Not to resurrect such an old post for sake of it, but because the date and topic killed my just back self! In the 5 weeks prior to this post I had way over 60" of snow. I can't imagine (LOL), "shovel out a path, drill a hole, using a hand blender of sorts and a funnel..." "consider covering a pool when the filter is not running to avoid the urge to ice fish..." albeit, my huge pool savings last summer easily paid for my XC skis!