Russ- Cleaning snow off ice around the edges in a small pond may get enough light penetration and DO production to get you by esp with thin ice.
With a pond only 8'-10' deep and likely occurrences of snow cover up to 1'-2' deep and if you do not want to lose fish you should invest in an aeration system esp for unusual years like this when you have thick snow before thick ice develops. Unless things change total loss of oxygen and major loss of fish will not usually occur in your pond until (guessing) around mid February. If you could aereate, you would want to do it before the deep water loses all its oxygen. Turning on an aerator during late stages of no DO in the bottom water will make the situation worse. As the bottom waters lose DO, fish move up in the water column for higher oxygen as winter progresses. When lots of deoxygenated water (anoxic) build up in the depths, and then you mix this water up & degrade the upper good water, fish will die. One should mix before the depths develop large amounts of deoxygenated water. This is why I recommended you turn on the aerator Feb 01 or end of Jan.
