It may only be mid-January, but a Red Deer dad deserves to be named “Father of the Year.”
Red Deer, Alberta-resident Donnie White used 150 blocks of ice to build his two kids, ages three and five, an an incredible ice castle right in their front yard.
White told reporters that he began making the ice castle, which takes up the family’s entire front yard, just before Christmas.
He made a rough sketch of his masterpiece before he began extracting ice from a frozen pond. With the help of a generous landowner, a friend, and his father-in-law, White cut the ice out of the pond with his chainsaw, removing the giant blocks using an ATV, some rope, and a makeshift ramp. Once he had a few chunks of ice out of the water, he cut them down into smaller, workable blocks.
From there, he gradually moved each of the 60-pound blocks to his front yard.
It took him more than three weeks to finish the castle, but as you can see from the photos, his masterpiece is much more than a stack of blocks. It’s built with archways and stairs, which lead to the snowy slide inside the castle walls. It’s even adorned with a few ice sculptures that White fashioned himself.
“I just really want to make winter special for my kids,” he told CBC News.
Apparently, this is the third time White has built a winter fort for his children and, yes, they’re always as extravagant as this.
“Every year, I say that I will take it easy next year, but as the winter approaches, I start thinking about it, then I go over the top,” he said.
