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THUNDER BAY — A Thunder Bay couple has proved that you don't necessarily need lumber and plenty of hardware to build an ice-fishing shelter.
You don't even require a lot of time.
Patrick Elvish and Abby Stezenko learned that all they needed was some inspiration and a bit of ingenuity.
The couple used a chainsaw to cut pieces of ice from a lake in the Upsala area, then assembled the blocks to make a hut.
They recorded video of the project, and posted it to YouTube under the title Bushcraft ice edition.
Elvish has a trap line in the Upsala area.
He and Stezenko had planned to do some ice-fishing last weekend, but decided it was a bit too cold to sit in the middle of the lake without shelter.
"For the past month, Pat and I have been watching these bushcraft videos online," Stezenko explained in an interview Tuesday. "So we kind of wanted to spend our day making something cool."
The couple at first contemplated making an igloo.
After determining that the roof would be too big a challenge, they settled on a square hut large enough to accommodate both of them and their gear.
They made the roof out of small pine trees and boughs.
Stezenko estimated that it took about eight hours from start to finish.
She said they were lucky that the lake had frozen in layers, making it easier to retrieve flat blocks of ice from just the top layer.
"We used a hatchet to trim them when necessary, and used slush like mortar to hold the blocks together."
Stezenko said the next project they take on may be a more permanent structure at the same lake this summer.
