| How
do you make an igloo? Bored students say, 'Just do it'
By Hayley Hayden
February 29, 2008 | LOGAN--Logan's
canyon winds always take their victims by surprise,
puncturing each crevice of skin, sending a sensation
of needles down the spines, causing the community to
bundle up in unusual amount of layers of clothing.
The motivation to participate in
the outdoor world diminishes with each flake that lands
on the already snow covered-ground. Even to do the simplest
tasks of taking out the trash, letting the dog out,
or getting fresh air makes every motion more complicated
with this frigid Logan weather.
Desperately attempting to find some
positive aspect of this unforgiving weather is something
that comes easy to Old Farm Apartments residents. Thinking
the snow was a blessing in disguise. Student Joseph
Keller, 24, motivates his neighbors to be imaginative
in creating things out of the snow.
Shortly after detailing a snowman's
head with near-by pebbles and a three-week-old carrot,
Keller's group was just starting to warm up to this
idea of "snow can be fun."
Extremely pleased with the snowman,
Keller's group felt a need to celebrate with an extreme
snowball fight, which ended shortly after getting started
because of accidental hits on innocent bystanders.
But Keller, not being fully satisfied
with this short day of making a snowman and a five-minute
snowball fight, suggested one last idea to his group:
To construct an igloo.
This was going to take more manpower
than four people, so Alex Gardner, Paul Ackerson, Mark
Stucki and Erik Packard joined in.
Not wanting this igloo to be small
or simple, they proceeded to grab enormous laundry baskets
and nearby trash cans. They started an assembly line
of cramming snow into the bins, making large bricks
of snow weighting 40 to 50 pounds, which needed two
of the men to flip just one of the binds. Each brick
would get stacked one on top another.
"We had a plan of how
tall and how large we wanted it to be. I wanted to stand
straight up and have a table and chairs inside,"
said Gardner, who was the tallest one in the group standing
at 6 feet 5 inches.
The first two layers of the well-constructed
bricks was the easy part, but as they started nearing
the third and four layers, they eventually had to make
the roof. None of them being a professional Eskimo,
they didn't really know how to do that.
"The roof was the most
complicated part. Alex and I had to hold the snow up
above our heads while everyone else rushed to pack snow
in to make it more stable," said Stucki.
"HURRY, GET A CHAIR!"
bellowed Gardner to his fellow assistant Nichole Christianson.
Christianson was responsible to help Gardner with constructing
the left side of the roof, while Stucki and Packard
were on the right side. Gardner arms were getting tired
and Christianson's arms were getting too short as they
neared the center of the roof.
Gardner and Stucki had to walk up
their hands along the insides of the igloo giving balance
to the arching walls in making the roof.
Anxious to finish the igloo, they
finally finished the 6 feet by 4 feet front door and
all together the 14 feet by 14 feet and 9 feet igloo
in seven hours at 2:30 a.m.
Feeling pleased with their accomplishment,
they celebrated with hot chocolate and fresh apple cider
on damp seat cushions along with their apartment table,
in an attempt to furnish their completed establishment.
The igloo is still standing today,
but at half its glory. What was once a proud construction
of snow has lost its shape. The igloo now has pizza-pan-size
sunroofs that are lurching towards the center ground
of the igloo. Decorated with a towel for a door and
various artists leaving their marks on the sides of
the igloo, students and residents of the apartments
still take pictures and visit the igloo. How much longer
until the igloo crumbles into just another heap of snow
in Logan is up to Mother Nature.
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