On ice

The sun finally decided to emerge from hibernation. The brighter skies shed some light on one of Clem's winter pastimes, ice fishing. Although, it's really more like fishing for ice chunks in the neighbor's pond.

Clem loves ice. He begs for ice cubes when Mother Nature doesn't freeze things outside. He eagerly chews up the ice when the dogs' outside water dishes turn solid.

The downside of having a doggie door is that sometimes things that are meant to be inside sometimes end up outside and things that are meant to be outside end up inside.

Clem found a chunk of ice that fell from the roof and decided to bring it inside. I tried to take the ice chunk back outside. Clem brought it back inside. I took it back out. This went on until the ice melted into a puddle on the kitchen floor. We both lost at that point.

Meanwhile, Clem was overjoyed that the neighbor's pond has mostly frozen over.

I had refrained from letting the dogs on the pond ice for a while now due to warmer temps.

However, recently I decided to let them try skating around the edge.

During previous winters Saint Bernard Sherman would take short cuts across the ice on the pond. So far this winter Shortcut Sherman had refrained from his ice crossing. He decided to test the ice on Sunday in one of the more shallower areas.

Sadie was cautious and stayed toward the shoreline.

Clem was slightly more adventurous, but still didn't venture far. He was at a slight disadvantage since a recent visit to the vet resulted in his nails being clipped.

Without the extra traction, he was slipping and sliding a bit. However, that did not deter his adventurous soul. The boisterous bloodhound then went to the area of the pond that was only partially frozen. He proceeded to break the ice until he could fish a chunk out to chew on.

The goats steer clear of the ice and prefer to traverse on more solid ground.

​Nevertheless, one trail camera captured a very grainy nighttime shot of a racoon on ice.

Some recent sunshine provided light to illuminate some of nature's abstract ice art.

Mother Nature created and remade this art daily depending on the temperatures.

It seemed every morning there was a different piece only to be melted by the same sun that brought it into the light.

In the meantime, the bird feeder also seemed to be busier since the sun appeared after its hiatus. A bright yellow sunflower feeder provided a nice pop of color as did a red-bellied woodpecker..

After my bird watching or stalking session, I turned to see a disgruntled Wiggles the cat staring at me through a chain-link fence. Apparently she wanted to be free to do some bird watching of her own.

However, her watching also involves eating. She will have to remain behind the fence.

​That's just the nature of things around here.


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