Thursday, January 11, 2018

Traditions ~ Annual Ice Harvest with RDC

Each year come January the folks at Rockywold-Deephaven Camp measure the ice along the shore of Squam.  Once it's reached over the 12" mark they set the date and assemble their crew. 
This tradition is long standing as is most of its volunteers for the three day harvesting event.


Two ice houses get filled with ice blocks cut from the lake to be used
throughout the summer by their campers.

They've got the method down from generations past with only slight 
tweaks here and there to improve operations.
Here John guides the blocks up the ramp with a simple pulley system

operations are smooth with Bruce and Eric on deck

with a push and a slide onto the awaiting trucks

 Martin and Neil have their trips timed in sync as they 
unload each cargo of ice
The trio of Keegan, Ryan and Neil slide the blocks into the ice house 
where they are placed and stacked with an easy going  
precision by Dillon, Ben and Alex.   
 I've been photographing this event for the past four years and they make me feel like one of the crew.    
It's yet another one of the reasons I love calling the Lakes Region my home.

I recall one conversation a couple of years back   
"we asked the summer guests if they'd like to change over to modern refrigerators... " 
They opted "no" "...keep the traditional ice chests."

I'm sure I'm not alone when I say "I'm so glad they feel this way."

enjoy,

k

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