thanks for the input guys!

i went out there. there was about 18" of snow. under that there was a
foot of ice. i had several ideas on how to break through it. i tried
drilling through, sawing it and finally tried to melt it with fire.
those all failed misserably. i took out my trusty axe and that cut
through it like butter.

i'm glad i took my fish out. there was a strong sulfer smell. i'd
imagine there were lethal ammounts of hydrogen sulfide. i grabbed the
4 pots containing lilies. none were rotted. they all had submerged
leaves and one even had a flower bud. there was about a good foot of
non-frozen water.

if anyone else wishes to try this, here's what i suggest:

clear off the snow with a shovel. use a long drill bit to find out how
thick the ice is. make sure you don't hit the liner and axe away. make
sure you use safety goggles, the ice can move very fast and it's very
sharp.

put the lillies in a container with water from the pond and also ice
from the pond. you don't want to drop plants that were in 2°C water
into 20°C.

next thing i'm going to do is get a couple aquariums and some
shoplights. i have many planted aquariums so i have a pretty good
idea on how to grow aquatic plants indoors. i'm going to let the ice
melt on it's own, so somewhat simulate spring... in about 24 hours.


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