Man, 8 holiday seasons I have been at this house, and it's the first time I had difficulty extracting my xmas light laser stake from the ground....I figured after a couple of warm days, now was the time...but I still had to pour 3 full glasses of hot water at the base of it and pull with all of my might with gloves on...finally. Ground is really frozen with the lack of deep snow cover and consistent cold...the likes of which I haven't seen in a long time. Going to be an absolutely dreadful pothole season.