What started out as snowball fight between brothers, ended in an 18-foot-tall snowman.
According to Oxford High School senior Adam Schlickenmeyer, he along with his youngest brother Byron, a junior at OHS and oldest brother Eddie, a 2014 Oxford graduate, have always loved playing in the snow and been competitive with one another for the past 10 years.
‘We usually do a competition of who can roll the biggest snowball and it just turned out that the snow was just right, where (the balls) just kind of kept getting bigger,? Adam said. ?(Byron) ended up having the biggest snowball.?
‘Usually we build like massive forts or something,? Byron added. ‘But this year, we’re like, ‘Might as well make a giant snowman if we can.??
Back in November, all three boys decided to take Byron’s ball since it was the biggest and see how much bigger they could make it.
‘It was like workout,? Byron said. ‘I was sweating the whole time.?
Adam said they decided to place the base snowball in front of the ledge of their porch.
‘The ball was about up to my neck and I’m like 6?2,? he said.
In order to get the second snow ball up, they had to strategize. Adam said they rolled the second snowball to the back of the porch and built a ramp out of snow to get it up the stairs. From there, they had to build another ramp to roll ball number two on top of the first one. The third ball not only required a ramp, but the use of their dad’s old roofing ladders. Adam said they broke it in half and they used it to make the hat along with some faux wood.
For the decorations, Byron said they couldn’t find big enough carrot, so they used a bowling pin for the nose, pieces of wood for the eyes, potatoes for the mouth and 10-pound weights for the buttons.
‘We started at somewhere around 6 p.m. and we didn’t (finish up) until about 3-4 a.m.,? Adam said. ‘I think it tried to fall on us about three times.?
According to Adam, the snowman stood for about 20 days before it ‘started teetering and eventually fell over.?
‘We used some tree branches . . .and we stuck them in there as arms,? Byron added. ‘Everyday, he was slowly bending over, looking like he was going to pick up something.?
Byron noted the snowman is just a ‘prototype? and they want to build one bigger. In fact they’re issuing a challenge for anyone to try and outdo their frosty 18-foot creation.
‘We’d like to see if anyone can handle that,? Adam said. ‘Let’s just hope we can get some more snow then because then we’ll have to come back and beat them again.?
Byron agreed.
‘If we did have someone else who had a bigger snowman than us, we’d definitely try and make (another one) bigger.?