Ice has begun glazing it's way across the surface of ponds, lakes and rivers.  Seasonally cool air remains perched as part of a dominating high pressure system that has pulled cold air from the interior of Canada.  This is stark contrast to one of the largest low pressure systems ever recorded in the Atlantic Basin that walloped the East Coast with Hurricane Sandy.  Fringe clouds from the massive storm were visible over the eastern reaches of Lake Superior.  The storm was so powerful that it shifted twenty foot waves onto the western shore of Lake Michigan!

A full moon punctuates the night sky.  We have been busy winterizing the homestead; splitting and stacking wood, installing insulating plastic on the windows, "buttoning down" everything that will remain outside, and moving everything else into the sheds for storage.

The ground has begun to freeze.  Geometric prisms of frozen topsoil heave in the morning light.  Flocks of southbound migrating birds have come and gone leaving the chickadees fluttering through the balsam and the hearty Bald Eagle in their perches overlooking the river gorges.  Snow shoe hare have begun to turn white starting with their spring-like hind legs.  Deer cautiously scour the remaining understory for food- anxious for the rifle season that begins in less than a week. 

There's no doubt now that winter is making it's way south...