Enough ice for a year

The ice gathering takes almost a day.
By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Refrigeration for most people is taken for granted, but for the Millers and many other Amish families, it is a process steeped in tradition, hard work, camaraderie and often frigid weather.
By 10 a.m. Saturday, 57-year-old John Miller was sitting atop a hay wagon alongside a pond on the Hopewell property in Mesopotamia Township, Trumbull County. Three generations of Miller men were standing on the ice-covered pond.
No one brought ice skates, sleds or any type of recreational devices. The men and boys -- even John Miller's 6-year-old grandson, the youngest of the seven-man crew -- wore the faces of men who came out for serious work.
The Millers, as do many Amish families at other lakes and ponds, meet at the Hopewell site annually to gather ice. The ice is stored and used to refrigerate the family's food during the summer months.
One of the men took a chain saw and cut long slits into the ice. The slits were removed from the pond and cut into smaller sections of about two square feet. Those squares were then loaded onto the horse-drawn wagon from which John Miller watched his five sons and grandson work.
Keeping it covered
Miller said the family takes the ice to an insulated icehouse, where it is covered in snow. Another layer of cut ice is laid on top of the first layer and also covered in snow. Miller said the large cubes of ice will last until next winter.
"We will have about 6 tons of square blocks of ice when we get done, and next summer, when we need ice, we can just take it out and use it," he said.
The family spent most of Saturday cutting and collecting the ice. Miller, who has 11 children, comes to the pond with his sons and grandsons. He does not recommend anyone try to cut and gather ice alone.
Falling through the ice "doesn't happen often, but it has happened," he said. "If someone falls in it will be a very cold dip, but someone will be there to help."
Miller said some Amish communities make the ice gathering a communitywide event, with several families joining in the process together and storing the ice in large icehouses.
Glad to have them
Robert Sawers, executive director of Hopewell -- a therapeutic community for those with mental illness who are preparing for more self-reliant living, said the Millers are welcomed to the property, because John Miller has farmed and cared for the land for at least the past two decades. Miller farmed the land before the current owners took possession.
Miller said it would probably be easier to buy ice during the summer or have it delivered by an ice service. Buying ice, however, is more expensive and does not offer the same personal satisfaction as the age-old tradition of cutting and gathering the ice, he said.
"When you take that chunk of ice out of the icehouse this summer, you can say, 'This is something that God made last winter,'" he said. "That is a greater satisfaction to me."
jgoodwin@vindy.com