Ice Block

I'm not sure where the idea for this project came from, but yesterday Michael decided he wanted to make a big block of ice. With a canteen in it. By the time I was informed of this project, it had reached this stage:


He had even cleared out a space in our full-sized stand-up freezer for it to go. He just needed me to lift it in, which I did.

We talked about how long he/I thought it would take to freeze to a solid block of ice. We mutually decided to set the kitchen timer for 1/2 hour and check on its progress.

Half hour later, it was still pretty much liquid. We tried three hours, and this is how it looked:

Just a thin sheet of ice, but moving in the right direction. So, we left it in until after dinnertime, and this is what it looked like:

A nice sheet of ice on top, but not so thick it could not be broken through (which it was). After playing with ice chunks for a bit, back into the freezer it went (somehow the chisel had to be tossed in with the canteen).

Today, we had our solid block of ice:

Out it came, on the back deck. Okay, first it was on the kitchen floor, then in the garage, then I insisited that, really, the back deck would be a better place for this.

It didn't take very long for the canteen and chisel to be freed from the ice. The water inside the canteen had partially frozen, but not entirely.

End of project.