Okay - a Winter experiment and a bit of a rant!

[Karen]

The squirrels, by the way, were pretty wary of it, but eventually succumbed to the seeds' allure!

[Taz_Zoee]

I saw this project and the pictures of it they looked so pretty and almost sparkling. Of course I can't try it living here in California.
I still think yours looks pretty neat anyway!

[Lady's Human]

Probably if you took time to polish the orb, it would sparkle, but the surface of a balloon is NOT perfect/

Just ordered some stuff for next year's Christmas science experiment.

[Karen]

It was shinier when first taken out of the balloon, granted.

But I did expect the color to be more evenly distributed! The flat spot it is resting on is where the gas bubble formed on the top of the balloon as it was laying in the snowbank as the ice froze.

[redbird]

Not bad Karen, it looks pretty nice to me. I give you lots of credit for trying, well done

[Asiel]

That's quite the orb Sounds like a real pot of trouble but I have balloons here and if this crazy weather doesn't give I just might give that a try.... maybe one green and one red...to put near the bird feeder to scare the squirrels away, they can empty 3 large tubes in less than a week , the bluejays are quite the scavengers also.

[Karen]

That's quite the orb Sounds like a real pot of trouble but I have balloons here and if this crazy weather doesn't give I just might give that a try.... maybe one green and one red...to put near the bird feeder to scare the squirrels away, they can empty 3 large tubes in less than a week , the bluejays are quite the scavengers also.

Hee hee - and maybe if you just move them around a bit every couple days, they will continue to be "scary!" to them!

Interesting potential variations on the experiment would be figuring out if different colors or kinds of food coloring take longer or shorter to freeze ... or if adding in things like glitter would help or hurt the freeze time ... although Paul swears any purveyor of glitter has my picture taped behind the counter as warning not to sell me any ... so someone else may have to try that one! Still have no idea why that one slice has so much less color than the rest of it ...

[Freedom]

I just came back hoping to see photos and there they are! I think this is a great first try, Karen, a big red almost football shape! And the pic of the 2 squirrels trying to sort out this new thing is just what I love! He hee, they sure are curious, aren't they? And tempted by the seed.

Great work, Karen! It is larger than I expected, especially after you wrote about it not freezing and such. Very interesting experiment!

[momoffuzzyfaces]

LOL! At least your experiment brought us all joy!!! Maybe if you tied a string onto it after it was filled and tied shut and hung it from a tree branch it might freeze better???? Have no clue, just wondered. Thanks for sharing. At least you enchanted some squirrels with it.

[Karen]

Hmm, add that to the list of experiments to try if we get another extended cold stretch! It is warm and raining today, and now what's left of it is sitting in grass instead of snow, and it is almost half the size - we've had a lot of rain.

[Karen]

By late afternoon, it was down to less than a third of its size, and I am betting when the sun comes up tomorrow, there will be no trace of it after all the rain and warm temperatures we had today. The rain washed away all the snow underneath it as well, so I have no record of how the coloring spread as it melted!

[Asiel]

That was one reason I haven't been able to try this experiment out----our below igloo weather turned suddenly and we've had rain and wet snow for the last 2 days and the week is supposed to be no colder than -6C so nothing will freeze. If I get antsy enough I might try it and tie a string to it and suspend it in the freezer somehow, the chest freezer not the stand up. A litlte afraid the whole thing lets go in there, would hate to be trying to get the inside white again...

[Karen]

Yeah, there is no trace of it now, one think we can always depend on is the weather will change!