Very strange ice conditions indeed. Went from mild winter to a single-digit string of cold with snow on top. I am determined to get the ice cleared for skating, but we have to be careful of just staying in the middle. The edges are off-limits!
Pond edges are still thin and dangerous, center thick as a brick. Odd holes keep appearing in strained areas where water leaks up though, steams, and fills an area to where it re-freezes again leaving a black-ice window to the world below.
My first go with the 4-wheeler was nuts a few days ago. I got out and started plowing, and suddenly the whole thing broke up due to massive waves I was making. It was wild, and frankly quite frightening. Got the heck off the ice as soon as I was able. From the shore I could see the ice was very thick, yet broke anyways. Luckily the slabs settled back down fairly level and it re-froze.
Today things were much better, and the area near shore that I shoveled was much more solid. The center is beyond the thickness my drill bit will measure, more than 8 inches. Even so, where I piled snow on the edges, the weight caused a crack that water gushed up through and saturated the snow pushing it down even more. Where the water was gushing up through I could see the ice was at least 6" around the hole, and the water looked "odd" like jello.
So even though it is behaving like warm water problems, the ice is so cold that it was cracking and groaning due to the cold right next to a hole of steaming water.
