Thursday, January 13, 2011

The Snow Fortress






Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of time to write. We here in the Boston area got between 18 and 24 inches of snow, depending upon locale, and that meant that many businesses, including my office, were closed yesterday. I have work to catch up on, of course, so I can't spend an hour or so regaling you with snow-related stories.

However, my upstairs neighbors did something so cool, I can't pass up the opportunity to show it to you. Our duplex has, aside from the usual front walk and sidewalk, a 60-foot driveway that had to be cleared. After sharing a couple of hours of shoveling duty with them, I went inside to watch the Celtics trounce the Sacramento Kings. All the while, I saw them through our front window, shoveling a bit, then packing snow into crates, measuring heights, shoveling some more, and so forth. They did this for the entire time the game was on.

Me? You couldn't have gotten me out there to shovel more snow if you told me there were gold bars under it. They, being younger, took it as an opportunity for fun now that the stuff that had to be done was finished. And, when I came out to go to work this morning, I saw the results of their labors.


[This is the view from our house. It gets better.]



[From the street.]



[Today is trash day, so the depressions are handy.]




Just way cool. It started my day off with a smile, God bless 'em.

Soon, with more better stuff.


34 comments:

larkswing said...

That is fun! Have fun catching up today!

Cricket said...

That's brilliant. Great pics. Don't you wish we could be 8 years old for a few hours? Just to take full advantage?

One of these days, my son and I intend to make some "Calvin" snowmen. Heh, heh.

Lori said...

What fun! Thanks for sharing...hope you have a good day of catching up!

Craig said...

Wonderful!

I have to say, it reminds me of growing up Up North. 18-24 was a once-or-twice-a-winter phenomenon.

Our house was the last house on a dead-end street, so we were always the last to get plowed out. Our driveway wasn't 60 feet, but it was 30 or 40, anyway. The mailbox was down at the end of the driveway, and it was our responsibility to have it accessible to the mailman, or he just wouldn't deliver our mail. So we'd shovel out the driveway (meaning that the pile alongside the drive was 3-4 feet high), and then the plow would come, and we'd have to go back out and clear out the hash the plow left behind. And our shoveling, added to the plow's work, would leave the mailbox buried under 5-6 feet of hard-packed snow hash. We'd notch out a little alcove around the mailbox, kinda similar to what you've got for the trash.

That's a long story for me to say that your photos take me back to my childhood. . .

And gee, do you guys need to add some insulation to your attic? That's nowhere near 18 inches on yer roof. . .

Anonymous said...

Way cool.

Now tell me, how come when you get two feet of snow you get a snow day. When we get two feet of snow we get a "dig yourself out and get to the office. On time."

I wanna be American, I do.

- Jazz

Pam said...

Cool! Keep it your way though, I've had enough of that stuff; unfortunately, more is on the way the next few days!

Suldog said...

Craig - The roof is slanted, for one thing, so there's gravity to take away some of it. Half of what it took away fell in the driveway to the left, adding to the shoveling fun. Also, the snow stopped by about noon, so we had four hours of direct sunlight to melt off a bit. Also, there isn't any attic space between their apartment and the roof, so, yeah, probably a decent amount was taken off by heat escaping their place.

Jazz - It's not just being American, ya silly Canuck. It's being American and working for a smaller company run by a boss with a heart. I'm sure lots of less fortunate souls had to dig out and punch a clock. If I had to dig out and go to work yesterday, I would have punched something (or somebody) else.

lime said...

what fun! thanks for sharing the smiles. that is much appreciated.

Hilary said...

Your neighbours sure know how to make the best out of a situation. What cool pics. I'm so glad you shared them.

Moannie said...

Loved the story and the picture links. Reminds of the time we lived in Quebec and JP had to shovel a path to the road after the snow plough had passed.

(not necessarily your) Uncle Skip said...

Remind me again why I am happy to live in a place where snow is something that is only visited upon us about once every two to four years. In case you missed the images of our last snowfall on New Years Day, they're here.
Of course, now I'm gonna here again from Grandma Skip what it was like driving a school bus in rural Michigan.

Jeni said...

I was beginning to get worried about you since you hadn't posted this week. (Or if you did, I either missed it -highly unlikely -or some such.) Anyway, I'm glad to see you were busy with something exciting like a big snowfall. We had two days of crap weather here -not near that much accumulation and only a 2-hour delay for the kids yesterday which was a big disappointment for some! (Not for Maya though, as she didn't go to school today because she was sick last night and boy, was she ticked at her Mom for keeping her home too!) Anyway, I like the snow-clearing job your neighbors did -shows a lot of imagination and originality! Keep up the good work and here's hoping any future big snowfalls this winter land in your area (not mine) cause you have such great ways of handling the white fluffy stuff!

Michelle H. said...

Great to here you're doing fine after the blizzard, mlgf! What your neighbors did was way cool in a fun and intelligent way to handle both the piled snow and the fact trash day was coming. Absolutely wonderful :)

Pat - Arkansas said...

What fun! I very much enjoyed looking at the photos and hearing the tale of how it came about, but am very, very thankful that we didn't get 24" of snow!!

IT (aka Ivan Toblog) said...

I wonder. Is there any place it hasn't rained ore snowed in the last 48 hours?

Sueann said...

Well the snow fort is great but seeing all that snow...I had to go and get gloves and a coat on. Brrrrr!!! Here we have no snow and I love it. This is my kind of winter for sure. Remember I was from the Cleveland area and we always got the lake effect snows. Yuck!!
Hugs to you
SueAnn

Jenn Flynn-Shon said...

That's fantastic! Gotta love the heavy wet snow for being creative huh? Good for them :-)

Anonymous said...

I always wanted to make a snow fort! Tough to do when you get one day of snow a winter, if you're lucky (all of 3 inches, at that.)They did a great job!

Chris said...

Ah, memories of childhood. We used to spray mist from the hose over our snow forts to reinforce the structure with a thin sheet of ice.

Impenetrable.

Buck said...

Snow IS cool. No, wait. Make that COLD. Aiiieee.

The fort is creative, no doubt. But what I REALLY like is your neighborhood... which is to say older, established, mature trees. Reminds me of my neighborhood in Dee-troit. We had snow there, too. Which is one reason I'm in New Mexico now. :-)

Anonymous said...

Ah, the enthusiasm and muscle of youth! Clever kids. I, too, enjoyed having fun in the snow - when I was younger.

Perhaps the upstairs neighbors had so much energy because they were not so weighted down from eating mass quantities of holiday fruitcakes? :-)

Jackie said...

I enlarged each photo.
I wanted to see what snow is like in the winter. I look at the roof(s) and wonder how much weight the snow must put on them!
Thank you for sharing these photographs...as I ask myself, "What is snow?"
Being a native Floridian and living only 5 minutes from the Florida line, I don't ever get to see this...

Anonymous said...

Very cool and here we are in the South, 4 days after our snowfall, and we're still slip-slidin' away!

Unspoken said...

I'm a West Coaster. Your neighborhood looks very cool--hey, literally and figuratively :).

messymimi said...

What fun that was to wake up to!

Here where we get snow once in a blue moon, we rarely even get enough for a tiny snowman. That is amazing.

Jane said...

I would mention that it was 60+ degrees here today...but that would be bitchy.

Anonymous said...

That. was. *SO*. EPIC!!!

I love that! Way better than just a snowman - you got an entire FORT!

You need to take those people some fruitcake! :D

i beati said...

super cool out for the weekend and play

Jayne said...

Your town has some creative folks. Love to watch the kids snow sculpt around here.
We got so much snow that it's probably going to stick around for a long while. I hope so, anyway!

http://howtobecomeacatladywithoutthecats.blogspot.com said...

Now THAT's shoveling with style!

Anonymous said...

Nice!
I work for an office in Boston, so I had a snow day too....with the perk of not shoveling.
And yes, the Kings were trounced.

Ericka said...

that is just awesome. very cool! thanks for sharing!

Carolina said...

Lovely!

Mehmed said...

cool you doing a great experiment and working awesome