Brody Buckner decided to build himself an igloo in his backyard in the Cambridge Place neighbourhood about two months ago.
It took him about a month and a half worth of work, using his snowblower to take all of the snow from his front yard and putting it all behind his house before building the igloo. When Buckner finished it, the structure made of snow and ice stood nearly eight feet tall.
“I put at least a hundred buckets of 18 litres of water on here, so it’s pretty solid,” said Buckner. “I could probably put a ski-doo on this thing, honestly.”
Buckner, who has lived with multiple sclerosis for 10 years, has limited mobility. His hands feel numb most of the time, and he barely has enough energy to keep up with his two young boys.
“I just did it for my kids,” said Buckner. “I don’t really go anywhere right now at this time, and I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow.”
“With my MS sometimes I’m just too tired,” he continued. “It takes a lot of energy.”
“My girlfriend actually, she works Monday to Friday, and that alone will take up so much of my energy, just being with the kids, running around with them in the house.”
But this winter Buckner, who had no urge to be stuck in the house, wanted to do something for himself and his children.
“It was just time to get outside after being cooped up in the house,” said Buckner. “Just being out here, being able to do something for me and not having to worry about anything else was kind of like the main goal really.”
Inside the igloo, Buckner said, is more or less the equivalent of a 10-person tent – complete with lights, chairs and toys for the kids.
“My oldest is always running around, going inside, playing in there,” Buckner said. “I put his toys in there to get away from the wind. He loves it.”
Buckner says he’s hoping for a colder winter next year, as he plans on building an igloo in his backyard every winter going forward.
“I love doing this, this is awesome,” Buckner said. “I can’t wait until next year.”