There are still two weekends of the Art Shanty Projects left and I swear it’s not that cold. Now in its fifth year, ASP brings together a community of artists to build and inhabit themed fishing shanties on Medicine Lake in Plymouth.

This year two co-conspirators and I created Medicine Lake Fisheries, a two-story shanty with an open air deck and a fishing tent on the second story. We’ve been fishing from the second story and admiring the view (see Justin Heideman’s shot above) for the past month. Andy Sturdevant, of the MOWSAR Shanty, has a thorough rundown of 2008′s shanties, but here are some of my favorite firsts from this year:

1. Catching a fish from a frozen lake.

Medicine Lake Fisheries is strictly a catch and release operation.

2. A Taiko-drumming groundhog wedding.

Last Saturday, February 2, Duane Tougas and Kat Corrigan were wed on the top of Medicine Lake Fisheries. Their wedding party consisted of 3 groundhogs and one mouse.

Also check out the Snap Shot Shanty’s photo blog- where they post the images they capture in their on-ice portrait studio.