Snow around the house

[MikeinMinn]

Have another question for you guys.  In some of pics I have seen guys leave the ice bare around the house, I mean they bank the house and let the sun shine on the ice around the house.  Is this recomended or not.

[stephensonswille]

My dad had always said to take and shovel the snow away from around the shack and that makes it so more light shines through and brightens up the hole and makes it easier to see

[newfish]

I shove snow up against house to keep wind and light out. Then 1 to 10 feet away from house I shovel snow off to let light thru ice to see fish and background better...

[Higgins]

I shove snow up against house to keep wind and light out. Then 1 to 10 feet away from house I shovel snow off to let light thru ice to see fish and background better...

Yup same here   then you get that snow drift from what ever direction the wind normally blows and that always helps block the wind from my sled

[BuschWhacker]

My dad had always said to take and shovel the snow away from around the shack and that makes it so more light shines through and brightens up the hole and makes it easier to see

My Dad taught me the same thing.  You'd be surprised how much clearing snow from around the house, especially on the "hole side" can brighten up your view.  I also bank some of that shoveled snow around the base of the shack to help plug light/wind leaks.

[PikeSticker]

I don't know about others but by the second half of winter thru spring several of the areas I set up on don't provide the option of shoveling the snow down to "ice."  Snowmachines have packed down a lot of the snow on many lakes, overflow has flooded the snow and intermittent thaws, rain, and refreezes during the winter makes the shoveling near impossible. Just leveling out the area for the darkhouse is a chore. During this half of the season under these conditions I'll auger a hole on each of the four sides of the house and pump about a hundred gallons of water from each hole. It does a good job of soaking the hard pack snow and as it wets the crystals it helps clear the covering layer and refreezes to a clearer layer. At least its an improvement over not doing anything. Just gotta watch that first step out the door.