Prince Albert woman turns heads with annual ice castle project

Nola Lehner of Prince Albert has found a creative way to spend the cold winter months by building an ice castle. (Courtesy: Camille McDaid)

A Prince Albert woman has found a creative way to spend the cold winter months, by building an ice castle.

Nola Lehner said her backyard ice castle is a good place to sit down and enjoy a cup of coffee.

“I love being outside,” she said. “I like the winter. It gets me out of the house, and I enjoy it.”

Three years ago, a friend showed Lehner a photo of an ice castle on social media.

“She said Nola, you’re pretty crafty and creative. Why don’t you build something like this in your backyard?” Lehner recalled. “So, I thought, why not?”

Lehner was up for the challenge and got to building. She’s made a castle every year since.

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She started construction on this year’s castle in late December and says the build took just over a month to complete.

“The first one was trial and error,” said Lehner “Then last year was - last year was a lot of balloons.”

Lehner doesn’t have much experience as an artist, but said she picked up some outdoor skills helping her daughters in Girl Guides.

This year’s castle is constructed of snow, ice and food colouring.

The blocks were made at home in lasagna pans, and the decorations were made in balloons.

“Then I filled balloons with water,” she explained.

“Set them out on my back deck. Let them freeze. The next day, I go and mix up slush, snow and water and in a basin. And I cement them all together.”

Lehner plans to keep the tradition going.

“It’s going to be different, but absolutely next year,” she said. “It’s my holiday project.”

She hasn’t quite planned out what next year’s will look like, but told CTV News at some point she’d like to figure out how to add a roof.