Austin, Connor and Trevor Bartz, three brothers living in New Brighton, Minnesota, love to create snow sculptures in their front yard every winter, but these aren’t your run-of-the-mill snowmen – this year, they created a detailed 12-foot-tall sea turtle!

The boys begin their work by piling up snow into a crude pile, which they then carefully sculpt into their desired form over the course of several weeks. They’re quite devoted workers – this year’s sea turtle sculpture took them 300 hours!

They’ve been assembling epic snow sculptures for the past 4 years, and almost all of them have gone viral after they’ve shared them with their followers on Facebook. The cool thing is that you can watch the boys grow as the years progress. Take a look, and read Austin Bartz’s answers to Bored Panda’s questions!

More info: Facebook | Youtube (h/t: twistedsifter)

“We first got the idea when I caught a pufferfish in Florida one year, after we got back we decided to make it out of snow,” Austin Bartz told Bored Panda.

“We are going to try to make these snow sculptures as long as we can :). Trevor and I are in college so it gets a little more difficult but we will try to continue the tradition”

“We will stick with the sea life theme as long as we have enough good ideas. In 2 years we are going to ask for advice from our fans for the next sculpture”

“All we use is shovels and sleds, and we did use a shovel for the head of the turtle. We don’t get any help at all from our parents”

“We definitely have got better at sculpting, we have learned more techniques and learned how to make much more detail”

Thank you, Austin Bartz, for telling us more about your work. We hope that next year’s sculpture is just as awesome as this one!