We all have some little things that happen to us; even now you think of it and it makes you laugh. That happened to me today. About forty years ago Pauline and I did a lot of ice fishing. You have to be pretty dedicated or a little crazy to be a fisherman in the winter time. I guess we were probably a little bit of both.
Up north on the Canadian border in Vermont in Jan. and Feb. it can be mighty cold anywhere from freezing down to well below zero, like 20 below. Some of these dedicated fishermen have it pretty easy; they have a small shack they put on the ice with all the comforts of home with a hole in the middle of the floor to fish through and a heater plus a few things to drink to keep you warm and feeling good. We didn’t have these delights; we just had a box with our tipups and the hand drill to make the hole in the ice. Oh! just so you will know we had to drill through from fifteen inches to three or four feet of ice.
Now because I have a creative mind, I sat on my box thinking I could make one of these little shacks out of plastic sheeting with a light framework that would fold up into a small package we could easily carry and set up and thereby be warmer and more comfortable fishing.
I did it! I made one in my basement room and it worked perfect! A few says later off we went fishing with our portable shack. The day we went the ice was glare and slippery, a perfect day for ice skating, oh yes, it was windy. Well you know the shack did not go up as well as it did in the basement. The wind really picked up headed north right up the lake toward Canada.