An Icy Pond

These photos were taken in mid-December, before we had the dump of snow that seems like it will never go away.

My husband took the kids and Henry over to our summer swimming hole, a.k.a. the settling pond for the pivot irrigation system. As you can see on the right hand side above, a lot of dark silt settled out of the stream water. Only enough water was left to fill the "deep" end (about waist deep during the late part of the summer), and much of it had frozen.

I arrived a little bit later and found them in a good mood. From Desert Boy's grin, you can see he was having a jolly time. And if you look carefully in the photo, you know why he's grinning.

It was rock chucking time!

The ice was just thick enough to hold most of the rocks on the surface, but every once in awhile, one penetrated and fell into the chilly water below.

Henry likes to chase things, like rabbits, and sticks, and balls, and rocks. And even though he's an extremely loyal dog, he's not always the brightest dog.

And when he chased one rock out in the middle of the ice...

...he went in. Fortunately it wasn't too hard for him to get out.

And then he just shook himself off and went back to chasing more rocks. Icy water was okay with him!

If all goes well, we may have another icy adventure next weekend.