Ice Skating on Witmer's Lake

The Henning family stood at the edge of Witmer's lake and looked out at the clean, crisp, snow covered surface. It seemed almost a shame to disturb it, but they did anyway. The children and their mother hung back as Dale walked gingerly out over the ice, testing it with his body weight as he walked. He pushed a black snow shovel in front of him to clear the surface of the ice as he walked. He stopped every few feet and bounced on the balls of his feet listening for the telltale noises of cracking ice. Each time he tested the surface, his actions were rewarded with silence and his family breathed a little easier from the relative safety of the shoreline. 

The lake was nestled in a valley just over the hill to the west of the farm. The small lake was surrounded by a number of trees that had been left behind when the surrounding fields had been cleared. The leafless tree branches were coated in crystal clear ice that creaked and cracked in the gentle, winter breeze. Icicles fell from the branches and landed silently in the fluffy snow. Large snowflakes fell lazily from the sky in an apparent attempt to conceal the tell-tall imprints left by the fallen icicles. The sun shone through a break in the clouds and reflected brilliantly off the snow covered hillside and the freshly cleared path across the lake. The family squinted against the brightness of their surroundings until the sun disappeared behind a particularly dense patch of clouds.

“Okay, kids,” Christa instructed as she walked gingerly out onto the ice. “It's time to put on your skates.”

The children followed their mother onto the ice with unconcealable excitement. Each child carried a pair of skates by the laces. Some of the skates were old figure skates that had been found in the attic while others were relatively new hockey skates that had been purchased for the kids who were unable to find a pair from the attic in their sizes. The kids sat down on the ice and slipped their feet out of their rubber barn boots and into their respective skates. They laced them up, and tied them tight as their parents instructed. Caleb was the first one who was ready to go. He pushed himself carefully to his feet, taking time to allow himself to adjust to his added height due to the blade of the skates. He also had to take time to adjust to the new friction dynamic created by the blades' contact to the ice. 

“Wow,” he commented quietly. “This is going to take some getting used to.”

“Yes it will,” Dale responded with a smile. “Try pushing off like this.”

Dale demonstrated for his eldest by turning his right foot at and angle and pushing behind him, allowing himself to glide forward on the other skate. He swung his right foot in front and pushed off with his left, gaining speed as his children watched in awe. Caleb gingerly followed his father's lead and pushed forward. His movements were jerky, and his progress halting, but he carefully made his way towards his father, pleased by his own progress. 

“Hey, look at you,” Christa encouraged from the sidelines. “You're looking good out there.”

Caleb smiled and pushed forward in response to his mother's encouragement. He gingerly turned and headed back to where he started, showing marked improvement in his technique. His younger siblings, having taken comfort in their older brother's success, stood up and began experimenting with their own abilities and techniques. Like new born calves, the children wobbled and stumbled across the ice as they attempted to gain control of their own feet on the ice. They giggled and laughed as they struggled and fell, thoroughly enjoying themselves despite their incompetence in this new experience. 

Their mother and father stood by watching with smiles on their faces and offering tidbits of advise as their children made their ways across the ice. Dale skated across the ice and turned sharply in a sudden stop. Frost flew from the blades of his figure skates across the ice as his children gasped in glee. Immediately, the older boys attempted to copy their father's technique. They pushed off , gaining speed until they were ready to stop. They turned their skates perpendicular to their direction of travel. Instead of stopping as their father had, their bodies simply rotated in and arc over their feet. They landed on their shoulders and slid across the ice as the rest of their family waited on bated breath to see how they had fared in this failed attempt. The two boys rolled on the backs and sat up, testing their bodies for pain. They smiled and pushed themselves to their feet.

“I guess we need to work on that little more,” Caleb chuckled. 

“Yeah,” Scott agreed. “We definitely do.”

“Are you two okay?” their mother asked sympathetically. “That looked like a pretty bad fall.”

“We're fine,” Caleb responded reassuringly. “I might have hurt more if we didn't slide.”

Scott nodded in agreement as he skated towards the other end of the lake. Caleb picked up the shovel and began pushing it through the snow on the uncleared end of the lake as the younger siblings zigzagged across the cleared side. 

“Watch out for sticks and stones sticking up through the ice,” their dad warned. “They'll trip you up pretty good.”

The children took his warning to heart and continued to make their way across the ice. With each pass, they got bolder. They skated on the lake for well over an hour before Dale finally checked his watch and declared that it was time to head back to the house to get ready for the evening milking. The children reluctantly returned to the unofficial boot deposit area and began untying their skates. Their father sat down in the middle of the lake and began doing something that the children found to be both strange and concerning. He began driving the sharp, heel end of his skate blade into the surface of the frozen lake. Chips of ice flew into the air with each blow as the resulting hole grew in both depth and width. 

“What is Dad doing?!” Kelsey exclaimed with deep concern etched across her young forehead. “He's going to break the ice and fall in!”

“No he isn't dear,” Christa reassured her middle child. “The ice is more than thick enough to handle it. Whatever your dad is doing, you can be sure he'll be just fine.”

“If you say so,” Luke interjected. 

The children watched their father until he had created a hole all the way through the six inch slab of ice that covered the lake. He stood up and glided across the lake towards his family as water began seeping from the hole and spread slowly across the surface of the ice. He sat on the edge of the lake and quickly changed into his boots without offering any explanation for his actions.

“Uh, Dad?” Caleb ventured. “Why did you poke a hole in the ice?”

“You see that water that's seeping out of the hole?” the children nodded in unison. “That will spread over the ice and freeze. The new surface will be much smoother than the one we were skating on today. Next time, you'll be able to skate even better because of the smoother ice.”

The children nodded as comments of Oh, I see and that makes sense sounded through the family ranks. The family, having all changed back into their barn boots, tied their skate laces together and turned towards the farmhouse. The boys slung their skates over their shoulders after their father's example. Kerry handed her skates off to her mom as Kelsey swung her's back and forth as she walked. The sun broke through the clouds just as the family crested the hill. They paused and took in the sight before them. The big white farmhouse stood directly below them with gray smoke lazily rolling from the chimney. The big green pine trees offered a contrasting backdrop to the family residence. The sunlight reflected brightly off the aluminum roof of the big, red bank barn as a few Holsteins milled around in the barnyard. Dale sighed and addressed the family.

“Alright, kids. We've got work to do.”