LOCALadk Magazine

21 Winter 2016 LOCALadk Magazine LOCALadk really hard work is done. This crew needs spiked footgear to get the traction to move the ice blocks as they stand on the previous layer. Using shortened pike poles to push the blocks into place, layer by layer the icehouse is filled to the top. Sweating and yelling, the icehouse crew only gets a break when each layer is done or the occasional mechanical systems breakdown. Pushing, pulling, and maneuvering the huge blocks so that they fit tightly together, wall to wall, each layer is finished. Late in the afternoon or evening, as headroom becomes limited and fatigue sets in, the top layer is finally finished and the ice is covered by an insulating layer. Unlike ice that was for sale in the past, no sawdust is used. RLSCS sponsors the Ice Job because they depend on it to provide refrigeration. An ingenious system of pipes moves the frigid air from the icehouse and is then pumped through cooling systems that keep the refrigerators cool in the Raquette Lake Supply Company store and chill the beverages in the only year-round bar in Raquette Lake, the Tap Room. The Tap Room serves a free lunch of chicken & biscuits to the Ice Job workers, sustaining the crew through the long afternoon and usually into the evening. Because of the up and down North Country winter of 2016, the ice in Raquette Lake was only eleven inches thick. Normally we cut ice that is 16 to 24 inches thick. The greater the thickness the fewer blocks needed, but then the blocks are heavier and harder to maneuver. Because the icehouse is the same size every year, the volunteers were required to cut, push, convey, truck, push, lift and place a lot more blocks of ice this year. The blocks are always 22 inches square, only the thickness varies. This year the crew moved over 2,000 blocks of ice from around 9:00 a.m. to after 5:30 p.m. The ice only stops moving when the truck that we are filling is full and the next truck is pulling up to the conveyor. After the icehouse is full, the teams gather at the Tap Room to warm up and congratulate themselves on another Ice Job com- pleted. Everyone is a little sunburned, tired and thirsty. Why does this annual event keep going? You could say it's tra- dition, or that the exhilaration of a job well done provides the satisfaction for a team of people coming together. Better yet, as I like to say, when the snowmobilers stop and ask what's going on "We do it to keep our beer cold in the summer".

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