KENOSHA — "I've been coming here way too often to shovel," Jack Saarela of Pleasant Prairie said.
Saarela is the landlord of a building in Kenosha. He was out early Monday to make sure the sidewalks and steps were cleared for his tenants. He made quick work of what was there.
"It's very light," Saarela said. "It's not a lot of water content, so it's easy to shovel. If you use a snowblower, it just blows up and comes in your face."
However, it's still making it difficult to shovel.
"Just lifting it up and getting it off everything," Dan Walsh said. "I feel like you have to throw it far. You can't just push it on the side."
Walsh spent the morning tossing snow over mounds of snow that had already accumulated from the last snowfall. He appreciated the snow was lighter, but he had to throw it twice as far, making it more strenuous. However, he's looking on the bright side.
"I try to look at it like I'm working out," Walsh said. "I'm expending energy, and I have to work out anyway, right?"
Monday was no work and all play near the lake for some. A group of ice fishermen made the best of this snowy, cold morning.
"There's nowhere I'd rather be," Joe Boutell said.
Boutell runs charters for Jack's Charter Service. He was there with his friend Kyle Deavers of Big Boy Fishing to help some people ice fish. With their arms elbow deep in frigid water, it sounds like torture. But the smile they had from ear to ear said otherwise.
"There's nothing to be miserable about," Boutell said. "You're in Wisconsin. You got to take advantage of every day you have in the winter. I ice fish for a living in the winter months, and we waited until the end of January for ice this year."
Their group was able to get out on the ice because it is Presidents Day. They wouldn't have had it any other way.
"You're in Wisconsin. You got to take advantage of every day you have in the winter." — Joe Boutell, who runs charters for Jack's Charter Service
"I only get annoyed with snow when I'm driving here because it makes me get on the ice a little slower," Tony Cass of Milwaukee said. "We're just out here enjoying ourselves. Enjoying the cold weather and making something out of it."
Cass and his friend Owen Van Wyk post videos of their ice fishing expeditions on their YouTube pages.
"It's awesome," Van Wyk said. "Just the time you have with everyone and enjoying catching big fish like that."
Boutell said he expects to run more ice fishing charters for another few weeks until weather warms up significantly.
