On any given day Sylvain Mino's backyard is filled with laughter and with kids. The father of two has built his family a winter oasis complete with slick snow slides for all ages to enjoy.
"It took a lot of trial and error," said Sylvain Mino.
Mino built his first snow slide last year as a way to get his kids outside. This year, the second winter at his home, he decided to experiment further by building three slides of approximately 235 feet in length.
"Hearing the kids screaming as they are going around the corners, that is the best part," he said. "And seeing the kids getting together and playing."
Creating the slides takes a lot of tender love and care. Mino has to shovel the tracks, water them down, and build up the walls almost every day. To make the maintenance easier, Mino built himself a small snow machine.
All that hard work appears to be paying off. After school and on weekends, the Mino's backyard is filled with family friends, neighbours and their parents.
"We just get all together and go down non-stop," said Charles Xavier Mino, the family's eldest child.
“It’s very cool, I find, since you can play on your own instead of going somewhere and driving somwhere for 15 minutes or half an hour," he added.
His friends think the slides are pretty cool, too.
"I can hang out with all my friends here and it's really just fun when you go through corners and stuff like that," said 10-year-old Domenico Morabito.
And it's not just the kids that get a laugh out of the slides. The parents, who are always on site supervising, also take turns sliding down the tracks.
"I try them out myself first," said Mino. "If I don't go over, they won't go over. I'm a big guy."
Mino and his family have plans to expand their winter wonderland next year, but extending a few of the runs. They're also thinking of adding a new one.
