Ice-out: the absence of any piece of floating ice larger in area than ten feet by ten feet
To be eligible to win bragging rights for your lake, all you have to do is send a comment identifying your lake, your name, and the date you pick for ice-out on it.
Doug Fyfe has dibs on March 23 for Newboro Lake.
Rod Croskery hopes to be wrong with April 1st for Newboro Lake.
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ANNOUNCEMENT: 22 March, 2012
Unless somebody runs onto an ice floe on Newboro Lake tomorrow, George Kitching of Newboro Lake is the winner of the First Annual Newboro Lake Ice-out Pool with his 22 March selection, which conveys to him bragging rights on the subject of ice on this lake for the next calendar year.
You’ll find George’s eloquent and gracious acceptance speech a few comments below.
Thank you all for participating in this roundup.
Rod
the Walnut Diary 
March 16, 2012 at 1:50 pm
Newboro lake ice out March 29th … Tony
March 16, 2012 at 9:25 pm
Being 365 miles away, I am not able to substantiate my prediction. Nonetheless, I would say Sunday, 25 March. Of course, I’m hedging between Doug and Tony. Tony can turn off his ice melter pump and skew the date to his advantage, but I think Doug is closer to ICE OUT, as defined in the Walnut Diary rules.
March 18, 2012 at 1:02 pm
george kitching of newboro lake……ice out …. 22 March 2012
March 22, 2012 at 6:40 pm
George:
Unless I am mistaken, you have just earned bragging rights by winning this pool. Please let me know if you believe Newboro Lake to have become ice free on March 22, 2012. Can’t have Doug Fyfe
(March 23rd) backing into the title, can we?
Rod
March 22, 2012 at 7:31 pm
Rod, far be it for me to question the expert opinion of the judge(s).I accept this extraordinary honour with the humility that the mysterious and unpredictable Newboro Lake ice commands and I dedicate this win to the memory of Don Williams, a fine man and the greatest Harbour Master Newboro has ever had and to the memory of Art Pritchard, guide extraordinaire, trapper and reeve who, in his day, knew more about Newboro Lake ice than any man then or since. And hats off to Doug Fyfe, a most thoughtful gentleman, who deliberately picked a date that was a day late to encourage others to join in the betting. Rod, yours is the best blog on the internet, Thanks, Geordie
March 18, 2012 at 8:14 pm
The Boys from Cherry Island say that ice will be out by this upcoming weekend. Great website!
March 18, 2012 at 9:34 pm
Ken:
Because the 25th of March is already taken by Tom Stutzman, and you want this coming weekend, I guess that leaves you with March 24th.
March 20, 2012 at 7:55 am
By the look of things we are all going to be wrong. Thursday or Friday