Giant 26-Ft Snowman

Giant 26-Ft Snowman AG WORLD Ag World 16-1-17 Few people have ever seen a snowman as big as this 26-ft. tall giant built by Greg Novak, Gilman, Minn., who used a front-end loader, dump truck, bale elevator and snowfence to put the icy sculpture together early last December. Novak spent about 30 hours building the snowman and used over 30 truck loads of snow. "Alberta" (named after the township Novak farms in) sports a black canvas hat, . plywood eyes and mouth, a 5-gal. pail nose, burlap sack scarf, 5-gal. pail lid buttons, and 9-ft. long burlap sack arms, one of which holds a big plywood broom. "We just did it to have fun," says Novak. "We never thought it would get this big when we started, but we had plenty of snow to work with after a couple big November snowstorms. Since we fmished it, we've had calls from newspapers and radio and TV stations all over the U.S. and have had a steady stream of people driving in. It puts a smile on everyone's face when they see it." Novak used snowfence as a "mold", building the snowman in three sections. He made the base by filling a 20-ft. dia. circle of snowfence with a front-end loader. He then put a smaller circle of fence on top of the base to make the stomach, and moved up once more to make the head. He filled both top sections using his bale elevator. "We'd fill the fence up during the day and the snow would harden overnight," says Novak. He made the 3-ft. high stovepipe hat out of canvas, concrete reinforcing wire and electric fence posts. The 8-ft. wide plywood mouth, as well as the eyes, nose and buttons, are held in place with steel pegs. He used 22 burlap sacks to make the scarf. For more information, contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Greg Novak, Rt. 3, Foley, Minn. 56329 (ph 612 387-2611).

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