A Snow Sculpures Story

up-date.....1-22-08.....Hello again, This is the snowman signing in, I hope everone had a good year. I know Its getting close to another sculpture because the superbowl teams are set to play in less than two weeks. I'm pretty much prepared for this year, I have selected a theme, and have a front-end loader on call, the only thing thats missing is fresh snow.. So the waiting game is on, I hope we get some accumilation in the next two weeks. My goal will be to have the block of snow built before the super bowl game, with the help of mother nature.

update.....1-27-08.....After checking the long range forcast up to the superbowl, I can see no major accumilation of snow. I'ts funny about planning snowsculptures of this magnitude, like the TV gameshow series, Deal or No Deal, Howie talks about timing ,luck, and guts, In this case timing being having fresh snow, cold weather, equipment, and man power all available at the same time. If you have all that you also have the luck, and guts is getting out there, committing yourself, and getting it done before the public eye. Hopefully all these will happen in the next three weeks.

update.....2-2-08.....I have some good news, the snowsculpture stars might be starting to line up. Yesterday we got four inches of snow. If I'm going to build one this year I have to get the snow block together by this next week-end. It's time to get the troops rounded up. Tryng to do this around everyones schedule is hard to do. This is always a stressfull time of the year for me, but I seem to feed off it in a way, besides seeing the smiles and wonderment on the kids faces, I think it's the challenge that mostly gives me the drive to want to accomplish these sculptures. I guess if it was easy everyone would be doing it.

update.....2-12-08......I have some good news and some bad news. The good news being we managed to build the block of snow needed for this years design. This was completed Friday the 8th of Feb.

update......2-12-08.....The bad news is that due to unfortunate circumstances, I will not be able to carve it out. There is a glimmer of hope though. My son , who is now 16 years of age might be to get it done with me as sort of a coach. This is asking a lot of him and I dont expect him to get it perfect but it would be a good learning experience for him if he eccepts the challenge. At this point he's showing interest, but we'll have to see if he's got the patience to complete it.

update.....2-16-08.....There has been no progress to report, the temperatures have been very cold. It's hard to get anyone to work out in this kind of weather. If I was physicaly able I would at least have half of it done by now. I have a check-up in two and half weeks, in which time the doctor may pull some of the restrictions I'm currently on. My plan is to find the help to remove a bulk of the snow, getting it close to the final design. If winter stays around and I get better, I might be able to do the final cuts. I've already had the t.v. news contact me, but I didn't reply back because it's possible It may not be completed. I never thought this years story line would turn out like this. Although, I have completed snowsculptures in the month of march in earlier years, so all is not lost yet.

update.....2-19-08.....Here's my help for today. My son jeremy (upper right) and my friend, Chriss (upper left). I'm in the fore-ground pointing the way with my walking stick. It's going to take 3-4 more days to remove most of the unneeded snow, providing when and who I have helping me.

sculpture status:.....2-23-08.....As you can see here the sculpture is starting to take shape somewhat. It looks like there's going to be a completed sculpture this year so I have changed from updates, to the sculpture status mode. There's only so much my help can do even with me as coach, so today I pulled the restrictions on me, myself, and started making some final cuts. I feel that I know my body, what I can do , and what I can't do. One has to recognize their limitations, and go from there. As it stands right now I plan on completing this project by Thursday the 28th of February.

sculpture status:.....2-25-08.....This years sculpture is pretty much carved out now. Do you know what it is yet?.... Tuesday we'll wrap up the small details and mabee complete it, depending on the weather.

sculpture status.....2-26-08.....It's getting close now , I'm looking at tomarrow, wednsday, the 26th for the completion date, around 11:00 am, that is if its not snowing to much. Check this web-site for up to hour updates.

sculpture status.....2-28-08....It's day two of star shrek, the color still looked alright this morning. They are going to need touch-up tomarrow for sure. It got kind of crazy yesterday with the completion of the shrek sculpture, I can't say I didn't get any media coverage, it included: T.V, newspaper and radio, of which I'm thankful because these sculptures don't last long. The code name star shreck refers to the snowsculpture stars lining up, just in case you were wondering....side note: My son informed me that the donkey should be grey, I guess I didn't do all my research , I'll try to correct this the next time I color them.

sculpture status....3-1-08.....shrek still looks good today, although their calling for warmer temperatures and rain for sunday and monday. I dont know if they'll survive that, but we'll wait and see what happens.

sculpture status.....3-3-08.....The current temperature is 45 degrees with a steady rain, these kind of conditions will destroy a snowsculpture in a few hours. In an attemt to save the shrek sculpture I covered them up with tarps. The temperature tonight will be 15 degrees, with the high temperature tomarrow at 25 degrees. They should be allright for fresh color on Tuesday......side note: I have added the shrek sketches and more sculpture facts, to the facts and sketches page of this web-site.

sculpture status.....3-4-08.....Shrek survived the high temps and the rain from yesterday and recieved some fresh color this morning. Also the forcast looks good for the next five days.

sculpture status.....3-8-08.....It's getting to the end of the shrek sculpture on day 11, but I could'nt ask for more than that. Considering the unpredictible weather now a days. My options now are to, let it melt gracefully, deface it like I normally do, or build something else out of it. I'm pretty tapped out as far as getting any labor help so thats unlikely. My next update will probally be closing remarks for the year and thoughts about the future.

sculpture status.....3-12-08.....Well thats about it for this year, shrek is melting gracefully and I'm thinking about getting back to my real job, whatever that might be, just kidding, Anyway it was a successful snowsculpture year, for a sculpture that almost didn't come to be, shrek sure did make a lot of kids and even grown-ups smile and be filled with wonderment, if thats even a word. As for next year we'll have to wait and see, I'm not getting any younger, but, who knows if I have enough help, anything could happen. I hope you enjoyed viewing and reading the making of shrek and the rest of this web-site........this is," the snowman", signing out, have a good summer !