Ice Fishing Shanty Now Has Better Amenities Than Fisherman's Actual Home

An ice fishing shanty on Mille Lacs Lake has been upgraded to a standard of comfort that now visibly exceeds that of its owner's three-bedroom ranch house, a fact that his wife has noted with what she describes as 'a very specific kind of fury.' Angler Dale Auger, 56, has spent the past four years incrementally improving his portable ice shanty, which now features radiant floor heating, a 32-inch flat-screen television, a marine-grade sound system, LED ambient lighting, a stocked mini-fridge, and an insulated floor rated to minus 40 degrees. His home, by contrast, features carpet installed in 1997, a furnace that 'makes a sound,' a television mounted at what his wife calls 'the wrong height,' and a refrigerator that has not been cleaned since an incident with leftover bait that Auger maintains 'wasn't that bad.' 'He put heated floors in the shanty,' said his wife, Diane. 'I have been asking for heated floors in the bathroom for seven years. He says it's too expensive. The shanty is eight feet wide. Our bathroom is six feet wide. I did the math. He didn't like the math.' Auger defends the investment on practical grounds. 'You're sitting over a hole in the ice in Minnesota in January,' he said. 'Comfort isn't a luxury, it's a survival strategy. At home I can put on socks.' The shanty's most recent addition — a Bluetooth speaker system with a dedicated 'Ice Fishing Vibes' playlist — was installed the same week Auger told Diane that replacing the kitchen faucet was 'not in the budget.' Diane has requested access to the shanty's improvement receipts. Auger has described the receipts as 'lost in a way that is genuinely tragic and not at all deliberate.' The shanty is scheduled for further upgrades in the fall, including USB charging ports and what Auger describes as a 'snack station.' The kitchen faucet remains unchanged.