Ice

[Howie]

I was over to one of my Amish friends home on Saturday.They were filling his and his father’s ice houses. His is a large one because he is a dairy farmer and uses quit a bit of ice. Inside it is 8x16x9. Now that is one big peace of ice it will last them until October.

[Carl Russell]

Howie, how thick was the ice? How do they cut and transport it? Is the ice house underground? Do they use sawdust to pack the blocks in? Ice has been for a long time one of the items I’ld like to harvest on our farm. Carl

[Rod]

I seem to recall seeing a nice example of an old ice house at the Billings Farm in Woodstock. Might be worth a look see if you want to build something like it.

[Mark Cowdrey]

Anyone might want to check this out. There were no horses when I went a few years ago. It is an annual event.
http://www.musterfieldfarm.com/calendar.htm#ice_day

[Howie]

Some of them are still useing sawdust but they are changing to foam insulated buildings. It is a lot cleaner and easier. It seems to keep better too. The ice this year was real nice 9 to 10 inches thick. They cut with a motor powered circular saw and haul it with horse drawn sleds. They are careful to cut the blocks even so they pile in tite so there is no air space between them. Some of the new houses have a small compartment in them that they use for a refridgerator.

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