Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Hoeing Snow






Today I guess you could say we addressed a lofty, elevated situation. Not in the sense of being intellectually important, but rather tangibly high and critical, as in…an issue with our roof.

Twelve to eighteen inches of snow had settled in up there (think: packed), and rain is in the forecast for Thursday.  Consider the implications.  Rain soaking into snow = massive weight.  Several residential roofs in our general area have already collapsed recently because of snow poundage, without the added stress of additional load from rain.  Our roof is low-pitched and not particularly well supported.  We decided this afternoon we didn’t want to become the next cave-in statistic, so preventative measures needed to be taken.

Thankfully, our local son volunteered to come over and shed the roof of its white blanket. He dug from the ridge (peak of the roof) down as far down as he could reach with a shovel, while his dad scraped from below with our neighbor’s long-handled tool (think: hoe with a forty foot handle).  I wondered about the exertion levels involved, but decided to keep my girly opinions to myself. This was manly rescue work; I didn’t dare go out there with a finger-wagging womanly scowl.  Between them, the snow is now OFF the roof, and I am breathing a sigh of relief.


Afterwards, they took a short ice hike on the lake with our grandson, age nine.  I watched these ant-like figures from my vantage point inside the house, three generations of men I love striking out to conquer the desolate lake against the backdrop of a beautiful sunset, a rosy fire pit in the sky.







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