ETNA – Although it took 20 minutes to regain the feeling in his legs, a Plymouth man said Friday his rescue from icy Etna Pond wasn’t enough for him to call it a day.

Barnaby Tenney, 35, said he was crossing Etna Pond with a co-worker in the real estate business Friday morning. They wanted to put out a sign on some property when he fell through the ice.

“We were just joking about how we hoped the ice was safe,” Tenney said by telephone Friday afternoon as he continued his day at work. “It was very ironic the way it turned out.”

Tenney was in the water for a little more than 10 minutes before Lisa Anderson-Bisson, 39, of Harpswell was able to pull him to safety with a large stick.

He had tried repeatedly to kick his way back onto the surface of the ice, but was unsuccessful.

“I would take breaks, so I didn’t get tired,” Tenney said. “The ice was so thin that it kept giving way.”

According to state Warden Dan Scott, Tenney and Anderson-Bisson were on their way back to their vehicle on the Fuller Access Road when he found them and offered them a ride to where units from Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department and Etna and Carmel rescue were waiting. Tenney refused treatment, said Scott.

“He did everything right,” said Scott. “He didn’t panic.”

Tenney admitted that the incident gave him a scare, but he was able to laugh about it afterward.

“It was as close to death as you want to come, but I pulled through,” he said. “I was totally lucky. Lisa is my hero; she saved my life.”