Ice Harvesting Lives On
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 03.24.06
Refrigerators are one of the largest consumers of electricity in the home, by a significant margin. But it wasn’t always this way, and for some it still isn’t. A syndicated article doing the rounds at the moment describes an age old activity, that’s barely hanging in there in our modern times. The practice of ice harvesting involves cutting foot thick (31cm) blocks of ice out of a lake, and transporting them to sawdust insulated ‘icehouses’, where they are kept frozen until the next summer. David White and has his wife, of New Hampshire USA, have opted for an environmentally minimal impact lifestyle, and chose to live without electricity. So each year David participates in the 100 year Rockywold-Deephaven Camp tradition of ice harvesting Squam Lake (see a Quicktime video of this years harvest.) “That's it. Five days of hard work and I'm set for a year.'' Says David. Meaning he now has about 130 cakes of ice, weighing on average 140 lbs (64kg) stored in his custom icehouse. The camp itself harvests over 200 tons of ice to supply their summer camper’s needs. Via the::Miami Herald.
The pic is of a plaque prepared by artist Sarah Peters for The Committee to Encourage Public Art depicting ice harvesting, which once provided a livelihood for many farmers who otherwise had limited winter work. It was such big business that blocks of North American lake ice were even shipped to India.
The Raquette Lake General Store in the Adirondacks, with groceries, hardware, and a bar/restaurant, airconditions and keeps all the food cold with ice harvested from the lake. An old wood "ice box" keeps the beer and wine in the bar cold. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"
Also, in my childhood, in our summer bungalow in Rhode Island, we used an ice box for the refrigerator. Planning to go back to it in my home in New Jersey, with Raquette Lake ice.
Also it makes great snowmobile traps.
My Great-Uncle told me stories of when he was growing up in the 1920s and 1930s, he and his father and brother would go to a nearby lake and harvest the ice to be kept in a icehouse on the family farm. It would be insulated with straw rather than sawdust though. They would have enough ice to last them through summer. I bet that with some innovative design, an ice house could be built like an earth home, providing even better insulation than a simple wood plank structure above ground would. If the whole community got into the activity, every one could get enough ice for the next year easily and have lots of social fun as well.
1 week is equal to $500 - $2000 of white-collar pay. That would probably pay for a fridge and 3 years of electricity. I realize that economics and conservation don't have to agree, and that there are intangibles at work here too (like getting your name in the paper) but what a colossal waste of money.
Giving it a bit more thought, I wonder if one could have a water-caching system whereby they collect enough water from rain during the warmer months, then flood an outside pool when it freezes, and harvest it right on their acrage or backyard. Has anyone tried anything like this before?
Cool article!
(Umm... no pun intended!)
Employed people in the Adirondacks do this on the weekends. The point is to reduce our consumption of electricity. Other benefits are: exercise, time outdoors in winter to reduce S.A.D., and socialization.
Better all around than sitting in front of the TV on weekends.
I read a book about 2-3 years ago describing one of the bigger companies that started this industry, beginning with transporting ice down South and even the islands via ship up until ice machines came on the scene. Reminded me of long hours in Waldenbooks, thx.
Doesn't using 2-stroke petrol engines to cut ice negate the evironmental benefit? You'd have to calculate how much CO2 the engines use for one house hold and compare it to the cost of running a refridgerator for 1 year. Looks fun though!
Great Ice harvest video. we have an Ice harvest in Mid Jan. or Feb. depending on ice conditions. We are at Tobyhanna, Pa.