The smiling snowman

This one is from last year. Winter is coming, and I was looking at pictures of the various creatures we sculpted last year. Hard to believe how many hours we spent out there, heaping up snow, and sculpting.
It's only November now, and I'd like if I said I was looking forward to wintertime. Love snow, hate cold. You can't have one without the other here in Upstate New York.

Anyway, here is one of last year's creatures. It came to be on a cloudy, bitter cold Sunday afternoon, and it was cold all right.

His 'hair' didn't want to cooperate, so Mark had to touch it up quite a bit.

This nameless creature stayed in our back yard for weeks. It was so very cold for weeks on end, he couldn't melt.

More snow fun

It's been a long winter. I am writing this on April 7 and it's snowing outside. An old man told me years ago how to predict spring. Ever since he told me that, I've been paying attention to it, and he's been right year after year, about 15 years now. According to his theory we'd have a late spring this year, and sure enough...

So how do you predict spring?

Think full moon and the tides of the sea, and how it all influences the weather. OK that wasn't too technical, but you get my drift.

Easter is on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. If Easter is late, spring is late. It's really that simple and it proves to be true year after year.

We all long for spring now, and it's time to start thinking about sunny days, sprouting seeds, and lots of work. until then, let's admire winter a bit more and reflect on its beauty.

Below are some pictures that we took this winter. oh how I want to say this "past" winter. Almost, almost..

This picture was taken during a walk around the corner from where we live. It was a lovely Sunday afternoon.

Deer by the train tracks. She wasn't too shy. This is just behind our back yard.

Another Sunday afternoon picture. Sun and snow go well together (as long as you're wearing sunglasses)

The train tracks cross the back yard way out back, and they are a good place to go snowshoeing on the weekends.

Snowbank Fun

In order to make a sculpture out of a snowbank, you have to find the right moment. Most of the time, the snow banks are rather dirty from the sand on the road. Other times, they turn into giant blocks of ice, or the snow is too cold to pack well. Last year, we didn't have any opportunity to use the snow banks to our advantage. This year, we got one ice sculpture out of it, but two years ago, we hit the snow jackpot. Fresh snow on an already nicely packed snowbank that wasn't too dirty.

This one was never given a name, so let's call him Anderson, or something..

He had a big mouth :) A few hours worth of work. Anderson lasted at least two weeks. He was made in the first half of March on a cold Sunday afternoon. Looking at it now, we had less snow than we have this year, but the snow in the banks was cleaner. Exactly how clean the snow is depends on how much sand they have to use on the road. A snow and ice combo usually requires lots of sand. If it's not biting cold and there is only snow, they don't throw sand, which is good for us.

Loki the Unknown Creature

Meet Loki the unknown snow creature. We spent some time piling up snow off and on for 2 weeks, in preparation of our sculpting day today. It's always best to pile up snow ahead of time so that it can settle. The more it settles, the easier to sculpt, as long as you don't have a warm-up followed by a cold spell, which easily turns the piles into icy nightmares. We lucked out, especially since mother nature dumped about 2 feet of snow on the pile we already had. Speaking of low hanging fruit!

Today brought far from perfect sculpting weather because the temperature was too low for the snow to pack. Mark had to go inside for a bit to warm up his feet in-between.

Total sculpting time was about 3 hours, not counting the cave we made in the back of the sculpture. The 3 hours also don't include the time it took to pile up the snow. I didn't keep track, but I know it was more than 3 hours all together.

Mark originally decided to make a cat out of that pile of snow, but it turned out different. Sometimes you just have to let a sculpture build itself and follow its lead. At some point it looked like a bird, but the end result isn't much bird-like. It also looked a bit like a frog while it was in the making, but you need some imagination to see a frog there. We'll just leave it at Loki the Unknown Creature.

The pictures below show the making of the sculpture from beginning to end. We also made a couple pictures with us in front of the snow pile, which gives you an idea about the size.

As always, you can click on the pictures to get a better view.

Let's start with the pile of snow :)

Mark, in the process of carving.

The finished product

We made an opening in the back, this is my snow shelter now :)

Lock Ness Monster

Loch Ness Monster

Click the image to see a bigger picture.

We worked on this one for a long time, somehow. First, we piled up four heaps of snow, ranging in size from real big to small. The biggest one became the head, which you can see best in the picture. The teeth were challenging, but they lasted forever. Even a month later, when the sculpture was snowed under, you could still see the teeth sticking out.

The monster has 4 body parts. With a little imagination, you can see the dragon-like monster come out of the snow-filled lake. Well, maybe with a lot of imagination. I feel that we put the piles too far apart, and the result was a cut-up monster. Even though I don't feel this was our greatest, I love the teeth. Reminds me of the original Jaws movie :)

More Snowy Days

A snowy day is nothing unusual in the North Country. We live with it. We shovel. We stare at the growing snow banks while longing for springtime. "Spring is right around the corner" is an often heard expression. It is usually followed by "But that corner is real big, isn't it?"
March 21st is merely a date on the calendar. Most years, we see the first day of spring come and go without seeing an end to the white, fluffy stuff referred to as 'the four letter word'.

Over time, I've come to notice that people make themselves feel better about the endless winters by discussing the groundhog in the early days of February, or they sum up the advantages of winter. There are no mosquitoes, the night is never pitch-dark when there is snow on the ground, you don't have to worry about any junk in the back yard, because the snow covers it, snow is good insulation, snow is the poor man's fertilizer in the gardens, there is no mud, and most of all... it's beautiful.

If you've ever seen a snow-covered tree, you'll know exactly how beautiful it is.
Here are a couple pictures that I took last week. We had an ice storm, followed by a good amount of snow. The tree branches were hanging low in some places. Snow was sticking to everything, creating a perfect scene to be captured in a photo.

You can click on the pictures to have a better view.

Snow Angels

There is nothing easier than making angels in the snow. I'm not referring to flapping your arms and legs around while feeling the cold, wet snow on your back. I'm referring to real snow angels. They are easier than anything else. Just make the shape in a pile of snow and scoop the snow from around it. No skill required.

The only tool I use to make angels is a hand shovel. A hand shovel is the gadget you'd use to dig in the garden when you plant your young vegetable plants. Sometimes I use a snow shovel to flatten the front of a snow bank before I get started. This helps to make the 'front snow' more packed. It's important to have packed snow so that the angel doesn't fall apart while you carve it out.

The disadvantage of making angels is that they are the first ones to melt when the temperature goes above the freezing point, and they are harder to reconstruct than the bigger snow sculptures are.

Angels can also be made in forms. Pack a 5 gallon pail full with snow, pack it very densely, and turn it over, a bit like a snowcake. Then you can sculpt out the angel. I have some pictures of those, but will need to find them.

As always, you can click on the images to make them larger.
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Ice Face

This is Ice Face. The snow had been melting and froze into a big block of ice. This is the hardest kind to sculpt, but we need to entertain and few drivers who venture on this back road. Meet IceFace, born in January 2017, lived 6 days, until he half melted and a foot of snow buried him.

Happy Face

Making a happy face in the snow takes minutes. We like to make them in the snowbank on the roadside to give people something to smile about. It requires no skill, and hardly any time.

This one lasted several weeks. It's all about timing when you make snow sculptures.

A Cup Of Tea

This was one of the easiest sculptures. A Cup of Tea.
Making the cup was far easier than getting in and out of it. Mark had to lift me in and out.
We used some rope and a piece of cardboard for the 'tea tag".
We made our cup of tea in the winter of 2014. The snow was generous that day, sticking like chewing gum under the seat of a chair.
Best snow ever. We rarely get "good" snow, because it's usually too cold for the snow to stick. When we do get the perfect snow, it's considered sinful not to make a sculpture.

Click on the images to get a better and bigger view.
Also, feel free to stop by any time, as I will be uploading more pictures. We've made dozens of sculptures in recent years.

The Turtle

If you want some advice... don't ever sit on the back of  a snow turtle. You wouldn't believe how cold and wet that was - or maybe you would.
Turtelidoo took about 2 hours to make. We made this one in front of the house, by the street. You can see some dirty stuff mixed in with the snow. That's from the sand trucks. They don't know that grown kids like us need white snow.
Turtelidoo stuck around for a long time, until a thaw made his head fall off. He was later replaced by a lion, of which I'll upload a picture soon.
You can tell by the size of it that it wasn't a baby turtle.
Click on the picture to see it full-size.

Thanks you for visiting, stop in any time for more. I will be uploading new images of sculptures soon.

A Foot Of Snow

One of our first snow sculptures.. "A foot of snow". It was early winter 2012, and we used pretty much every bit of snow that was in our back yard :) The foot stayed there forever. Cold temperatures throughout the winter helped preserving it. It was the very last thing to melt in spring, and it seemed very stubborn. When the grass had won the fight with the snow, part of the foot was still hanging on. It looked grotesque in the end, pathetically trying to hold on to its last bits.

Never underestimate a foot of snow :)

You can click on the picture to have a better view.
Thanks for visiting. I hope you enjoy this blog :)

How to make a snow sculpture

How to make a snow sculpture.

We've been snow sculpting for a few years now, and we make quite a few sculptures every year. I've gathered some experience over the years, and I'd like to write some of it down here because there is not a lot of information about this on the net.

Ideal snow.

Yes, there is such thing as ideal snow for sculpting. Sculpting works best when the temperature is right around 36 degrees Fahrenheit (just a little above freezing). The snow will 'pack' real well at that temperature. Anything higher and you're looking at a quickly melting mess. Anything lower and it won't pack too well.

There is heavy snow and there is powdery snow. Clearly, the heavy snow works best, but that doesn't mean that you can't use the powdery stuff. No snow it too bad for sculpting.


Tools

We use shovels to pile up the snow, and we use a hand shovel as well as a trowel for the actual sculpting. Sometimes a knife is used for sculpting small details.
The trowel is a must because your tools need to be sharp. If a tool is not sharp, you could end up breaking off parts of the sculptures. Also, a sharp tool makes clean cuts. Cutting through snow is not always as easy as it sounds.


How to start

There are different ways to start, depending on the size of the sculpture. If you are making a small sculpture, you can put the snow in a form (like a 5 gallon pail), make a snowcake and then sculpt away. Forms are good if you want to make a face, and they can also be used in combination with other methods. For example, when we sculpt humans, we might sculpt them from a pile of snow, and then make a snowcake for the head. Put the snowcake on the body, and sculpt the face.

For larger sculptures you need to pile up snow, lots and lots of snow. A snowblower works well, and so does a shovel or a wovel. Make sure to "pack" the snow constantly because you want a solid block. If you don't pack the snow, the sculpture will crumble and you'll have a real hard time with it. Best is to pile and pack the snow several days in advance, and then let it sit for a few days. We usually pile up snow early in the week and let it sit until the weekend. The packing of the snow is the secret to a good, solid sculpture. The temperature doesn't matter as much, as long as you have the snow packed very carefully. Give it a few days and it will settle.

To make snowcakes, pack the snow really, really well in a clean 5 gallon pail or any device you want to use. I really mean pack it well. If your 5 gallon pail doesn't weigh about 20 pounds, then you haven't packed it well enough. To get the snowcake out of the form, bang on the sides real hard. This is not an easy part, the snowcake won't just slide out, you have to loosen it by banging on the sides of the form. Lift the upside down form now and then to see if it is ready to slide. Make sure to slide the snowcake out in the spot where you're going to use it. Moving it afterwards is very difficult, or let's say nearly impossible.

Balls: Other than a big pile of snow and snowcakes, you can also roll balls, depending on what you are going to carve. Big balls pack automatically under their own weight and are often easier to sculpt with than piles of snow.


The sculpting

Once you have your snow ready, which is the hardest part, you are ready to sculpt. Work slowly and carefully. You can add snow if you mess up, but the sculpture will not be as strong as when you work from the original pile.
Use common sense. Think physics. It's a pity when you make a huge sculpture and then it ends up collapsing. Avoid this by using common sense.