Hi,

Never say never. It looks like we will open up our stand this week for two good reasons:

(1) We still have winter squash, potatoes and rutabaga.

(2) It doesn't look like the temperature will get cold enough this week at night to harm the stuff when we close the door at around 5PM. Of course, we will be on self-serve most of the time although we have a few things to do there and you just might see us.

As I promised last week, I am now issuing my winter weather forecast for Newaygo County.   Keep in mind this little rhyme "The winter will remember the weather pattern of November." If we go just by that, this looks like a slightly milder winter coming up. But there is more to it. We have the equatorial Pacific in a slight el Nino (warm) phase. Since the El Nino is so weak it is not a relaible gauge this year. However, it does have a slight edge toward slightly warmer than normal winter. Then we have the snow cover over the US and Canada. Despite no snow here, there is a lot more in Canada (actually it starts 100 miles north of here) than last year which means it will be colder than last year -which is obvious since two super warm winters never happen two years in a row. This seems to call for a normal winter. The North Atlantic and Arctic oscillations are often meaningless here since they often change every few weeks so lets ignore them. And of course there is that very old Native American friend of mine Chief Misty Sky. I asked him what was the winter going to be like. He said "Some days squaw's water will freeze in bucket before she can get it to me in my warm teepee. Other days squaw won't need to tend fire at night for me." I shook my head and asked "What are you talking about?" "Eat more fish!", he replied.

"What?" I asked

"Fish brain food!"

"Oh, I responded--you think winter will be normal." Injun nodded his head slightly.

"What makes you think that?"

"White men have average sized pile of firewood."

Well that cinches it! It looks like a normal type of winter at least with regards to the temperature. Snow? Who knows? I sure don't!

Remember the winter forecast that was out everyplace last fall for the coming 2011-2012 winter? Almost universally everyone said it was going to be a severe winter with lots of snow--except for yours truly. While I didn't call for such a near record warm temperature I did call for a warmer than normal winter and not a colder than normal that most were forecasting.

I have opened up a new You Tube channel with 4 videos on it--more are in progress. The new channel's address is http://youtube.com/coolcontraptionguy 

my other channel is

http://youtube.com/magiclandfarms 

my daughters also have You Tube channels:

http://youtube.com/artandneedlework 

http://youtube.com/eclecticdesigns 

http://youtube.com/bernadettegourder 

Fishing report for Pickerel Lake and Kimbal Lake

Pike are slowing up although my son Matthew lost a lunker of a pike earlier this afternoon.  Lots of bass visible in the crystal clear water you can see 10 feet or more when wind is calm, but they aren't in a hitting mood.  Panfish are slow and many parts of the lake must be deep since only on the NW end of Pickerel Lake do we see panfish in the weeds.