As you know, it has been REAL cold here in North Carolina. And you know it's cold when Papa wears his knit cap and his big puffy coat. 

The other day Papa, Benjamin and I went down to the pond to check it out, to see what all this cold weather has been doing. When I got down there I tried to lick the water to get a drink but the water was frozen solid! It was so cold that the pond was hard ice. Papa wasn't sure how thick the ice was. You see, what happens it that the top part of the water freezes hard but there is unfrozen water under the ice. It's VERY cold but not frozen. The colder the weather gets and the longer it stays that cold the thicker and thicker the ice becomes. It's like huge sheets of ice.

You remember that we would go down to the pond and sit on the rafts, fish, splash each other well now, the rafts won't even move. They are frozen solid in one spot. Stuck in the ice.

Papa is checking to see if the ice will hold him up and it DID!

Benjamin walked off the pier to see if the ice would hold him and it DID!

Here Papa and Benjamin both are standing on water and it's holding them up!

Now Auntie Leesi is trying the ice, walking slowly, carefully, seeing if it will hold her up. I think she might be a little afraid of falling through the ice. The water under the ice is really very cold 

She made it, she is standing on the ice and not breaking through. 

She is being very brave.

Papa is WAY out on the ice - the ice is so thick he is not breaking through it.

 

You are probably wondering why there aren't any pictures of me. I'll tell you why. It's cause they love me. They would not let me on the ice because I don't know how to look for danger signs and since I have a tendency to run wild, happy and free they knew I would be safest on the bank.

 

  

 

  

 

After all that jumping Benjamin and Leesi are starting to feel real safe and comfortable on the ice.

 

  

oopps .. poor Benj, is he OK? 

  

Yes, he's OK

 

  

I thought we were going to go back to the house but Uncle Benj is going the other way, I wonder where he is going?

 

That day Papa chopped through the ice right by the pier and he measured it to be 3 inches thick. He said the further out you went from the pier the thinner the ice. On the other side of the pond it wasn't frozen at all. He said that is where the sun was hitting the water and it kept it warm enough not to freeze.

In the Bible God talks about ice

The breath of God produces ice, and the broad waters become frozen.

Job 37:10 

Can't wait till spring and we get to see each other again!