GARRISON, MInn. - There's a sort of magnificence when it comes to Lake Mille Lacs as can be seen when a young bird of prey finds its meal from the lake.
"This view is incredible," said Garrison's Joan Schulke.
Schulke finds the lake's splendor in the simple things, like the top of a dead tree where she captured a photo of an eagle that hangs out there all summer.
But as it turns out, it's the Schulke family that's become the attraction these days.
"We've had dogs and kids and families and cameras and they've all just come running down to see what's happened," said Joan.
On Sunday, the wind blew from the east and the ice on Mille Lacs blew right on to the Schulkes shore-front property.
"It's like a rumble. I'm sure out there it's roaring when it hits the different big ice chunks, but it was kind of like a rumble," explained Schulke.
That rumble went right through the basement wall before finally coming to a stop.
For two days, the pile of ice at least 10 feet high hasn't moved the slightest of inches.
"I slept on watch the last couple of nights," explained Joan. "Getting up every couple hours checking to see that everything was still as it was when we went to bed."
For now everything is still, at least on this west end of the lake.
"It's going wherever the wind blows it, and it doesn't stop," said Paul Fink of Izatys Resort.
The 14th hole of Izatys golf course is on the south end of the lake.
Tuesday morning there was open water all along the shoreline, but by afternoon, feet and sheets of ice.
"It'll probably be June before this ice is gone," said Fink, in front of ice piled up higher than his head.
"It looks like diamonds, crystals," said Joan. "You know it's amazing, it's incredible and it also can be destructive."
The wind is expected to change directions on Tuesday night and that surely has residents on the east side of the lake on alert.
