14 DAY TRIAL // A 50-foot (15.2-meter) snowman popped up on a farm field near the town of Gilman, Minnesota, and attracted tourists from all over the country. His name is Granddaddy and was built by a local farmer.
Greg Novak decided to make the most of the snow that covered his ranch in central Minnesota. His purpose was to create something that gave people joy, and he seems to have succeeded.
The idea of building Granddaddy came to his mind in January. It all started when mounting snowpiles caused a roof collapse of one of his vegetables greenhouses. In order to avoid another roof collapse, Novak had to move huge amounts of snow, so he decided to do something practical with it.
The man used skid loaders to pile the heaps of snow into a wagon and a silage blower to direct snow into stacked cylinders. The construction of the big snowman took five weeks to complete. Novak worked for hours and he endured ice-cold temperatures and occasional snowstorms.
A 61-foot (18.6-meter) bent auger was used to create Granddaddy's arms, while a 55-gallon (200-litre) barrel became his nose. A 35-foot (10-meter) tall broomstick was especially crafted to make the snowman look ready for work.
Back in 1991, Novak did something similar when he built a 29-foot (8.83-meter) snowman.
“It puts a smile on people's faces. When people smile, you know you've done a good thing,” Novak said, according to Yahoo News.