bringing in the ice harvest

[Dave72dt]

Very cool Joel, pardun the pun.

Here is a pic of where my Ma grew up, the weathered country Dude is my Uncle, this old homestead stands just out his door on his property, where they all grew up.

I couldn't help but notice the irony of the micrwave sitting on top the wood stove. We had a wood stove we cooked on occasionaly and more than once when the electricity went out.

[ggdad1951]

amazing how far we've come in such a short time. I rememebr the "party line" rotory dial phones and the electricity being unreliable enough we had a tractor powered geni for the farm. Now the farm has cell phones, mom has cable and we have running water back to the calf barn. In the haymow of the barn used to be the old ice "scissors" with the hooks to pick up the blocks, now they have a fridge in the milk room.

[wallytoo]

amazing how far we've come in such a short time. I rememebr the "party line" rotory dial phones

i was just talking about rotary phones and party lines (among other things) last night with my poker buddies.

[Stumpy(NH)]

Hi Wally! Just got a call from a friend saying the harvest is today....wish I had more notice. He is going to attend, and look for you.

[pflaming]

These pics were taken circa 1948. The one shows the windcharger which provided 6 volt electricity through large glass batteries for light bulbs only. The other shows a 50 gal barrel by the windmill. We used that to have 'hot' showeres in the summer.

I still remember getting the cobs for the heat stove, and the pot in the entry porch for night use, and the outhouse with the catalogue. The yellow pages went first.

We also had red and white cobs in the outhouse. you used a red cob first then a white cob to test if you needed to use the 2nd red cob.

[Don Coatney]

IWe also had red and white cobs in the outhouse. you used a red cob first then a white cob to test if you needed to use the 2nd red cob.

 

 

That sounds like a BS story without the B.

[wallytoo]

Hi Wally! Just got a call from a friend saying the harvest is today....wish I had more notice. He is going to attend, and look for you.

stumpy,

i saw your friend. he came up and introduced himself, told me "stumpy said to look for a red truck like mine". it was cold today for the harvest, with a strong wind. temp was in the single digits and low teens. about half-way to the event, i realized i forgot my camera. shoot.

took 24 ice blocks on my load up to the ice house. they used a scale on the first few blocks to figure the average, which was 250+/- pounds, so it appears i had about 3 tons. i noticed it was a hard pull going up the hill to the farm, had to shift into third-low to make it. was a fun day, all around, and the truck started right up this morning (about 5* at my place).

wally

[Stumpy(NH)]

I would liked to have been there. Next year. Rick did shoot one pic of your truck...here it is.

[wallytoo]

thanks for the pic. you can see the gas-powered rotary ice saw in the background, used to make long, straight cuts in the ice, with the finish cuts made using manual ice saws and a chisel.

i'll try to give you a "head's up" next year of about 2 weeks.

[Jeff Balazs]

Wow! Way to use that truck! That looks like a great time. Way too cold for me ........ but maybe Hank will volunteer as the California contingency for next years harvest? I hear tell he is actually from the frigid east.

 

Jeff

[Stumpy(NH)]

thanks for the pic. you can see the gas-powered rotary ice saw in the background, used to make long, straight cuts in the ice, with the finish cuts made using manual ice saws and a chisel. i'll try to give you a "head's up" next year of about 2 weeks.

A head's up would be great! I'll put it on my calendar to start thinking about it.

[48Dodger]

As silly as it sounds....I wanna go. 

 

Living in the Big Valley of California...its hot more than cold. The coldest it gets on my ranch is just below freezing in January. We just had a week of 68 degrees. lol.

 

Seems like a long way to go for some ice, but I remember this post from 2009....liked the idea back then too.

 

Thanks for bring this thread back Stumpy.

 

48D   

[Dave72dt]

If you timed your trip just right, you might be able to get in on the maple syrup run, something that should be starting fairly soon.

[wallytoo]

bringing on old thread back up - since the ice harvest happened today after a one-month delay.  didn't have my truck with me this year, though.

 

however, i found a youtube video about the ice harvest here with my truck in it from 2017.  truck makes its appearance from 5:13 to 5:27 in the video...not my video, don't know the person that posted it..

 

2017 ice harvest video - with my truck in it - youtube

 

and some pictures from 2017 as well...

 

 

 

 

[Dodgeb4ya]

Nice to see the bigger Dodge trucks being used and appreciated.

They don't get their share of attention.

So much fun to drive too.

[wallytoo]

after a 5-year hiatus for my truck, back at ice day hauling ice.  event was cancelled for the last two years, because covid.

 

beautiful blue sky, -5*F to start the day (warmed up to about 22*), no wind - perfect for ice day.  blocks were pretty big - about 275 to 325 lbs each.

 

getting loaded at the lake

 

good look at the fulcrum to lift the ice onto the truck

 

remnants of the last nasty ice/rain/snow we got on friday still on the truck

 

close to a full-load

[wallytoo]

up at the farm, waiting for the sawdust to cover the previous load - 23 blocks on this load, for about 3.5-tons.  2-speed hi wasn't working, so low range all the way (2nd and 3rd gear).

 

 

 

sawdust being shovelled into the ice house in the background

 

unloading time

Edited February 7, 2022 by wallytoo

[wallytoo]

blocks were sticking to the bed (another remnant of friday's storm), so each had to be "loosened" before being unloaded

 

all manual labor at this end.  that's a workout just lifting the block about 4 inches onto the ramp.

 

 

 

good crowd, too.  lots of kids, plenty of smiling faces.  went back for another partial load.  got 13 blocks, but lost 6 when exiting the lake (there's a pretty good double bump exiting the lake, and moderately steep).  however, the 2-speed came into it, and started shifting on this trip, so the driving was easier.  ended up with 73 blocks into the icehouse this year.  some will still be there next year when we harvest again.

Edited February 7, 2022 by wallytoo

[billrigsby]

That is some serious 'old school' stuff

too cool, literally.

 

Thanks for sharing  ?

 

 

[47 dodge 1.5 ton]

That’s really cool on several levels. Can you explain the process of storage, how long it last into the year and how warm the summers get up there? Would even like to know how it’s used.    

    Out of school part time (a few years ago), I hauled ice from a few local ice houses. It took 24 hours to make a 300# cube and the largest ice house I hauled from only made 24 blocks a day. 
  I have always been on the look out around here for old ice houses and have never seen one that wasn’t refrigerated/insulated. I’m just guessing from the mid 40’s and newer.

 

 Would love to learn of how that was processed.

Edited February 7, 2022 by 47 dodge 1.5 ton

[wallytoo]

the ice house has a "boarded" inner wall surface, with about 6 inches between it and the outer wall, so that's an insulated space.  sawdust is spread on the floor, and as blocks are added, each tier gets covered with more sawdust.

 

the blocks at the bottom will last for 2 to 3 years, as long as new blocks are added to the top during ice day.  absolutely no power used in storage.  the building is also on the north side, and shaded by trees.  ice gets used at the farm during summer events (for ice cream, cooling the produce in the veggie stand, etc.).  there was a discussion about selling blocks during summer events and drilling can-sized holes in them to serve as "coolers" for favorite beverages during the festivities.

 

typical new england summers are average 80s, 3 to 4 weeks of 90s, rarely triple digits, moderate humidity.

[RobertKB]

These latest additions to the thread are beyond fascinating. Really old school!! People now-a-days tend to forget that before the 1950’s there weren’t a lot of fridges around. You either bought fresh food on a daily basis or used an ice box if lucky. 
 

To see your old Dodge being put to good use in this way is so wonderful. You use your truck as antiques should be used and not sitting around just looking pretty! 
 

Thanks for posting!!

Edited February 7, 2022 by RobertKB

[jsd245]

I love this. I'm probably a couple years away from my 1.5 ton being able to be loaded like this. Right now I'm just getting it mechanically drive-able but will need to fabricate a flatbed and get the body sorted after. I'm in CT, I'll have to find a similar historic activity to do. Not sure we ever get enough ice  to cut, but this year we are pretty close. We had about 12-14 inches when I went Ice fishing a couple weeks ago.  All I plan on doing now  is hauling firewood with it. 

[wallytoo]

sunday was 2023's ice harvest day!

 

warmest weather we've had for the event that i can recall - temps in the high 30s/low 40s (note the short-sleeves of some of the volunteers). overnight was about 18*, so that helped for starting things off solid.

 

speaking of starting off, the truck started right up in the morning.  after checking lights etc, headed out to the event.  got about 3 miles from home, and near the top of a moderate hill climb (pushing about 2800 rpm), when there was a slight pop, and then loud expulsion of air noises (like from the exhaust or manifold).  pulled a u-turn, and drove back home.  popped the hood, and low and behold - #6 spark plug wasn't there (mostly).  the metal base was still seated, but the ceramic portion and upper electrode were attached to the plug wire/boot, which was draped over the manifolds.  thus, the noise was escaping compression sound, not exhaust.

 

got the correct socket, and the remains of the plug easily backed out of the head (intact, other than the center/ceramic portion).  installed a "spare" used plug, and back i went.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Veemoney]

Very cool and fascinating to see this practice is still being put to use. Truck pictures and process information has me smiling as I looked it over checking out the tools used. My guess would be those are 2 brothers looking at the camera in the last picture in anticipation of the next block. 

 

Not exactly the same but I had a sparkplug launch from an old Harley years ago as I was going down the road. Threads pulled from the head and the plug wire tethered it to the bike. Was able to drive it a few miles to get it home and repair it with an insert. Really got to appreciate the sound sitting right next to that open hole.