Saturday, January 28, 2012

Ice Harvest

Ice is cut with a chainsaw and pulled out by ice tongs.
he ice slabs are then cut down to block size 
The ice is loaded into the sleigh and taken to the ice shack. 
Many hands and a festive attitude help make the job easier. 
The ice that was harvested will keep until next winter in the ice shack. 
The ice slabs were 50% good hard ice and 50% granular.
The granular ice was returned to the hole and will be frozen by morning.

This is an eco friendly way to keep food cool in the summer. We use the ice in our fish coolers to insure freshness, we use the ice to keep the bevvies cold and our food supplies. I dont want to run a generator so that I can have a fridge. That seems senseless.

The ice shack is about 12x12 and the walls are a foot and a half thick, insulated with sawdust. The ice blocks are piled in the shack, and more sawdust is put on top. With this method. the ice will keep all spring/summer and well into fall.


3 comments:

  1. Is the ice shack shaded from the sun somehow?

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  2. The shack is not shaded from the sun other than a few trees casting a little shade. Come to think of it, I know someone else who has an ice shack and it is definitely not shaded. The key is saw dust. The walls are a foot and half thick saw dust and about 2 feet of saw dust on top of it all.

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  3. I'd love to see a photo tour of that... :o)

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