Bitter cold weather has finally arrived with this month of February. No matter what the groundhog said, it is winter and I'm sure it will stay that way for more than six weeks. On Sunday morning, I awoke to find my thermometer reading 12 degrees below zero! I hated to let my little dog out, but at times it is necessary. It's been quite a few years since we have had a temperature reading as cold as that. Cedarville's young people and their teachers had an extra day off this week when school was called off because of the bitter cold and wind chill. As children wait for the school bus, freezing noses, fingers, and toes can happen more quickly than one realizes when the thermometer dips below zero.

It is with regret that many are facing the loss of Pastor David Letscher and his wife, Betty, after the Sunday service February 11. Pastor Letscher has received a call to build a new church near his home town in Pennsylvania and so in many ways, it is a happy move for them, although they will certainly be missed here.

The two congregations they have served over the past few years, Bethel Lutheran in Cedarville and Zion in Allenville, are having a farewell potluck luncheon at noon for Pastor David and Betty at Bethel Lutheran Church after the service Sunday, February 11. All are welcome and anyone wishing to attend is encouraged to bring a dish to pass.

We wish the Letschers all good things in their new location.

Mary and David Crocket, who reside on Island No. 8, had an unusual sight the other day while looking out of their window toward Hill Island. There was a dead deer on the ice being devoured by a large wolf, with two eagles waiting on the sidelines for their share. Mary said that as soon as the wolf left, the eagles moved in for their feast. In how many places can one see a sight such as that from the window?

Our daughter and son-in-law, Ken and Joanna Izzard, have a great variety of birds and wildlife in their yard. With many deer and local winter birds, they frequently enjoy seeing a pair of cardinals. A flying squirrel also makes a pass at their feeder now and then.

The winner of $500 from the Lions Club raffle January 30 was Caleb Beedle.

I have two stories this week from Bruce Patrick, both about a phenomenon called an ice quake. The first one follows:

"When ice gets very thick, 18 inches or so, and there is no snow on it, and the temperature is way below zero, the sun comes out and the heat of the sun's rays warms the ice up. When I experienced one ice quake, it was between Goose Island and Marquette Island, an expanse of about two miles. The ice gets warm with no wind to cool it, and the pressure of a big field of ice like this gets to be terrific. The ice expands and something must happen, so somewhere in the middle of this field, a crack forms and one piece jumps up and slides over the field. This action is so severe that the ice field moves back and forth. The feeling of anyone on this ice, I think, is just like an earthquake.

"As some of these open leads forms, if a fisherman is outside of this lead, he has to go back and forth to find a place where the movement was not enough to form an open lead. This can be a real problem when one is on the outside of his trail to shore. These quakes don't happen if ice conditions are not right. [There must be] no snow on the ice and warm sun that comes out early in the morning."

The second story is about what happened to Martin Mertaugh's air sled and its riders on one of these "ice quake" days, as Bruce tells it:

"Ice quake is when sometimes one layer jumped up and slid over the field, this leaves a drop off. On one occasion, they were on the outside of one of these layers that had jumped over. Martin said that they ran back and forth along this edge. They could not find a place to run the air sled off to the mainland. So he figured they had to try and get back, and run over the drop. Well, as the sled dropped off the ice, the propeller blade caught on the edge. It split a piece off one blade. This made the motor vibrate terribly. No way could they run into Hessel, so they stopped and Martin took his axe and split off a similar piece off the opposite blade so they could run without the vibration. How do you like that? But it was the only way to get home!"