More than a foot of snow snuck in the first part of this week, in the form of several small batches, so when Wednesday’s already grim Winter Storm Warning included the words “locally higher totals possible” it was a good bet Fish in a Barrel Pond would get its fair share.
Meteorological winter, the coldest (on average) 1/4 of the year, is over. Winter’s back is broken but, as I’ve written before, you can’t shoot winter in the head and put it out of its misery. We must wait as winter kicks and fights with everything it can muster at this late stage of the game, while spring slowly asserts itself, a little bit at a time. Unfortunately, on days like yesterday, when a warm(-ish) breeze from the south brings mild temperatures and rain against driving snow and the cold(-ish) air still hanging on, both seasons end up looking foolish and the dooryard fills with slush.
We’ve had enough snow this winter that we were saying, “yeah, yeah, we get it” about four feet ago and we are ready to move on to the next season, which around here is mud. A lot of barns and other buildings collapsed last month, crushed by the weight of snow. Crews dug and raked as best they could, trying to lighten the loads on other roofs, but poor timing, gravity and uneven weight distribution continued to wreak destruction. Even with the sounds of catastrophe ringing through the valley, it was tempting to look at the roofs under my care, scoff, and say, “Hah! They’ve held more snow than that!”
I admit here and now, that is exactly what I did. Continue reading
Thoroughly exhausted from a day of raking roofs, I slogged through deep, heavy snow for 45 minutes to reach the last of the roofs to rake. After a short rest to catch my breath and have a smoke, I put the pieces of my roof rake together and got to work, only to find that the blade skittered and bounced harmlessly off the thick layer of ice that had developed on top of the thick layer of snow. I lunged and swung and pulled and yanked until I was left with little more than a strip of bent, twisted aluminum on the end of a stick, and after that I sat down and cursed. Continue reading
With better than 30 inches of new snow in the past week, New Englanders have been reaching for a tool that has remained basically unchanged since its invention: the roof rake. New materials have been introduced, making them lighter and easier to wield, but most changes have been simply variations on a theme. A long pole with a blade on one end is thrust up onto a roof and pulled back toward the thruster, bringing snow and ice crashing to the ground where it can melt harmlessly rather than collapsing whatever building it was sitting on.
The roofs here at Fish in a Barrel Pond are quite lovely and we would like to keep them.
As you can see, they have collected quite a bit of snow this week.
Some roofs are relatively flat and collect quite a bit of snow.
Others are fairly steep and able to shed their load. Eventually. I hope.
The roof rake. It sure beats the heck out of climbing up there with a shovel.
The View from Fish in a Barrel Pond 