Whether you refer to them as ice shanties or bob houses, I love them. They are individual pieces of art and expression including curtains, heaters, grills, TVs, planters, flags or just the bare essentials.
These folks have come to fish and enjoy their community on ice.
They arrive on the lake at “ice in” (ice is thicker than 8″) and remain until “ice out” is declared, or no later than April 1st, when they need to be removed before they start to really bob.
The yellow and orange cones express concern over thin ice, but it doesn’t appear to affect anyone.
I also enjoyed this family outing. Dad is playing a little hockey and Grandpa is pushing the little girl with her skates on while she sits on a stool.
Ice is definitely the place to be this time of year for a lot of New England families.
Next weekend men and women, young and not so young, will all enjoy the New England Pond Hockey Classic on the lake in Meredith, NH. There are about 250 teams from all of the New England states as well as some from New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Colorado, and even California.
I won’t be dealing with ice this week. It will be snow in the form of a blizzard dropping 2 feet or more from Monday night into Wednesday morning. I’ll be shoveling instead of skating. 🙂
It’s just an entirely different type of hobby, and it draws me every year to check them out.
NewEnglandGardenAndThread 
You mentioned bob houses on your post about the bicycle rider, but I forgot to ask what they were. So now I know! How “cool” to decorate your own little cozy place and enjoy a community of like-minded sportspeople! The one you featured is so cute! I’m an overly cautious soul though. I’d be “skeerd” to do this!
I hope you are able to enjoy just the good parts of a nice deep blizzard of snow!
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You’ve got to find your fun where you can in New England during the winter! Stay safe with all that snow. Looks like a doozy!
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Sounds like you have a doozy coming your way. Stay warm, safe and busy with stitching.
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Thank you. I’ll take some photos in between shoveling and plowing. LOL
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Love the popup houses! Ironically, I was or ice fishing last Saturday! I was only a minor spectator, only fished for an hour. Not really my thang, but my sis in law’s new boyfriend has a lake house. Still fun for about an hour.. then off to the bar to warm up!
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I could buy an hour on the ice and then a visit to the local watering hole. 🙂
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Ice shanties are such a fascinating New England tradition, Judy! It’s fun to learn more about them (while being cozy inside and sipping tea!). Our thoughts are with you as the blizzard approaches New England. Stay warm and safe inside as much as possible… and hopefully, work on a bit of stitching! ♡
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Thank you for the kind thoughts.
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i was waiting on this post….
great looking Bob houses…all so individual! and some are really welly outfitted as a I recall from being dragged into a few!
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I get a kick out of seeing these 🙂
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My neighbor across the alley built a form to create a little ice rink in his backyard and then everything melted.
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We’ve seen quite a few of those pop up too but none of ours have melted. 🙂
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Fun photos! We have ice shacks on the lakes here in northern Wisconsin. People sit in them for hours, intently watching a hole in the ice to see if a fish has taken the bait. They drive cars and pickups out onto the ice too. Every year someone seems to go through the ice. Kinda scary, but hundreds of people love the ice. 🙂 Stay safe in the storm. I sure enjoyed the photos.
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Ice fishing is a unique community of tough characters who love that challenge of will I or won’t I crash through that ice as I drive my truck out there. LOL And, yes, every year someone does lose a vehicle or a house.
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OMG Judy, that seems SO cute – if it easn’t for the temperature you need to hace ice. I feel cold just looking at them 🙂
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Hope they don’t blow around the lake today in this blizzard. 🙂
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I’m thinking of you guys – hope all is well!
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I remember the ice shanties on the lakes when I was growing up in Michigan. Dad used to ice fish occasionally but even he thought that was cold! You did capture some wonderful pictures and those shanties are much nicer than the ones I remember from my childhood.
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Great post, great pictures! Hope you’re surviving the blizzard! 🙂
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We just got in from two hours of plowing and shoveling and you can’t even tell that we did anything. It is really coming down so we’ll dry clothes out and head back out in a couple of hours. 🙂 Stay safe.
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It’s a sure sign of the cold when the lake fills with ice shanties! Love seeing these little houses dot the lake in our town as well. You can kind of tell the personality of the owners just by looking at the decorations!
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