Ice cutting for the ice palace and FISH!
Jan. 16th, 2004 10:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pegkerrToday, I was handed a sign by the universe that This Book Must Be Written. I'd say that's really the first time on this particular project.
For those of you who have just joined us (and those who have been following along but the details are getting rather hazy), this book is all about summer and winter magic. The main character, Solveig is the architect who is designing the St. Paul Winter Carnival Ice Palace. She is a Myers-Briggs ITSJ, who doesn't believe in magic in the least when the book starts, but as she'll discover during the course of the story, she actually is quite powerful with winter magic (which is a different magical system than summer magic) because she fell through ice when she was a child--winter magic builds up in lakes during the winter, under the ice. Fish are extremely important to winter magic, as birds are to summer magic.
ANYWAY, I met with Angela Yender again, going out to Lake Phalen where the blocks are being cut for the ice palace. I put on a life jacket and shuffled out onto the ice and watched the workers. She took me far out onto the ice, near the edge of the open water. Here, after the lake surface is cleared of snow, the ice was scored in long rows (this is actually done with the scoring saw, but I didn't get to see that part; they operate the scoring saw only during the day for some reason. Perhaps they need the light to do it. The scoring saw cuts down until only about an inch or two at the bottom of the roow is attached. I watched as one worker "chinked" the scores, pouring ice and snow scrapings into the cracks, in order to keep the water from seeping up and re-freezing the long lines. They crack the long rows off with long-handled blades, and then use poles to nudge the rows slowly to the channel leading to the conveyer belt. As the rows of ice are poled through the open water toward the conveyer belt, the workers cut with chain saws and knock the ice against the scores cut across the rows, until the ice breaks off in uniform blocks. All the workers on the ice wear life preservers, which, on top of the heavy clothes they wear means that they seem to lumber slowly as they walk, like bears.
The workers pole the ice along a good distance until the blocks reach the conveyer belt. The end of the belt is all the way down at the bottom of the lake, and it slopes up out of the water and rises on scaffolding to a height of . . . um, ten feet or so off the ground? A wooden plank is laid over the channel at the point where the conveyer belt comes out of the water. The workers pole the ice blocks underneath the plank and onto the belt, and they rise, dripping, onto the conveyer belt to the chute. About three blocks come out of the lake each minute, if all is running well (and if the conveyer belt hasn't broken or they've had to stop the process because one of the saw blades have frozen up again). A couple of workers at the top of the conveyer belt help nudge the blocks from the conveyer belt to the greased wooden chute, and gravity causes the blocks to glide down to where the workers pull the blocks into one of two directions, where the blocks have their tops sawn off to make them uniform size. From there, the blocks are loaded onto wooden pallets, six to a pallet. Two aluminum bands strap the blocks to the pallets, and then the pallets are loaded onto the flatbed truck.
I watched for about an hour and a half, and as we were walking out of the ice-cutting area, Angela pointed over to one side and said, "Oh, you should go see the Fish Block."
The what?
She gestured me over to the construction trailer. In front of it, one of the union workers had a single ice block on the ground. He had hollowed a section out of the middle and in that hollow section they had laid a big fish, perhaps two and a half feet long. I stared, my mouth agape, and I felt an enormous surge of excitement. "We'll fill it up with water," the man explained, "let it freeze, and then we sneak it onto the site and add this block to the Palace. It's a tradition."
My jaw dropped. I stared down at that fish, elation just boiling up inside me. I had to struggle to keep myself from jumping up and down like an idiot in my excitement and scaring the passersby. It made no sense whatsoever--but in the magical system I'm developing, it makes perfect sense. "You're kidding," I sputtered. "This is unbelievable. Do they always do this?"
Angela nodded. "The union guys do it. Let's see, they did it in the 1986 palace, and the 1992 palace. Not sure about the palaces before that, though. But maybe we can find out."
"This is incredible." I wanted to kiss the guy, but I thought it would really unnerve him. "For my book, I mean. Fish are--well, they just keep coming up again and again in my book. This is perfect!"
Angela laughed. "Well, I'm glad we came up with something useful."
"Hot damn, yes. I need to track down that legend," I told her. "Is there anyone who can tell me more about it?"
She nodded. "I think so. Anyway, I can give you a guy's name who I think might know more."
Who would have believed it? A block with a fish frozen inside is inserted into each ice palace. I'll be damned! I ask you, how cool is that?
For those of you who have just joined us (and those who have been following along but the details are getting rather hazy), this book is all about summer and winter magic. The main character, Solveig is the architect who is designing the St. Paul Winter Carnival Ice Palace. She is a Myers-Briggs ITSJ, who doesn't believe in magic in the least when the book starts, but as she'll discover during the course of the story, she actually is quite powerful with winter magic (which is a different magical system than summer magic) because she fell through ice when she was a child--winter magic builds up in lakes during the winter, under the ice. Fish are extremely important to winter magic, as birds are to summer magic.
ANYWAY, I met with Angela Yender again, going out to Lake Phalen where the blocks are being cut for the ice palace. I put on a life jacket and shuffled out onto the ice and watched the workers. She took me far out onto the ice, near the edge of the open water. Here, after the lake surface is cleared of snow, the ice was scored in long rows (this is actually done with the scoring saw, but I didn't get to see that part; they operate the scoring saw only during the day for some reason. Perhaps they need the light to do it. The scoring saw cuts down until only about an inch or two at the bottom of the roow is attached. I watched as one worker "chinked" the scores, pouring ice and snow scrapings into the cracks, in order to keep the water from seeping up and re-freezing the long lines. They crack the long rows off with long-handled blades, and then use poles to nudge the rows slowly to the channel leading to the conveyer belt. As the rows of ice are poled through the open water toward the conveyer belt, the workers cut with chain saws and knock the ice against the scores cut across the rows, until the ice breaks off in uniform blocks. All the workers on the ice wear life preservers, which, on top of the heavy clothes they wear means that they seem to lumber slowly as they walk, like bears.
The workers pole the ice along a good distance until the blocks reach the conveyer belt. The end of the belt is all the way down at the bottom of the lake, and it slopes up out of the water and rises on scaffolding to a height of . . . um, ten feet or so off the ground? A wooden plank is laid over the channel at the point where the conveyer belt comes out of the water. The workers pole the ice blocks underneath the plank and onto the belt, and they rise, dripping, onto the conveyer belt to the chute. About three blocks come out of the lake each minute, if all is running well (and if the conveyer belt hasn't broken or they've had to stop the process because one of the saw blades have frozen up again). A couple of workers at the top of the conveyer belt help nudge the blocks from the conveyer belt to the greased wooden chute, and gravity causes the blocks to glide down to where the workers pull the blocks into one of two directions, where the blocks have their tops sawn off to make them uniform size. From there, the blocks are loaded onto wooden pallets, six to a pallet. Two aluminum bands strap the blocks to the pallets, and then the pallets are loaded onto the flatbed truck.
I watched for about an hour and a half, and as we were walking out of the ice-cutting area, Angela pointed over to one side and said, "Oh, you should go see the Fish Block."
The what?
She gestured me over to the construction trailer. In front of it, one of the union workers had a single ice block on the ground. He had hollowed a section out of the middle and in that hollow section they had laid a big fish, perhaps two and a half feet long. I stared, my mouth agape, and I felt an enormous surge of excitement. "We'll fill it up with water," the man explained, "let it freeze, and then we sneak it onto the site and add this block to the Palace. It's a tradition."
My jaw dropped. I stared down at that fish, elation just boiling up inside me. I had to struggle to keep myself from jumping up and down like an idiot in my excitement and scaring the passersby. It made no sense whatsoever--but in the magical system I'm developing, it makes perfect sense. "You're kidding," I sputtered. "This is unbelievable. Do they always do this?"
Angela nodded. "The union guys do it. Let's see, they did it in the 1986 palace, and the 1992 palace. Not sure about the palaces before that, though. But maybe we can find out."
"This is incredible." I wanted to kiss the guy, but I thought it would really unnerve him. "For my book, I mean. Fish are--well, they just keep coming up again and again in my book. This is perfect!"
Angela laughed. "Well, I'm glad we came up with something useful."
"Hot damn, yes. I need to track down that legend," I told her. "Is there anyone who can tell me more about it?"
She nodded. "I think so. Anyway, I can give you a guy's name who I think might know more."
Who would have believed it? A block with a fish frozen inside is inserted into each ice palace. I'll be damned! I ask you, how cool is that?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-16 08:57 pm (UTC)I wonder if the magic would work the same without the fish? Or maybe if the fish prevents something bad from happening.
Interesting....
B
(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-16 09:16 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-16 09:26 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-16 09:37 pm (UTC)B
(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-17 04:50 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-16 09:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-16 09:48 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-16 10:01 pm (UTC)This book promises to be at least as interesting as your posts about the writing process. I'm really looking forward to reading it -- enough so that I'll buy the damn hardcover rather than wait for a year. I really like what your're developing in Winter and Summer magic, and Solveig's innate resistance to the supernatural.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-16 10:42 pm (UTC)That is amazing! :D
(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-16 11:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-16 11:20 pm (UTC)I can't wait to read this book. *g*
(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-17 02:08 am (UTC)I don't think I introduced myself... I friended you because I enjoy reading about the whole process of developing a world and a story. Thanks for the backstory, sounds absolutely wonderful! An ISTJ who doesn't believe in magic... but is magical, of course, lol. *does the MB thing for characters too*
(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-17 05:56 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-19 08:51 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-19 09:34 am (UTC)<a href="http://www.lacquerbox.com/fisherman-long.htm"><img src="http://clover.slavic.pitt.edu/~tales/images/palekh_goldfish.html></a>
A story about a bard who finds a fish:
<a href="http://www.cozy-corner.com/book/sadko_russian_fairy_tale.htm"><img src="http://www.jcu.edu/language/Sadko.jpg">
(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-19 09:38 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-19 09:36 am (UTC)A story about a bard who finds a fish:
(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-17 06:17 am (UTC)I know this feeling (including the "don't react in public or they'll lock you up" part), and it's such a blessing, such an absolute *gift* when it comes, that it always makes me laugh with delight. I'm so very happy for you!
(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-17 07:08 am (UTC)(and how much do I wish I could see the Palace one day!)
(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-17 07:14 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-17 09:50 am (UTC)That fish thing is too cool.
Tap into your own magic and see what you draw forth. I'm getting excited about this book -- but I also know to be patient in waiting for the final result. Like a baby, it'll be born when it wants to be born, no sooner, no later.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-17 10:31 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-18 12:32 am (UTC)If you're curious: I don't remember how I found your journal, but I've been keeping up with it for a while. I read Wild Swans and it made me cry (which is, of course, a good thing). I find it fascinating that there are real live authors so close to where I grew up, and when I found out you were writing a book based on the ice palaces I resolved to be first in line to buy it when it's published - I went to all the winter carnivals when I was young, I think, and have lots of fond memories of the ice palaces. It'll be so much fun to read a book that includes them!
Related to winter, ice, and (somewhat) fish
Date: 2004-01-18 07:26 am (UTC)~Amanda
(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-18 09:24 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-20 07:59 am (UTC)