Over the past several months I’ve spent most of my blog post time whining and complaining about how much work we are doing on our house. Once again another Saturday found us going down to the place to spend another several hours hammering and nailing whatever boards are still loose. Well, I only had Ringo with me on this trip as we left all the women folk back at Greybeard and Dancing queens as they decided –22.9 was just a little too cold for them. Before we got started on our project for the day we decided to scoot around the place to look at the river and pond. Much to our surprise we found water frozen solid in several locations. Ringo was pretty timid at first and he waited until I went out to the middle and jumped up and down a few times before the ventured out on his own.  The whole event reminded me of a Thumper and Bambi interchange. “Look Ringo, it’s frozen stiff. Thump, thump, thump.” Ringo may be small but he sure is wise beyond his years. Here he is strolling around the pond. I’ve spent the past 4 years building an ice rink in the back yard with forms and plastic. I’m super excited to find our pond frozen over already just waiting for a shoveling. The ice was smooth and slick (for a pond) and Ringo is already asking to get the hockey nets out. I told Milly of our find and she all but threw me in the pond. I think she is of the opinion that the ice is probably only an inch thick which is about as think as my skull. After taking a verbal beating for about an hour (OK, she only said “are you crazy?”), WE have decided to wait until after this week when it’s supposed to get up to +11c before we put the nets on the pond. Coming home we stumbled upon this view. And and even more impressive view of Dancing Queen and Polly zonked out on the couch. It’s hard to sit around the fire all day and read stories to the little ones. In Dancing Queens defense, I think she had about 10 grandchildren scampering around the house causing all kinds of havoc. I can hardly wait until next week when I can try the frozen pond again. Now that the roof is almost on I’m starting to hope for freezing weather. Anyone ready for an old fashioned skate on the pond besides me?