Art from Water.

I have never truly experienced snow, having lived in Central Florida all of my life. The closest I have ever come was when I was about ten years old, when I was visiting relatives, and we got one quarter inch. Now, with the frozen north deciding to be decently frozen, I could truly experience snow.

The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.
-- Robert Frost

The drive and the power. The novice, experiencing the rush for the first time. The powder gently drifting to the ground, after being kicked up by the spinning track. The cows looking on impassively, biding their time until the inevitable uprising. The smooth, gentle curve of the track. Inertia's merciless pull around the bends. This is excitement. This is adventure. This is SPARTA snowmobiling.

Snow. Huge, dizzying clumps and clusters of snow falling through the air, patches of white against an iron-gray sky, snow that touches your tongue with cold and winter, that kisses your face with its hesitant touch before freezing you to death. Twelve cotton-candy inches of snow, creating a fairy-tale world, making everything unrecognizably beautiful...
-- Neil Gaiman, American Gods

We, my accomplice and I, set to building. Our first act was to create a minion, who we named Jeff. Jeff was promptly promoted through the ranks of the snowman militia, earning the title Generalissimo Snowman Von Jeff on his first day. We outfitted him with the finest cardboard armaments available to the militia, and set him at his post.

The general who is skilled in defense hides in the most secret recesses of the earth; he who is skilled in attack flashes forth from the topmost heights of heaven. Thus on the one hand we have ability to protect ourselves; on the other, a victory that is complete.
-- Sun Tzu

The snowman milita was a proud establishment, and required only training to hone it into the finest military machine this side of Luxembourg. We set up a brief training exercise, one involving establishing a base, artillery use and, regrettably, infantry charge maneuvers. Fort Thoreau was established. With the defence mounted, we were only biding our time for the inevitable onslaught. Snowman Jeff stood impassively in the background, unsure of his role in this situation.