Shoveling

 

Anyone living in New England will tell you that we have had a lot of snow this winter. And saying "a lot" is really an understatement! 

One bright sunny day this winter I packed up all my boys and headed north - towards more snow because that's how foolish I am. Actually, we headed back to the family farm. We still own our mobile home that we lived in located on the family property. We had already received a few feet of snow and another two feet was predicted for that weekend. The roof on the trailer needed to be shoveled off before that could happen. 

My hubby was unable to do it so I volunteered to take the kids and go attack it. I figured my oldest and I could get it done in a few hours. 

While we were working, the younger boys went sledding outside and played with their younger cousins who were also up for the weekend to visit.

I have to say I was very grateful to my father-in-law who pitched in to help and offered us the use of a snow pusher that worked great to get the snow off.

I'm standing on the porch roof looking down the length of the trailer. There was probably four feet of snow on here. 

I was thankful for a sunny day and the wind wasn't too bad either. We began to shed a few layers while we worked. I only lost my shovel off the edge of the roof once and I did proceed to snap it in two before I was done. 

It took us about two hours to get it all cleared off. And then the blizzard that was predicted for the weekend fizzled. The roof needed to be shoveled anyway, but not as urgently as we had thought in hindsight. 

Ice Castle

Last year near the end of winter I heard about Ice Castles. There was one not too far from where we live in Maine located in New Hampshire. Unfortunately, I heard about it too close to their closing for the season so we weren't able to go. I was determined to make it there this year.

Today was the very cold day we went. Actually, I shouldn't complain all that much as it was above zero. However, we did have to go inside about half-way through our visit to warm up. It was worth it though.

We arrived about an hour after they opened. There weren't a lot of people there yet and we were able to head right in to the castle. No lines. No waiting. It was impressive in the daytime, but I did want to stick around until dusk as they light it up at night. 

Here are some of my favorite daytime shots:

This crevice was small! The little guys could walk straight through, but my middle kiddo had to go through sideways. I don't do small, tight, confined spaces. I opted to take photos instead.

I couldn't stop looking up. The icicles coming down in some spots were so impressive!

My middle son hamming it up.

Catching the sunset

This structure was massive.

Here's some perspective as to how big it really is - those two kids there are my youngest and his friend. My youngest is about five feet tall.

After our toes became a bit numb and after my kids hurt themselves on the super fast luge-like slide/tunnel in the middle of the structure, we headed inside for a bit of a warm up. They had a TV with two videos playing. One was of Lindsey Stirling playing her violin in an Ice Castle structure and the other was The Piano Guys (that's how I found out about these things). In case you haven't seen either one, here they are...

After we warmed up, we headed back outside to see if the lights were coming on. They were! So very cool. It was worth the over six hours in the truck today driving to New Hampshire and back. 

Here are my favorite shots from when the lights started to come on:

The lights were just starting to come on.

This was a working water fountain. The lights flashed and changed. This was taken just as it was starting to go dark.

Same fountain. Photo taken just before we left.

All photos were taken with my Android phone. Really wish I had some "smart-phone" gloves. My hands were pretty cold! I would take off one glove, snap some photos, put my glove back on and warm up my hand, miss some shots, and repeat the process throughout the whole time we were there. But like I said earlier, it was well worth it. 

Snow and more snow and more snow and...

The groundhog saw his shadow earlier in the month. We're only suppose to have another six weeks of winter. It seems that winter at this point has long overstayed its welcome. This is when I start going a bit stir-crazy. This is when I really wish it was warm & spring-like. This is when two plus feet of snow can really, really annoy me. Really.

This morning we woke up to this....


My hubby is six feet tall. The snow is up to his knees. HIS KNEES! ::sigh:: I knew what this meant of course. Shoveling and lots of it. On the bright side, I know what I'll be doing for exercise today.

Once we were finished with school work we all headed outside to start the cleanup. I will say that we only have to clean up our yard area. We have to shovel a path to the back door and where the trash cans are kept, a path to the shed, a path connecting our place up to the driveway by Great-Grandpa's house, and where we park our vehicles. Other than that, my FIL plows out everything else. He also came over with his tractor today & scrapped out all the snow where the truck is usually parked so I didn't have to shovel that either.

I also delegated today. There was no way I was having all this "fun" by myself.

This was J's job....


He took it very seriously. The funny part here...the car is parked UNDER COVER! The snow blew so much that the whole car was just covered. It had at least 4-5 inches of snow on it. Yes, it could have been worse since the truck had over two feet on it. J did an excellent job clearning it all off.

This was N's job...


This child is such a hard worker. I'm really blessed by his work ethic. He actually looks forward to shoveling. He shovels the path between our house & Great-Grandpa's driveway. He goes through the snowbank that is now much taller than he is. It took him about 45 minutes to do this, but he did it. All by himself with no complaining & his little orange kid-size shovel.

J's other job...looking cute for a snow photo.

He jumped in to the snowbank. He's sitting down in all the new snow we just got.

Then we come to one of my jobs today....

Before...

I had made it this far. It took me about 45 minutes to get to this point. Then all the snow that had been on the roof has fallen off in front of the back steps. For safety reasons we keep this shoveled out in the winter time. I had to take a photo to show you the before & after.

After...and I still wasn't done.

Ben did shovel the path to the shed. He usually also shovels the path to the back steps as well but I took pity on him today due to the amount of snow needing to be moved so I did it for him.

And, yes, snow can be pretty...


But at this point I'm so ready for it to be gone. Especially when the banks are this high...

Snow Tubing

Sometimes it's nice to have a few connections. ;-) My hubby is a civil engineer who works for a small survey/engineering company. He's been there now for about five years. They do a lot of subdivisions & in our part of the state - a lot of those are near ski resorts - big & small. One that he has been working with lately offered to let us come to the mountain & go snow tubing (since none of us ski - I know - we live in Maine & we don't ski - have you ever checked the prices for that little sport? Enough said....LOL)

It just so happened that hubby had President's Day off so we headed two hours west of where we live to go snow tubing. Nuts I know but they were free tickets & snow tubing isn't exactly inexpensive either!

Our boys were beyond thrilled. Me, well, let's just say I was glad for the excuse to take photos, but I'll explain that more in a bit.


J is standing in line for his first run. He was so very excited! He would giggle every single time he jumped in to his tube to be pulled up the mountain. The guy hooking up the tubes would just start laughing every time J came through. It was just so funny.

Here's hubby making his way up. Good thing the boys have such a fun & interactive dad!

J is in the first tube & hubby (I think) is waving at me. The next couple of tubes should be the rest of the boys. I liked this part of it...it was the next part that didn't thrill me all that much.

J at the finish. "Mom, I spun & spun & spunned all around! It was fun." (direct quote) This is my thrill seeking one I think - but they all had a great time! As for the spinning - apparently near the end of the day, J stood up in the tube as it was going down the hill & leaned over to push at the ground to get the spinning thing going. The kid at the top who would tell us when we could go laughed & said something about a crazy kid or something like that. Hubby was going next & said something like, "Yup, and it's a good thing his mother can't see him." THAT was an huge understatement! I was extremely happy we rented the two younger boys helmets!

Hubby was being helpful here. You see - my first run down the mountain (and almost my last run down the mountain) I sat in the tube & pushed off. Have I ever mentioned I'm short. I'm only 5'2" (although I try to claim 5'3" when I can). When I sat in that tube my feet could not touch the ground at all. My arms could just touch but were of no use. I did the whole "spun, spun, spun" thing down the mountain. Most of it I was going backwards!!!! Oh & did I mention that the top speed of this run had to have been at least 20-25mph. Seriously. I was convinced I was going to crash. I couldn't see where I was going. Oh & at the end of the run there is a hill to stop you. Unless you are going really fast. Then you go over it - like a jump. Yeah, I did that too. I got off (which is NOT pretty btw - you have to sort of roll out & climb up with all your layers on), looked at my hubby & said, "I'm done." It's over. Not going again & you aren't going to make me. DONE!

Then I saw these faces....

This is N being pulled up for his who knows what number run. This child was way ahead of the rest of us most of the day.

And this face too...

I'm always surprised when B likes this sort of thing. He loves roller coasters too. Go figure.

So I went up three more times. That was enough for me. Here's my feet to prove I was there at least. And the last three runs I made I did on my stomach which hubby tried first to tell me how it worked. I used my feet like rudders. It worked a bit better.

And my boys (ALL of them) had a great time and that's what counts. A memory was made. Fun was had. It's all good.

Winter Fun

Winter is still going strong here in the northeast corner of the old US of A. But today. Oh today there was a wonderful hint of spring in the air. I was out & about running errands & taking sick children to the doctor wearing only a t-shirt & sweater. No jacket! It was glorious! I even had the boys out with me later running a one last errand I had to do today & they just had on sweatshirts. I love this time of year but I hate this time of year as well. Because we will be getting colder weather tomorrow and the "s" word....SNOW!

But for today. Today we enjoyed it. My middle boy & his cousin (who is only 10 months younger than he is) made this today.....


This is "Frosty" or at least that is what I am calling him. Or perhaps I should only say "F" here on the blog. ;-) When I saw them out there working diligently to put Frosty together I grabbed our "snowman making kit" and my camera & went to snap some photos.

My nephew has been staying the week with us (last week too & maybe next week) while my mom is in the hospital. My sister (his mom) is an ER nurse & fantastic with dealing with the medical community & understanding what needs to be done. She's holding down the fort there & I'm wrangling an extra boy. Life is busy.


Here are the proud artists...before my son succombed to a "hurt tummy" tonight. His older brother has strep throat & is feeling poorly (at least until the antibiotics kick in which I really hope they do SOON). He's now sleeping so I pray that's all he needs. A good night sleep on the couch.

Winter is slowly making its exit from this part of the world. But until it's completely gone, spring will continue to tease us with its coming.

Got Snow?

A local friend asked that very question this week. It's winter. In Maine. We have snow. Trust me on that. Last winter we never had any lasting snow until February. This year it started in November and never left. Ever. At least so far.

I started looking around for some photos to show just how much snow we've gotten. I went to visit my sister today. She lives an hour south of me. Trust me. They haven't received as much snow as we have. We live north & in the mountains. We have a lot more snow.

However, here is one photo I took today.....

This is my sister's Great Dane, Tucker. He's big. That fence he's standing by....it's six feet tall. He's standing on snow on the inside of the fence - see that pile outside the fence?? In fact, my sister's "puppy," Tank (a bull mastiff) keeps jumping the fence & exploring the neighborhood. She was heading out to shovel it down some after I left.


So when I got home & parked my truck, I had to take a photo of my snowbank. Now I will say that my FIL has had to move the snow with his tractor bucket loader. However, do you see the size of that snowbank!!!! It's nuts!

According to the NOAA website that tracks seasonal snowfall say that we're in the 38-77 inch range. I'm thinking we're on that higher end since I remember at least three storms of 12 inches or more plus many little ones of 4-6 inches. The NOAA site also had a map showing the snow depth. Yikes! Spring simply can't get here fast enough!

Annie Girl

It's snowing here in Maine - again. It's been a really nutso winter in regards to the amount of snow we've been getting. Our first snow came mid-November & we never lost all of it at all. Today we ended up with about another 8-10 inches. ::sigh::

However, my boys love playing it & so does my dog, Annie. The only other "girl" in the house with me. She absolutely loves the snow. Her favorite thing is to chase the snow when we shovel. However, I don't let her do this when I'm shoveling as I accidentally clipped her once with the shovel. I will throw snowballs for her. Like I did today. It's hilarious to watch her.

Guess what I'm doing behind the camera? Yup, I have a snowball in my hand & I'm holding it over my head to get her attention. It's the only thing that worked to get her to look at me.

Hmmmm, where did it go? Are you going to throw me another one???

If I look long enough, I'm sure I can find the snowball you threw!

What else do you do???

When it snows most of the week, what else do you do on a quiet Sunday afternoon in Maine??

Look, Mom!!! No hands! Yup, hubby let our 11 year old drive up & down the driveway.

Even our 6-1/2 year old got some time on the sled. He got to do some steering as well.

Isn't he a sweet little guy??? He LOVED going on the sled & so did not want to get off.