Making a Hole in the Ice

     With our waterline frozen, we have to re-think a lot of our normal household activities.  I don’t mind using our outhouse, but my wife is not all that keen, so yesterday I thought I would try to make a hole in the ice on our pond to get some water that we could use to replenish the back of the toilet after it was flushed.  

    Getting a hole in the ice was a terrible job.  First I used my chainsaw to cut a square in the ice.  That being done, I figured I could just pry the square out, creating a hole.  I tried to pry it out, but the lines I had cut with the chainsaw were too narrow and the chunk of the ice in the middle, too thick, to be pried up. The ice was 11 inches (28 cm) thick.   I then when back to the workshop to get some additional tools.  

    I got a pick and a splitting maul (on the right of the photo)  I used the maul to chip the edges of the hole bigger, so I could pry it.  Every time I swung the maul down on the ice, water splashed upon me.  Soon, my clothes were all wet, and starting to freeze.  The water that had gotten on the handle of the maul, also quickly froze, making it very slippery and difficult to use.   The water in the slots I had made with the chainsaw kept trying to re-freeze.  

    I kept with it, frozen clothes and all.  I ended up using three different pairs of gloves, because they kept getting wet, freezing and sticking too the tools.  Eventually I got the block of ice in the middle of the hole floating free. 

    My plan was to get that ice chunk in the middle out, but that was pretty impossible.  It kept moving when I tried to get a tool under it, and it was just too bulky and heavy for me to lift out.  I was able to finally push it under the ice around the side of the hole, so It was at least, out of the way.

    I got a couple of buckets of water from the hole, but it was a difficult chore to get them all the way up to our house.  

    The hole I had worked so hard to make in the ice, re-froze over night and is now also covered with snow.  It is even difficult to see where I had made it.  I don’t think I will pursue this method of getting water anymore.  It was just too labor intensive, messy, and time consuming.   

     Hopefully with our temperatures now becoming warmer, my wife will soften her opposition to using the outhouse.

Take a look at my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

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