Winter's glory was certainly the snow castle. Daniel had so much fun building it, he went out to work after the children were in bed. The children, especially Lukas, also helped quite a bit. There was a lot of snow to gather (from the neighbors as well) and water to be poured into the forms. The bottom was built in two layers, then the parapet in 3: the base to walk on, the wall to keep the children from falling out, and the bit on top for beauty. Here it is in chronological order:
This year's building technique was to use plywood forms (visible on slide above and wall top below), fill them with loose snow, and then add water and let it set. It made for a lot of plywood littered around the backyard, but was much faster than last year's ice block method. Walls were 14" thick, but the parapet only 6" -- so that didn't last long into March.
Later in the season the slide became an iced bobsled run -- very fast. Even with the very steep banked curves, it was easy to fly over them.
And after the melt began:
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