In Focus: Harvesting ice at Kline Creek Farm

“Walk like a penguin” is what I kept telling myself as I gingerly stepped off the safety of the snowy shore to the slick ice on Timber Lake.

It was announced last week that the ice was thick enough to be harvested at Kline Creek Farm in West Chicago.

The public always is invited to join historical interpreters and farm assistants to use historically appropriate saws and picks to cut into the ice to make blocks. The blocks are floated to the shore and hoisted onto a pulley system and slid into a wagon. The wagon is pulled by horses to the ice house on the farm.

I’m always so grateful for the Forest Preserve District of DuPage for keeping this tradition alive and allowing the youngest generations with opportunities to see how life was lived so long ago.

– Sandy Bressner