When ponds freeze

[MossRoad]

but what do you do about kids/teenagers wandering through, trespassing or not. Do you post a sign near the pond?

owning a pond is a very good reason to have an umbrella liability policy with high limits. Some ambulance chaser will say you were the most criminally negligent person in the world for not building a ten foot fence with concertina...
Unless your property is 100% fenced and someone literally had to break in to get there, well, even then, your insurance company might pay. Parents of dead kids often don't like taking responsibility, and suing someone makes them feel better about themselves. so says this retired insurance agent.

I would say posting a sign warning of ice conditions would put you in more legal trouble than no sign at all. I would suggest posting the property as no trespassing according to your local laws and consulting with your insurance company about the umbrella policy.

As for kids other than your own skating or ice fishing, or for that matter, swimming or boating on your pond.... again, consult your insurance company, keep a throw bag near the water and be sure everyone that enters the body of water knows how to use it. Make it a personal family procedure to know where the safety equipment is, the emergency phone numbers are and what to do before anything happens. And make sure the kids know that their friends won't be allowed back if they don't know about the safety plans as well. It only takes a few minutes and then they can have all the fun they want.

 

[Danno1]

That's the funny thing about ice fishing....

When its 5 below and it goes BOOM!!! that's a good noise.
When its 40 and it goes CRACKKK!!!! that's a bad noise.

Either noise experienced for the first time and you'll probably need to change your shorts. :confused3:

You should hear those cracks when you're lying down sleeping on the ice (with your 4 or 5 vehicles nearby). I slept with my dive knife in the sleeping bag!



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[brin]

Only once in 40 yrs. have we been able to skate on our pond here in GA. that was way back in 1970 or so...We skated along the edge of the pond so if we did fall through we were just a foot or two from shore...then gradually as the cold persisted we edged further out but there was never a need to skate in the middle ...deeper water , far from shore..we just skated around the edge of the pond...be safe...