Off They Go

After a layer of ice fills the bed of the horse-drawn carriage, it is time for the ice to be hauled to the Ice House just a bit outside the kitchen door of the farm home. Based on weight alone, perhaps the team could handle another layer. But the tracks along the way have soft, muddy patches. Better not make it too hard on the farm animals.
Here we also see a youthful participant ready to organize the ice blocks as they are added to the collection. In the next post we will look at the scenic location of the farmhouse.

Lifting the Blocks

With the horse-drawn carriage safely up on solid ground, two rails are extended into the water. Once the block is gaffed over near to the rails, it is hooked and lifted with a rope in a block-and-tackle hookup. The rope runs up to near the wagon where simple manpower, a single man with the end of the rope around him and in his grasp, pulls backward until the ice is at the edge of the carriage.
Unhook the block, lower the rope by walking back, and slip the block into place with another gaff. Simple, safe, and effective. Beautiful to watch, as well!

Harvesters Waiting

At the time I arrived at the Kline Creek Ice Harvest, three or four people who were there to run the event were waiting rather quietly for folks to arrive. Only the one man braving the elements with summery shorts was present and ready to walk out on the ice and work. I was there, but my electronics -- the Nikon -- would prohibit any chance of contact with ice or snow, so I was not harvesting.
Within five minutes, though, a line of people had formed, waiting for a turn on the ice. Obviously, since the entire working area had been checkerboard scored, there was a limit on how many people would be on the ice at any time.
Sliding the blocks onto the horse cart will be seen in the next post.

Chip 'Em Out

Our previous post showed a man with a giant saw cutting the two sides of a square by sawing along the pre-scored lines. One side is open to the water, two sides are sawed, and the square is held in place by the fourth side which is scored and ready to go. Chip into the scoring with a long chisel a couple of times and the ice square floats loose. It is then pushed/pulled with a long gaff toward shore until it can be lifted and loaded.
Upcoming posts will show more of the floating and the loading.

Sawing Ice

Upon arrival at the water's edge, I noticed that the checkerboard mentioned in the previous post was already scored onto the ice and a channel of squares had been removed from the shore out as far as the harvest intended to go.
From there, participants were allowed to walk carefully out onto the ice, pick up the long saw, and literally saw back and forth along two sides of a square, sawing in from the channel. One brave volunteer, clad in shorts despite the cold snap, is seen sawing out a group of five squares across.
We will look at the floating of the cut squares in the coming posts.

Tools

Here we see some of the tools of Ice Harvesting. Hand tools only, of course, in any traditional manner. The interesting item here almost looks like a hand plow: it scores the ice in long straight lines perhaps an inch into the surface. Once one line is established in each of two perpendicular directions, a guide blade sets the width of the stripes a bit more than a foot apart. Once the checkerboard is scored, the hand saw comes out.
Sawing will be seen in the next post.

On Thin Ice

Kline Creek Farm hosted one of its best annual events, the Ice Harvest, following its role as a living museum of the 1890s. And that time more than a century ago was a time where enterprising people had many modern amenities. Despite the lack of one of our necessities, the refigerator, folks could enjoy a cold drink on July 4 -- if ice had been harvested and preserved.
Upon arrival, all participants found tools and instructors to demonstrate and assist the work. It was a very enjoyable learning experience. We will look at the steps in the project in the next several days.