Paul Swearingen, left, works on a snow pirate ship Sunday with his son, Levi, in front of their house in Auburn. Swearingen, a retired refractory mason, says the sculpture began as a pile of snow and ice left by a snowplow. He is using the tools of his trade to create the ship and snow skeleton. “It can either be a dirty pile of snow,” Swearingen says, “or it can be a sculpture that makes people smile when they go past.” Andree Kehn/Sun Journal