St. Paul man turns pile of snow into backyard bar

ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - For many Minnesotans, watching the snow slowly disappear is cause for celebration.

But for Gabe Emerson, the change of seasons comes with mixed emotions.

"It's sad in a way to see all my work melt, but then that just means it's spring. That means we can start doing some gardening, cleaning up the yard, getting our affairs in order for the summer here, and ready to have a nice summer," said Emerson.

After the flakes started flying in December, Emerson decided to put the snow he'd been piling up with his snowblower at the end of his driveway to good use.

He started digging to hollow it out and turned the massive mound into one of the coolest backyard bars in Minnesota. 

(FOX 9)

"I've always wanted a basement bar and our house is pretty small. We don't really have a lot of space in the basement. It's a little messy down there, so it's a lot easier to just build one in the backyard, build it out of a snow pile. You don't have to go get a housing inspector. You don't have to build it up to code necessarily and when you're tired of it, it just melts away," said Emerson.

Emerson documented his labor of love from start to finish and posted the result on his YouTube channel, Save It For Parts, where he usually shares DIY projects like making boats and other devices out of junk.

Originally he wanted to add a tower and other windows, but eventually, he ran out of room.

"I wanted to go in some different directions. As I dug this, I kind of started to run into other things in the yard that had been buried by the pile, so I couldn't get as big as I wanted. If we have enough snow, I'll do it again," said Emerson.

Emerson only got to use his snow bar three or four times because it was hard to convince people to hang out in his backyard in the middle of winter.

But even though he has seen his fair share of snow, rarely has it been so intoxicating.

"It's been really fun. It's been a nice distraction from the winter. It's a good way to get use out of all this snow that we've had and keep a positive attitude about the snow," said Emerson.