oddly enough

oddly enough

Cold weather means early ice harvest at NH camps

HOLDERNESS, N.H.

The tradition of harvesting lake ice at a New Hampshire campground is off to a cold and early start.

Crews started sawing blocks for the Rockywold-Deephaven Camps in Holderness on Thursday, something they’ve been doing for more than a century.

Last year, the three-day harvest didn’t start until Feb. 6 due to rain, high temperatures and wind. The recent cold snap made for better ice conditions this year.

Instead of refrigeration units, campers use lake ice packed into insulated ice houses that keep the blocks frozen through summer.

If the ice gets to 11 or 12 inches thick, up to 200 tons are removed. The 16-by-19-inch ice blocks weigh between 120 and 160 pounds each.

This year, it’s being removed from Squaw Cove, an isolated spot along Squam Lake.

Man crashes into Conn. gas station, steals banana

NEWINGTON, Conn.

Call it the case of the banana-eating bandit.

Police in Connecticut say they’re looking for a man who smashed his vehicle into a gas station in Newington, swiped a banana from a shelf and ate it before leaving early Wednesday morning. Nothing else was taken.

The store’s surveillance video shows a Ford Freestyle with Connecticut license plates backing repeatedly into the store and breaking the glass doors, which set off the burglar alarm about 2 a.m.

The man was gone before police arrived.

Police say the station wagon has damage to the driver’s-side taillight and rear bumper.

Texas firefighter uses beer to put out tire blaze

HOUSTON

An off-duty Houston firefighter made the best of his resources when trying to put out a truck-tire fire: He used beer the rig was hauling.

Fire Capt. Craig Moreau and his wife were driving home the night of Jan. 6 after a trip to Austin when they came upon an 18-wheeler on fire. Moreau and the trucker, whose brake problems started the fire, tried using a small extinguisher.

Moreau says he thought the fire was out, but then noticed the blaze had flared up after crawling under the truck to check.

The firefighter then asked the driver what he was hauling. When he learned it was beer, he had his solution.

Both men began shaking and spraying cans of beer on the blaze, and the fire went out.

No injuries were reported.

Associated Press