Quinzhee Fun! (SNOW FORTS)

The kids and I built a heck of a snow fort in the backyard today. I started it yesterday by snow blowing an 80′ diameter circle into a pile, then topped it off this morning with the new snow we got.

We have the inside dug out into a 7′ diameter circle, and it’s currently 4.5′ high inside, with more room to go each way.

Today we put a heater in there and the boys had the neighbor girl over for hot chocolate

The boys want to spend a night in it, so tomorrow we’ll probably get it all prepped and give it a try without a heater overnight.

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Pictures B-MAN!!!

SWEEEETT!!!

MX1825 wrote:

Pictures B-MAN!!!

They’re up now, I’ve learned they never show up right away and just take a few minutes (one of the quirks here) lol

Thats awesome. Back in college a guy on my dorm floor freshman year made a sick fort like that. Even went as far to make a fake wall to the exit so it looked like just a snow bank. It was pretty intense. Could fit 5 guys in it.

Brings back fun memories. I used to pile the snow from a 400′ driveway and the area at the end of a shed as a wind break on the west end of our driveway. My boys always had the pile honeycombed with tunnels. They opened up some caverns to sit in but not nearly as large as what your boys have.

That’s awesome. I’ve never slept in one so I’m curious how that would be

Great job at making fun memories for the kiddos. Their smiles say it all.

Well done sir!

The pics of your boys always make me smile Bman.

Nice Work!! That was my favorite part of winter as a kid. Off our little deck, in between houses, it would always drift really deep. That plus what dad would pile up snowblowing the path to the shed, made for some awesome snow forts in my childhood. I never slept out overnight, but did take a couple naps out there.

We used to get a giant drift on a hill by our place… great fort snow ! We would carve out the room, then actually carve “seats” into the walls… with little cut out shelves for the plumbers candles ! Thanks for the trip down memory lane this morning !!!

Awesome B-Man!! When I was a kid, my neighbors used to have a homemade ice rink in the backyard and all the snow cleaning made for one heck of a big pile on one end. So many great snow fort memories in that pile!
One year I went to the Wolf Center in Isabella with my high school Field Biology class and a bunch of us slept out in the snow caves they build there. So much fun!

The absolute best! I miss this age so much. My 14 year old and a couple of his friends snuck in 4 neighbor girls into my basement a couple of weeks ago. Enjoy the innocence while you can!!!

I really enjoy your posts of your adventures with these two.

Just like when we were kids and actual got snow. We had the best end of driveway forts.

We stayed in a big house in Breckinridge for a company trip when I was working as an arborist out there. We pulled up to the house and the snow banks were 7-8’ tall. We had 4-5 grown @ss men working on the fort for a couple days. We fit 12 people in the main room with 6’ ceiling. Hallways, seating, candles. We brought our instruments in there, it was a blast!

Dad of the month.

ThunderLund78 wrote:

The absolute best! I miss this age so much. My 14 year old and a couple of his friends snuck in 4 neighbor girls into my basement a couple of weeks ago. Enjoy the innocence while you can!!!

Had to be studying for tests right??

I wanna be your kid!!!
I don’t know if this will attach but I’ll try 16 second video.
This was after a pretty significant melt as the side walls on the first turn were over 6′ high. The launch ramp was almost 2′ taller too. 3 houses, about 265 feet long. When they’d fly over the edge they got road rash from the frozen dog crap in the neighbor’s yard. Iced it down every nite with a watering can – friggin FLEW down it. The neighbor in the middle moved and the new one thought it was too much liability for them

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Found the photos

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Awesome!!

Awesome stories and pictures guys! Brian that is incredible

It’s official, were spending the night in the quinzhee tonight lol

The bed is made and ready to go. Gonna head in there around 8pm and watch a movie before bed. It’s already below zero now and not going to get any warmer. Bringing a thermometer in there to see how much warmer it will be.

Not using a heater and blowing out the candles before we go to sleep (both for safety reasons). Also have some ventilation holes poked and blocking the door off with a cushion to block the wind.

I took the kids fishing today and it was brutal out there, but once we got the shack set up all was good and cozy. The snowmobile ride was the coldest part. Was kinda surprised they still wanted to go for it tonight after fishing today lol

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Very “cool”. Good Luck!

-J.

B-man your boys ROCK!!
Good luck and hope everything works out great.

I always get claustrophobic looking at pictures of snow forts. I’m sure being in them would be fine, but I just think about a collapse while I’m in it.

IDO dad of the year!!!
I wanna be a B-man kid too!!

Any update on your overnight accommodations?

Nice work B-man, that is some dedication!
Queenswake, it is a little unnerving at times. We would be trying to communicate to each other from the inside of the fort, and you couldn’t hear it on the outside, even when yelling.

We made it!!

Spent almost 13 hours in there. It was quite nice actually, with the temperature hovering around 30 degrees, even though it was -7° with a -25° wind chill when we got up.

We watched some movies (Men In Black and Big Daddy) and got a good night’s rest.

The only folly was the 3/4 gallon pee jug was barely the right size and was at the tippy top by the time we got out this morning

The kids blamed me since I was drinking beer (and they were right, I was the main contributor)

They already said the want to do it again, I told them we would again sometime later this winter.

As for the claustrophobia, you just have to think of it as an insulated tent (essentially what it is). I left the Thermacell Lantern on overnight, otherwise it is absolutely pitch black (kinda spooky lol)

I wasn’t worried one bit about it collapsing, if you’ve ever tried to destroy a snow fort it’s amazing how hard it is, especially if the walls and ceiling are 1-2′ thick. I have no doubt the kids could walk right over the top of it, and I’m 90% sure it would even hold me up walking over it.

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Great adventure! Thanks for sharing.

-J.