BUMMER-FREE ZONE

The center of the lake remained frozen over, but a swath of open water, maybe thirty feet wide, ran along the ragged shoreline. As I paddled north, away from the house, chunks of ice and patches of slush crashed against the row boat's bow and whispered along the boat's sides. The channel of open water eventually narrowed forcing me to turn around, but as I turned my boat I noticed an abandoned fishing shanty, about a hundred yards out, slowly tipping over as the underlying ice shifted. It landed with a splash and crash. A gaggle of alarmed Canada geese, which had been gathered a short distance away, labored into the air with much honking, and winged their way a mile or so further up the lake before coming back down on the ice. I smiled on the scene. You would have too.