It’s a day of critters here on the Pasty Cam, both in the archives and in a current photo, too. Greta Jones is our first archive photographer, with a photo of a Downy Woodpecker back in 2005. She kept her feeders, suet and otherwise, filled and the bonus was beautiful photos of her visitors, like this one!

The next photo appeared in 2008 and is Mark Rowe’s Siberian Husky, Angel. I love how she’s running all out, right into the fluffy snow head first, getting a good face full of snow in the process.

Our third photo was snapped by Kathleen Niemi Vettori in 2014, when she took her Grandkids to Tractor Supply to check out the baby chicks they had for sale. Of course the kiddos wanted to hold and pet them, but that’s not allowed, unless you’re buying them. They sure are fluffy and cute when they’re little like this.

The current “critter” shot for today is from Melanie Hakala Rossi and actually isn’t a critter at all, but is so cute and little that I figured it could qualify as one anyway. Melanie and some friends made a snowshoe trek up on the Cliffs near Phoenix on Sunday and while at the top checking out the beautiful views, she decided to build a little friend to join them. I’m not sure if this little fellow has a name or not, but I consider him to be a great addition to their snowshoeing team!

Speaking of snowmen, you may have heard that there was a record breaking snowman building event at Michigan Tech, a few weeks back in February. The folks gathered there at Tech’s football field broke the record for building the most snowmen in one hour. What a fun event to take part in... check out today’s video about the event.

Nice pictures today. The picture of the dog running through the snow reminds me of those trains with the snowplow on them clearing the tracks. Snow flying everywhere and you can barely make the train out.

Yeah, I always enjoy pix of hot chicks. Interesting video too, but did anyone else get the urge to grab a can of Raid?

LOL Alex!!

That 2nd pic is one of my favorite's!! Angel looks like she's having a BLAST!!

So how many snowmen did Guinness count?
What was the previous record?
And what's the legal definition of a snowman?
Some looked more like snow pyramids.

Those aren't snowmen. Just piles of snow. You would think they
would know how to build a snowman if they are Tech students. I
guess they just show their true colors as millennials. Somebody
should show them the picture above of what a real snowman looks
like.

I'm afraid I didn't see snowmen either. Cool idea though. I love the dog picture also. She looks like she really loves the snow. Our dog really loved the snow too. We don't get a lot out here in MN so, when we did have a storm, we'd be sure she could go out to play.

Have a great day, everybody!

Here are some answers to the questions about the particulars of the snowman building event, including the previous record which was 2036 and the Michigan Tech number built being 2228.
The rules are here below:

The Undergraduate Student Government at Michigan Technological University is attempting to bring Tech to glory with another Guinness World Record! With this attempt the student body and general public will try to beat the current record of 2,036 snowmen built in 1 hour. Share and invite everyone you know to participate in one of the biggest events of the school year!

*THIS EVENT WILL BE PHOTOGRAPHED AND RECORDED*
Rules for the proper building of a snowman
-Snowman is made of three separate balls of snow balanced vertically
-The snowman must be a minimum height of 91.5 cm (3 ft)
must include two eyes, a nose and two arms (Provided at event)
-It is acceptable to make snowmen by rolling snow or by shaping using hands
-No materials other than naturally-produced snow may be used
-No tools may be used in the construction of the snowmen
-The time starts as soon as the claimant(s) touch the snow with their hands

This link from TV6 reports on the event: MTU unofficially breaks record for the most snowmen built within an hour.

Thank you Mary for the information. 2,228 snowmen is indeed a lot of snowmen. To be fair, the snow almost certainly was not wet enough to roll a ball (like one normally does) and they had no water source. It would go against to rules to use external material anyway. All comparisons to the football field looking like the surface of Death Valley aside, congratulations to all on the great effort and accomplishment. One thing the report failed to mention was, who held the previous record.