River freezing

Still cold here.  Last night's low was minus twelve.  Yesterday's high was 10.  About the same today.

The river is slowly freezing over.  Each day, in the morning and again at sunset, I go the river and break the ice where the cattle drink.  If I didn't the river with this thinner layer of ice would be ice/snow covered like the rest of the river. That ice is thick enough one can walk on it.  I don't want the cattle to walk on the ice to reach the open water.  The cattle are much heavier than me. The far end, where the river is deeper and has more water flow, is where the river hasn't iced over yet.

I then try to push the pieces of ice down to the current so that the cattle can drink the water without having to work around the pieces of ice.   As you see, at the far end I have to stand on the ice to break it and get it out to the current.  The ice is thick enough I can stand on it and not break through to fall into the river.  But I'm careful.  I don't want to fall into the river.

The ice is thick enough that often in the morning I have to use a long metal crowbar to break it.  To reach further I use a long board.  As you can see the board has broken due to the tick ice.  One time when I tried to reach far with the metal crowbar the crowbar vibrated out of my hands when the ice didn't break.  The crowbar fell into the river.  I had to reach in the water up to my elbow to search and find and remove the crowbar.  Cold!!!  That is why I try to use the boards when I can.

The water is so cold the boards get ice covered.  

The barn on a cold day.