The Walden Effect: Farming, simple living, permaculture, and invention.

How to make a traditional Appalachian ice sculpture

traditional appalachian ice sculpture


1. Leave a 5 gallon bucket out in the yard to collect rain.

2. Wait for water to freeze.

3. Remove top layer of ice and position on an old fence post.



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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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Neat-o!
Comment by merh Mon Jan 3 19:46:13 2011
That is Cheating!!!!!!!
Comment by Darryl Mon Jan 3 21:22:11 2011

Maggie --- :-)

Darryl --- Mark says "Cheating is the Appalachian way." Then he backpedaled and said, "No, I mean, getting it done in a practical, down to earth way!"

(And, yes, Mark and I do compete to see who can get the most comments on their post. I didn't think this would be such a forerunner!)

Comment by anna Mon Jan 3 21:27:08 2011
Might be "cheating", but it's pretty all the same.
Comment by Shannon Tue Jan 4 01:26:09 2011
Mark has a knack for capturing beautiful scenes.
Comment by anna Tue Jan 4 08:37:29 2011
I'm showing this to my daughter -- pretty sure she'll need help lifting up the sculptures but that she'll be making them all over the place! Maybe she can do miniature versions. :)
Comment by Eliza @ Appalachian Feet Tue Jan 4 10:06:38 2011
As Mark said, the great thing about ice sculptures is that anyone can do it. And they melt before you get sick of them... :-)
Comment by anna Tue Jan 4 12:14:07 2011
A few weeks after reading this post I was plinking around our (recently finished) composting toilet and found a bucket with ice in the bottom. It occurred to me to christen our new building so, taking your idea and chipping out some letters with a screwdriver we now have a handy winter sign marking "The Loo" (I used dirt in the grooves for contrast) It will hold up for another month at least up here in Northwest Wisconsin
Comment by midwest Josh Thu Jan 27 23:48:44 2011
This is wonderful! It makes me want to make it easier for folks to post photos so we can see these ice sculptures in action.
Comment by anna Fri Jan 28 09:17:24 2011





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