SYDNEY, N.S. -- Some old fashioned winter fun snowballed into something much bigger for a Sydney, N.S. family earlier this month.
When a major snowstorm hit Sydney on Jan. 2, 11-year-old Colby Morrison and his parents took advantage by building a snowman that towered more than three metres tall.
“Eleven feet tall and then the snow melted,” said Colby.
“By the time we rolled it up, there wasn’t any snow left in our driveway, and we have a fairly large driveway,” says Colby’s father Kevin.
Kevin says building a snowman that size was both family effort, and a feat of engineering.
“It wasn’t a lot of heavy lifting,” says Kevin. “It was maybe more thinking. We packed it up as we went. Instead of lifting the second and third level, we made them off a ladder, to spec I might add.”
Colby says it took up to 15 hours of work over two days to build the giant snowman, but Mother Nature undid a lot of that work even more quickly.
The snowman is named ‘Mr. Steel’, after Colby’s minor hockey team the Sydney Steelers.
Unfortunately Mr. Steel didn’t live up to its name when faced with a few days of rain and mild weather.
“Sad, but we’re going to rebuild it so it’s bigger,” said Colby.
This Sydney neighbourhood has a strong winter spirit when it comes to enjoying the outdoors.
There was a block sledding party last weekend, capped off with a fireworks display.
Many in the neighbourhood are hoping Colby’s giant snowman will be rebuilt – bigger and better than ever.
“I think we’ll go north of 12 feet,” says Kevin.
It’s going to take more than a corn cob pipe and a button nose to restore Mr. Steel to its original glory, but even after the beating it took from the elements, there’s still a good base left to build upon.
With a few extra hands on deck, they’re looking forward to the challenge.
“To kind of beat the COVID blues, just get out as a group, as a family,” says Kevin.
