

The ice was fairly thin and a tennis ball sized rock on a ballistic trajectory punched right through.

What can I say, I'm immature for my age...
BriGuy, I would argue that if you aren't doing stuff like that you are missing an opportunity. Is there a cooler sound than that of a hard thing zinging across a narrow ice layer? That and figuring out what kind of projectile height will pierce the ice, well what a way to win the battle....

Eg Austerlitz, Napoleon:

1705424541659.png
 
BriGuy, I would argue that if you aren't doing stuff like that you are missing an opportunity. Is there a cooler sound than that of a hard thing zinging across a narrow ice layer? That and figuring out what kind of projectile height will pierce the ice, well what a way to win the battle....

Eg Austerlitz, Napoleon:

View attachment 99883

It is quite the cool sound.

Back in my ice fishing days on Flathead Lake, it could get quite eerie when those sounds "just happened" on a much larger scale. Makes you feel a little helpless sitting in that small dark shanty.
 
As a young man I did a bit of ice fishing at local lakes. Other than an opportunity to get shitfaced with friends it wasn't very exciting....except in a bad way such as when you hear some big pops and suddenly water is welling up out of the hole and everybody is frantically scuttling away from the collapsing ice.

Around Spokane we seldom get the sufficiently extended very cold weather to produce safe icefishing. I occasionally see small groups out on thin ice that's just an accident waiting to happen, and don't want to be around long enough to witness something I wouldn't be able to provide any rescue assistance. If you go through you're just going to soon drown and, worst case, cause others to drown attempting a futile rescue.
 
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As a young man I did a bit of ice fishing at local lakes. Other than an opportunity to get shitfaced with friends it wasn't very exciting....except in a bad way such as when you hear some big pops and suddenly water is welling up out of the hole and everybody is frantically scuttling away from the collapsing ice.

Around Spokane we seldom get the sufficiently extended very cold weather to produce safe icefishing. I occasionally see small groups out on thin ice that's just an accident waiting to happen, and don't want to be around long enough to witness something I wouldn't be able to provide any rescue assistance. If you go through you're just going to soon drown and, worst case, cause others to drown attempting a futile rescue.

Not Washington, but not a way I'd want to go out.
SF

 
Not Washington, but not a way I'd want to go out.
SF

Sad and altogether too common story.

Such needless and avoidable deaths even occur at icefishing tournaments with trained and well equipped rescue teams immediately on hand.

Conditions in and under the ice are not uniform and are constantly changing. Self rescue is generally impossible, and wearing a PFD simply assists in body recovery.
 
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As a young man I did a bit of ice fishing at local lakes. Other than an opportunity to get shitfaced with friends it wasn't very exciting....except in a bad way such as when you hear some big pops and suddenly water is welling up out of the hole and everybody is frantically scuttling away from the collapsing ice.

Around Spokane we seldom get the sufficiently extended very cold weather to produce safe icefishing. I occasionally see small groups out on thin ice that's just an accident waiting to happen, and don't want to be around long enough to witness something I wouldn't be able to provide any rescue assistance. If you go through you're just going to soon drown and, worst case, cause others to drown attempting a futile rescue.

We were never that crazy. We stayed in a sheltered bay with around a foot of ice cover. Some of those sounds still made you pucker a little though.
 
BriGuy, I would argue that if you aren't doing stuff like that you are missing an opportunity. Is there a cooler sound than that of a hard thing zinging across a narrow ice layer? That and figuring out what kind of projectile height will pierce the ice, well what a way to win the battle....

Eg Austerlitz, Napoleon:

View attachment 99883

Thanks for the Austerlitz link. That prompted me to see if that event showed up on Minard's famous map/chart about Napoleon's 1812 ill-fated march on Moscow. Turns out Austerlitz happened earlier in 1805. Interesting story, though.

If you don't know about Minard's chart, it is considered one of the best visualizations of data ever created. Minard conveys many different dimensions on that single graphic. It also shows that Napoleon also had issues crossing rivers.

Here's a link to his graphic. Hopefully, the resolution is okay. You don't even need to understand French.

 
Thanks for the Austerlitz link. That prompted me to see if that event showed up on Minard's famous map/chart about Napoleon's 1812 ill-fated march on Moscow. Turns out Austerlitz happened earlier in 1805. Interesting story, though.

If you don't know about Minard's chart, it is considered one of the best visualizations of data ever created. Minard conveys many different dimensions on that single graphic. It also shows that Napoleon also had issues crossing rivers.

Here's a link to his graphic. Hopefully, the resolution is okay. You don't even need to understand French.

That's a really interesting graphic. Makes me wonder if a significant chunk of the French Warrior gene pool was basically lost in the Russian campaign. Leaving us instead with a modern French economy based on the pillars of:

A- Mime-based service industries
B- Accordion production
C- The Three C's: Cigarettes, Couture and Citroens

The current Napoleon movie was interesting, though tricky to follow. They probably coulda stuck just with the Russian campaign.

A good follow up would be a Horatio Nelson movie. That, I would pay big in-theater movie bucks to see.

There just aren't enough movies about kick ass ships-of-the-line. More movies like Master and Commander!
 
That's a really interesting graphic. Makes me wonder if a significant chunk of the French Warrior gene pool was basically lost in the Russian campaign. Leaving us instead with a modern French economy based on the pillars of:

A- Mime-based service industries
B- Accordion production
C- The Three C's: Cigarettes, Couture and Citroens

The current Napoleon movie was interesting, though tricky to follow. They probably coulda stuck just with the Russian campaign.

A good follow up would be a Horatio Nelson movie. That, I would pay big in-theater movie bucks to see.

There just aren't enough movies about kick ass ships-of-the-line. More movies like Master and Commander!
You made me blow beer outta my nose with "Mime-based service industries".
 
Easy to pick up poop on the ice, much better than when it's just rainy !!!
 
Indeed!

This morning, actually... Charlie, the "special" one went full send out the back sliding door to do his business. Hit the ice at full speed and did the cartoon dog slide all the way to the retaining wall. Great way to start the day!
Way to add insult to constipation
 
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