The Project of Balloons and Ice

For the past week, I have been playing with balloons, 

water, and food coloring… It was a fun project, that was on Facebook about September.

 So little over a week ago, bought some balloons, got out the old food coloring and started to fill balloons. Found some old neon food coloring.

I started out filling the balloons, and then went to put the food coloring in.. Which was not such a great idea as the water tries to get out of the balloon before you can get the color in… and fingers were green.. (Note to self, use gloves)….

 So next one I put the color in first… hooked the balloon on the faucet and filled… until it sat on the sink floor.. Then squish off at mid neck of the balloon.. and disconnect balloon. Then back tie off the neck of the balloon.. worked a lot better. Then took the balloons, one by one out and set them in the snow, and waited for them to freeze.

 Day two, check them .. only an egg shell frozen top… bottom still water.  

Day three… check them.. tops froze more but still bottoms water….Turn over each balloon. 

 Day four… move balloons out in the middle of the yard so not protected By the house.  And turn back on the bottoms as there are froze some.

 Day five… about an inch froze around the whole balloon, but water in the middle… temps had dipped below 25 so was starting to solidify.  One balloon had split on one… so took all of the balloons off ..all the balls.

Day six, balls all froze solid…but some leaked.. which still wasn’t bad, as they made a crystal like look to the ball…

It was a fun project, and would be a blast to do with kids… grandkids and etc.

Well, worth the trouble.. but I think next time I do it… I might start them off in the freezer, as the temps would be steady.. as in the beginning our temps were in low 30’s to 28… at the end our temps dipped to 17 and they did much better.

 So if you try it.. you might consider start in the freezer…or at least have your outdoor temps be 15 and below.. 

 

Here is what they all looked like as they went … and don’t forget the gloves.. otherwise you will have green, blue, yellow and red fingers.