Ice castle sparkles on Echo Lake
A Saskatchewan family’s tradition of building an ice castle in their cabin’s backyard at Echo Lake continued this year.
Sean Frisky said the castle is not an annual project due to its labour-intensive nature, but he’s built them since 2012. Each one is unique and part of how his family embraces winter.
“I think if you live in Saskatchewan, you need to find things to do in Saskatchewan,” Frisky said. “So, we snowmobile, we downhill ski and we hang out at the lake here and the kids skate and we’ve got the ice castle.”
(L to R) Samantha Silverthorn, Colleen Silverthorn, Sean Frisky, Allie Silverthorn and Sydney Silverthorn sit by the fire in their ice castle at Echo Lake. (Alison MacKinnon/CTV News Regina)
With an abundance of ice to choose from, Frisky teams up with some of his neighbours, employees and friends to harvest the ice for the building.
“We have this big medieval saw, we have it cut straight through the ice and we end up with essentially 12 inch by 12 inch logs and they float. So, then we use a four-wheeler to drag them out,” Frisky said. “This year we went from old school labor to actually using a little loader little skid steer to build the structure.”
In order to make sure the castle lasts through the winter, Frisky needs the ice to be between 10 and 13 inches thick.
When the castle is up and running, his family is able to sit around a campfire or have a drink at the ice bar.
The castle usually lasts until March, when the sun melts it all away.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Poilievre kicked out of Commons after calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 'wacko'
Testy exchanges between the prime minister and his chief opponent ended with the Opposition leader and one of his MPs being ejected from the House of Commons on Tuesday -- and the rest of Conservative caucus walking out of the chamber in protest.
Baby, grandparents among 4 people killed in wrong-way police chase on Ontario's Hwy. 401
A police chase which started with a liquor store robbery in Bowmanville Monday night ended in tragedy some 20 minutes later when a suspect fleeing police entered Highway 401 in the wrong direction and caused a pileup which killed an infant and the child's grandparents, as well as the suspect, investigators say.
Freeland leaves capital gains tax change out of coming budget implementation bill, here's why
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland will be tabling yet another omnibus bill to pass a sweeping range of measures promised in her April 16 federal budget, though left out of the legislation will be the government's proposed capital gains tax change.
Large numbers of New York City police officers begin entering Columbia University campus
Large numbers of New York City police officers began entering the Columbia University late Tuesday as dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters remained on the campus.
Sword-wielding man attacks passersby in London, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring 4 others
A man wielding a sword attacked members of the public and police officers in a northeast London suburb Tuesday, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring four other people, British authorities said.
Man dies after suffering cardiac arrest while waiting in ER, widow wants investigation
When an ambulance took David Lippert to the hospital in March of 2023, the 68-year-old Kitchener, Ont., executive was hoping to find out why he was feeling weak and unable to walk. Some 24 hours later, he was found unresponsive in the ER.
CSE says it shared information on Chinese hacking of parliamentarians in 2022
While several MPs and senators say they were only recently made aware of China-backed hackers targeting them, the Communications Security Establishment, one of Canada's intelligence agencies, says it shared information about the incident with parliamentary officials in June of 2022.
WATCH Arnold Schwarzenegger spotted filming in Elora, Ont.
The name of the project has not been officially released although it’s widely believed to be the Netflix series FUBAR.
Eviction for landlord's use was legitimate, despite owners' partial move, B.C. court rules
A B.C. judge has upheld the eviction of a family from their North Vancouver townhouse, finding that the landlords did not take an unreasonable amount of time to move into the home after the tenants vacated it.