Clothing Exchange and Chowder on Ice

We're having a clothing exchange on Saturday, January 27, officially beginning at 1:30, but you can come on by anytime.
Bring your baby/kid clothes - clean, still useable - and we'll hang them on a clothes line. You can take and give. We'll keep the leftovers and donate them to a worthy cause (hint, Marlaine has an 18 month old son, and Karen has a daughter fitting in 24 month clothes).

Chowder on Ice on Sunday, January 28. 1:30
We're making chowder on the ice! Bring a cup/bowl and your own spoon.
First come, first served. Mommies first.

All events subject to change without notice.

One Mommy Kitty, Two Sisters and a Clarinet

Another exhilarating weekend on the ice has come and gone. My sister, Lorraine was visiting from Charleston, South Carolina and brought her clarinet to play on the ice to anyone that would listen. She's actually pretty good, not too many flat notes. Karen was with us on Saturday ready for action with her unmistakable knitted cat hat. We played a rousing game of Go Fish with a visitor named Jennifer and we all came to the conclusion that the once benign card game has malicious undertones that none of us caught as kids. Karen won and gloated. Lorraine hit the frozen lake, struggling to figure out X-country skiing. She fell three times on Saturday. By Sunday, another visitor to our shack took mercy on her and showed her the finer points of skiing on a frozen lake. On Sunday I played Go Fish with a 5 year old boy named Amery. He won and didn't gloat. He also borrowed our food coloring and painted a beautiful snow angel over by the Norae Shanty. If the batteries worked on my camera I would have taken a picture. Once again, the ice trumps electronics.
I also started to record my reading of "The Little Prince" over at Pitman's K-Ice Shanty. More recording this coming weekend...Stay tuned.

THIS WEEKENDS SCHEDULE

SATURDAY JANUARY 20, 2007

Saturday and Sunday.
Open 11-4
All day: Animals in Need, Ice Crack Painting, Free Skate and Ski Rental (one pair of each, size 9 only), Free Sled Rentals (one sled is a swimming pool, the perfect size for large dogs and adults)

Hang bird houses
Lunch, all welcome, bring your own
Story time
Go-fish card tournament, http://www.littlebrowniebakers.com/games/gofish/gofish_play.htm
Snack and chat
Go home

first shanty weekend passes with success

the first weekend out in our shanty of misfit toys was a great success.
how do we measure success?
*we had a WARM shanty.
*the shanty did not fall over.
we are a bit wind-swept and tired, but very happy to be part of such a glorious project! www.artshantyprojects.org

DAY ONE January 13, 2007
very cold, cloudy, not much wind.

we couldn't quite figure out our heater. it kept turning off. but, sean (or shawn or shaun) from the Art Cars came in and got it running great. soon we had a very warm shanty, which made us very happy.

we had a small design flaw in the shanty in which there was a large gap between the roof and the wall. about 4 inches. so we got creative and started stuffing our extra animals up there. it worked great! they plugged the holes and i always like to give a stuffed animal a job. we found out from one of our visitors that this is called "chinking". our friend ole confirmed the term. the things you can learn on the ice.

we had scheduled story-time, but no one showed up for it. as luck would have it, a little girl and a bunch of other people came in to look at the animals and to warm up. the little girl decided she wanted to read books to all of us. it was a beautiful thing. we love when things just happen.

we gave our dinosaur to the knitting shanty. he was cold. he needed a scarf.
we got our welcome packet from the postal shanty.

DAY TWO January 14, 2007
started out sunny, which made our shanty warm. slowly the day grew grey and colder. it snowed at night.

the heater was a cinch! a toasty shanty.

we added many fun things to the shanty. bird houses, more cushions, blankets, slippers, a plastic swimming pool with a rope attached to it so people could pull their friends around. marlaine pulled me, and i pulled her around on the ice. it was a blast!

our dinosaur was returned to us. the knitting shanty made him leg warmers, a little hat, a scarf and a sweater! he was styling! he sat outside on the bench all day, greeting people.

the postal shanty delivered our first mail! we received two letters from people who visited our shanty and had fun.

we had a chalkboard posted outside today to list the activities.
it went something like this:
paint ice cracks (we had water dyed with food coloring to pour into all the cracks in the ice. i've wanted to do this for years! it was fun)
lunch, bring your own
reading of "the little prince"
snack and chat
go home

but on the ice, you really don't have to do anything on schedule. stuff just happens.
we talked with a man who flew this enormous kite over the lake. the kite has a camera and he took pictures of our shanty town.

a beautiful day.