Local groundhog sees her shadow

Bundle up, it’s going to be six more weeks of winter.

“It looks like she saw her shadow and headed back into her log,” said Neil Murphy, weather forecaster and member of Groundhog Lodge No. 6 of Monroe County.

Lodge leaders and about 20 others gathered in the parking lot of Cherry’s Sunset Diner in Kresgeville for the annual Groundhog Day ceremony.

Earl Meckes read a prayer in English and then in Pennsylvania Dutch. Everyone quickly retreated from the 1-degree Fahrenheit temperature and went inside for breakfast, coffee and chit-chat.

Schnogadahl Sammi, a mounted groundhog, has been their mascot and weather predictor for many years. Sammi was preserved by a local taxidermist and lives in a closet at lodge secretary Bruce George’s house all year long.

The lodge will host its annual Grundsau dinner on Feb. 22 at the Polk Township Volunteer fire company.