SNOW SEEDSNOWMAKING

Who We Are

I am Josiah Schlee. Snowseed Snowmaking is mine, and I run it out of Simsbury, Connecticut as a one-person operation.

A snowgun running at night in a back yard, throwing a plume of snow under a light.
The Snow Seed Snowmaking badge: a snowflake over mountains, Est. 2020, LLC 2026, CT Local.

Why We Do This

Snowseed stands for friendship, support, community, brotherhood, and childhood nostalgia. For continued innovation. For never giving up until something works, and then making it better. For lifting each other up and sharing knowledge so the next person saves time and money.

  • Friendship
  • Support
  • Community
  • Brotherhood
  • Childhood Nostalgia
  • Never Giving Up
  • Sharing Knowledge

How It Started

  1. 2006–2009Front-Yard Terrain Parks

    Big parks in the front yard, built from natural snow, snow hauled in from an outdoor ice rink, and the whole yard snowblown into one place. A 9 ft quarterpipe. A 10 ft jump with a 16 ft gap. My late friend Erik Raymond landed a 720 on it.

  2. About 2007The First Snowgun Failed

    At 15 or 16: a rented pancake compressor, a 3.5 GPM gas pressure washer, and a pipe-cap Y-style gun. It did not work.

  3. 2009–2019The Research Years

    More natural-snow builds, and years of learning how snowmaking actually works: pump hydraulics, nozzle sizing, pressure and flow, nucleation.

  4. About 2019Mentors

    People in the snowmaking world who had already done it sent hardware and spent hours on the phone explaining it. That generosity is the reason Snowseed shares what it knows.

  5. 2020Snowseed Begins

    Designing and testing my own equipment. That is the “Est. 2020” on the badge.

  6. January 2024On NBC Connecticut

    “Man makes his own snow in his backyard in Simsbury.”

  7. June 26, 2026Snowseed Snowmaking LLC

    Organized in Connecticut. Still one person, still testing in the yard before anything gets sold.

The Parks

This is what the snow is for. Rails, boxes, and jumps in the yard, laid out with marker paint and built on snow we made.

A snowboarder sliding a wooden rail in front of a snow-covered house.
Rail in the front yard.
A terrain park on fresh snow with rails and boxes marked out in red paint.
Laid out in marker paint.
A snowboarder pressing a rail at dusk.
Dusk session.
A strip of made snow lit up at night with orange and red features.
Built at night.
A park at night with features outlined in orange.
Night build, features marked.
A snowboarder riding through powder with a pole camera.
Riding it.
A park on snow with features outlined in orange paint.
Features marked out.
Rails and boxes on snow in a shaded yard.
Rails and boxes.
Features on fresh snow marked with orange paint.
Ready to shape.
A sunny yard covered in snow with rails and a box.
Sunny day setup.
A fresh strip of made snow next to the yard.
Fresh snow.
Made snow covering a sloped yard.
Snow down the yard.
A snow-covered yard with a small feature in front of a house.
The yard, covered.
A trail of made snow through the trees.
A trail of made snow.
A person standing on top of a big pile of snow.
On top of the pile.
A smiling rider in goggles and a helmet.
Why we do it.

Snowguns I’ve Built

Towers, booms, multi-nozzle heads. Built, run, taken apart, and built again.

A snowgun throwing two plumes of snow into the sun.
Making snow in the sun.
A snowgun on a boom firing snow across the yard, seen from above.
Boom gun, seen from the deck.
A snowgun throwing snow across the yard, seen from the street.
From the street.
A snowgun throwing snow down a hill toward the house.
Down the hill.
A strip of made snow running down through the woods.
Snow where there was none.
Made snow covering the yard at night.
Overnight result.
A multi-nozzle snowgun running in a sunny yard.
Daytime test, multi-nozzle head.
A snowgun running with a nozzle head on a post.
Another angle.
A long boom snowgun on a pipe skid frame next to the house.
Boom gun on a skid frame.
Several nozzles throwing fans of spray in the woods.
Bulk water fans.
A snowgun mounted on the house firing a plume at night.
Night run.
A rake grooming lines into made snow.
Grooming made snow.

Prototypes, Pumps, and Rope Tows

Snowmaking is half of it. The other half is getting back up the hill.

A machined nucleator block prototype with fittings, held in hand.
Nucleator block prototype.
Close-up of a machined block with nozzles fitted.
Early block, nozzles fitted.
A 3D CAD model of a manifold with brass fittings and a blue handle.
Designed in CAD first.
A 3D CAD model of stacked manifold blocks with brass fittings.
Stacked block concept in CAD.
A brass triplex pump spraying water on a test bench.
Triplex pump on the bench.
A pressure gauge on a high pressure line.
Reading pressure.
A rope tow bullwheel assembly on a red stand in the shop.
Rope tow assembly.

The Shop

Every port is drilled and tapped by hand, then measured.

A drill press inside an enclosed cabinet in the shop.
Enclosed drill press.
A wall rack of drill bits sorted by size.
Drill bits.

Support Comes With It

  • Setup help. Call for help with your initial setup.
  • Late nights. Snow gets made at night. I do my best to be on call for late-night snowmaking issues.
  • Experience and advice. Help, experience, and advice are part of the price.

We will always do our best to help.

More on support → · See the equipment →