Hi Everyone,

This is my favorite snow sculpture, which fell down last night about 15 minutes after it was assembled at 6PM because it just didn’t get to freezing as quickly as I had expected. I reassembled it at 11PM and it is still up this morning. The snow here is so sticky and wet and we have been dumped with about 20 inches in the last 3 days. Friday was a snow day for our schools.

Arches are a structure that is all under compression. Snow can only handle a load under compression. So as it melts, it continues to compress. If built carefully and vertical, this six foot high arch will last a week as it shrinks compacting upon itself. Just pray the earthquakes stay in Chile. Judging from the warm temperatures today and the lean it has, it won’t stay up past about noon today. As my kite friends say… never had this much trouble getting it to stay up!

Fun weekend in the snow up here. Lake ice is now useless for iceboats and ice kiting (sigh). In a week it may cycle (melt and freeze) to resurface to a really go fast surface.

Enjoy. -Andy