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Wow, thank goodness this cold spell is hopefully over for the rest of the winter.  That was an incredibly long spell that we just endured.  I had the pleasure of dealing with frozen pipes both at the Press and at our house we recently purchased.  Apparently the trick to not spend a whole weekend trying to thaw pipes is to let the faucet just trickle out over night when the temps get the coldest.  Thanks to Kevin at EZ Testing for getting us back on track.

Speaking of the weather, you may have ventured out to the Chisago Lakes Celebration of the Lakes. If you did, I most likely didn’t recognize you or vice versa.  I had a threshold of about 25 minutes before I was dashing back to my truck to warm up. That was with me being bundled up like never before.  There were way more people out enjoying the outdoors with friends and family than I expected.  I guess we are all so sick of being cooped up and this was our chance to get out and live a little.  

Thank you to all who worked so hard to make this year’s celebration as good as it could be despite the bitter temps.  The dodgeball tournament was postponed as was the Lions Fishing Tournament.  The dodgeball tournament will take place this weekend in the same location on North Center Lake.  Temps are supposed to be fantastic, so gather your friends and head out.  The games start at noon with registration prior so get there a bit early.

Another reason to get out this weekend is the first annual snow sculpture contest in Taylors Falls.  The Lighting Festival was minus this event due to a variety of reasons.
The sculpting park opens at 8am and is next to the Drive-In Restaurant on mainstreet.  Grab your buddies and your sculpting tools and enter for free.  There will be many prizes given out including a week summer daycamp at Franconia Sculpture Park.  The judging begins at 4pm and did I mention there will be free Dairy Queen treats for the kids?
 If you have any questions please call or text 651-707-3541.  Good luck!

Getting back to the Celebration of the Lakes, congrats to the winners of the raffles. Ron Olson won my snowmobile, Tracy Clay won the Bikeman gift certificate, Nick Feela won the FXR Outlet gift certificate and Kyle Johnson won a gift certificate to Ride MN.  Call the chamber to claim your prizes at 651-257-1177 and Ron, I hope you enjoy riding the snowmobile I was supposed to win. Just kidding I am happy for you....sort of.

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