Ice fishing is a Minnesota thing

I was out on Swan Lake over the weekend and took a few photos of a popular Minnesota January activity, ice fishing. It was a nice day for being out on the lake, the ice was plenty thick as you can tell from the chunk of nice next to the house, and there was enough sun to get photos. Whoever owned the house didn't seem to be around, but there had been some recent activity.  The sled used to get the house into position is leaning against the side of the house.

There were other more actively used houses on the lake, too. There was a truck out on the lake by this ice house. The ice was strong enough to handle the weight of a truck, so a human walking on the ice wasn't in any imminent danger.

There was even a village of ice fishing houses on the far side of the lake.

Northern Minnesota has been cold enough in January to freeze the water firmly enough to fish on the ice, but it's a short season and, because it started late there isn't that much time left - maybe another month. Then it will be time to shovel the snow and ice off the tennis courts and get on with the tennis season.

 I realized as I walked across the frozen lake that I was walking on water - frozen, of course - but it's an activity unavailable to residents of Florida and other southern states.