Through the Ice

 Shelly Walker posted this photo on her FaceBook page this morning and said I could post it here. Here is what Shell wrote:

Please, please, please be careful on the any ice. This from my home on Joe's Pond this morning. A 4 wheeler with tracs went partially through the ice last night in the middle of the bay between my house and the access area. It is in the ice at about a 45 degree angle. Someone put blue 55 gallons drums on either side to mark the spot in case it broke completely through. Fortunately, no one was hurt. I was told that the ice is about 6 inches thick closer to the shore, but 3 inches thick where the 4 wheeler went through. The local fire department shut down retrieval efforts about 8:30 last night; it was 2 degrees, with the wind whipping and pitch black. The only improvement today is that it is light.

It is very cold this morning and the wind is still gusting. We had lots of wind during the night and Gretchen Farnsworth sent this photo of the snow on the ice at the upper end of the pond. Gretchen said there are no fishermen on the ice this morning - and that is no surprise; it is still only about 4 degrees here at my house and on the pond I bet it's below zero. With the wind chill, it is well below zero. It is lovely to see the sun, though. Not much warmth from it, but still very welcome.

It will be a cold job getting that 4-wheeler out of the pond today.  Not to mention, it is probably very solidly frozen into the ice by now. We are all just very glad that apparently nobody was hurt.