THUNDER BAY – It’s an unusual sight that’s attracted smiles and selfies on Ray Boulevard in Thunder Bay's north end, sometimes causing motorists to stop and take another look.
For Ev Burki, 75, the roughly six-foot tall snow fort in her front yard, decorated with lights and colourful balls of ice, is just another winter hobby.
“When the grand-kids were small, I used to build all kinds of forts in the backyard for them, with tunnels and stuff like that. Then they got older and sort of lost interest, but I didn’t,” she laughed. “So I kept on building forts in the backyard. One of my friends said, why don’t you build it in the front so everybody can see it?”
After doing that for the first time last year, the positive reaction from neighbours and passersby encouraged her to continue the tradition.
“I love that it makes people happy,” she said. “People stop and take pictures, cars stop. So it’s kind of neat.”
“Especially during COVID, people have been sort of doom and gloom. They come by and they get excited, it kind of brings a little bit of spark to that gloom.”
This year’s creation, which occupies a large chunk of her yard, is made largely with snow and ice pillars built using buckets. Many are topped with coloured balls of ice made in balloons.
After dark, the fort is aglow with strings of lights.
Burki has been honing the structure since before Christmas and still works on it every day, she said – sometimes for up to six hours.
“If I can’t be cross-country skiing, if it’s too cold, this is where I am,” she said. “I’ll spend up to six hours a day out here, even in minus-30. Crazy? Yeah. But I love it.”
For any aspiring fort builders, Burki has one key piece of advice torn from her own rule book.
“Use your imagination,” she said. “Don’t worry if you think it’s over the top, looking like it’s too much decorating – there’s no such thing.”
