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.