West Penn Township family builds snow turkey

Move over, Jack Frost!

Rather than the conventional snowman, some passers-by in West Penn Township were treated to a different kind of holiday-themed caricature.

You know, the one most commonly associated with Thanksgiving, and for making the sound gobble, gobble.

Just before and after the holiday, an enormous handmade snow turkey could be seen — big as you please — out front of a home at 327 Winter Mountain Road.

That is, of course, before the rain came and melted much of it away.

The snow turkey was the fine work of Zach Wehr, who said he and his two children, Emma and Blake, took six hours on Nov. 16 — the day after the area’s first snowstorm — to build it.

Wehr, who has lived at the home for about six years, said Emma, 9, and Blake, 6, were joined by two of the neighbor kids who came over to help build the snow turkey.

He said on the back side of it was a big slide, about 6 feet tall by 10 feet long, for the kids to hike up the stairs, slide down the snow and have fun.

“Whenever it snows, we like to go out and build something,” Wehr said. “It puts smiles on people’s faces.”

Wehr said he tries to match up his snow-making ideas with whatever the holiday season is.

“When you drive around and see all kinds of different holiday decorations, you kind of draw inspiration from that,” he said. “Whenever Mother Nature blesses us with enough snow.”

Wehr said they’ve made big snowmen, even an Easter bunny last year, out of the snow.

“It’s just trying to have fun and do something different,” he said. “Getting out and enjoying the snow, playing in it with the kids, having a good time; just good old fun, simple as that.”

Wehr quipped when asked if there’s ever been something he’s like to build out of snow that he hasn’t.

“A big castle to live in,” he said. “Whenever it snows, we just do something that people drive by and put a smile on their face.”