Got an early start this year, the ice went out March 30th, and I came up to open up and check things out on April 1st, earliest ever. Everything was in very good shape, so the open was pretty easy, and since I wasn't working started right in cleaning up. Stayed for the first week, weather was incredible, got a lot done.
Had a little setback on April 15th, when I had a little fire going in the morning, thought I put out completely, watered it down etc. I had to leave to go back to the city for a meeting and left about 1:00PM, a resident on the east side of the lake and a clear view of the island saw huge billows of smoke above the trees. He and his neighbor who fortunately had a little boat in the water rushed over and worked feverish to put the fire, by this time it was approaching the new IceHouse, and it would have gone up like a torch. Thank god for those great neighbors they saved a disaster. The fire department arrived about an hour and a half after their call, and by this time they had effectively put it out.
