A Sabbath Snow Fort

Okay, building a snow fort on the Sabbath is probably not the best way to keep the day. When we got home from church Natty and Jack only wanted to go outside and play in the snow. I let them. I looked out after a while to see how they were doing and they were struggling with constructing a wall. Well, I had a wild idea to get out this board and show them a few tricks. This was a trick I learned from Matthew Wooley back when I was in fifth grade at Silver Mesa Elementary School in Sandy Utah. We're talking winter of 84 and 85. Holy smokes that is a long time ago.




I think it important to note that I am not a snow cave guy. I love getting up and shoveling snow but I don't necessarily like to play in it. I no sooner typed that comment when the thought of one of the greatest snow ball fights comes back to my memory. 2004, Clear Creek Ward in Carson City. I was the Scoutmaster and Adam Gilbert and I had the boys out on a winter camp at Grover's Hot Springs. The snow was deep, the camp was excellent and we were all looking forward to hitting the hot springs. We had broken down camp but before making our way to the hot springs we started a phenomenal snow ball fight that went on for a good hour or two. Some of my favorite scouts were there including Scott Biddle. That kid was a riot and we had some great camps together. I remember this one well because on our way to the hot springs it occurred to me that I forgot to bring my swim trunks. I went in with my pajama pants on. Still have those pajama pants today. They are no longer pants but are shorts and I actually wore them to bed last night. Funny these little things that one remembers.

Back to the story, I am not one who enjoys playing in the snow much. As a scout and later as scoutmaster I avoided building snow caves. Just saw it as a very cold activity for something I wasn't going to sleep in anyway and why bother. Great attitude Fontano. So there are my kids struggling with this wall, I've got 20 minutes before I have to leave for a meeting and I decide to help them out real quick. Here is what we had when I had to leave.



My meeting was cancelled so the kids were excited to have me back and helping - I was still wearing my suit pants, white shirt,tie, and dress shoes. This is a great outfit for building snow forsts. Will do. We added the third wall and then crafted the front entry. It was coming together pretty nice.




Finally we added the roof - look, I cheated a bit and used the board for the base of the roof. It worked. The kids love it.






The kids just had to eat lunch inside the cave. What better place is there? Really.





The fun didn't stop and after dinner, after the sun went down, the kids were back at it again, playing around on their little snow fort.




It was not that difficult to construct and everyone participated. Each of them was very excited about the project.