Dennis came up from the basement a bit…
Dennis came up from the basement a bit ago and asked how long it would take for me to get ready to go dancing. Ya right!
With the snow raking having been done yesterday, our patio was filled with packed snow. I took the morning slow, as I knew what would be coming for the afternoon. Settling on summer sausage sandwiches for our Noon lunch I could feel the tension begin to build. Dennis had a plan and he knew without saying a word, I would be right beside him to the end.
Nothing packs snow like pulling it off of a roof and it comes down with a thunk with multiple layers added to it. There is only so much a small snowblower can do once it slices through packed snow the first time. The solid wall of packed snow could just as well be concrete. We have a wonderful red plastic shovel that Dennis got when he was buds with one of the fellows who worked in the cleanup crew at our local meat processing plant. It’s light as a feather and sturdy.
After Dennis had made a initial path through, the shovel and me would follow behind and knock down more snow for him to blow to the west. Our goal was to free the north side of the garage of snow. With this patio being on the north side of the garage, it would have taken until the 4th of July to melt, thus leaving very soggy siding on the garage. Perhaps the melting snow would have found its way underneath the sill and we would have had a mess in the car garage.
We know the patio porch may flood this spring. Today was meant to try and divert having a wet garage, as that is where the entire contents of the patio porch will be moved into when the thawing begins in full swing. Yes . . . in hindsight! In times past, it was a wonderful idea to have a slab of concrete off of the north side of the garage. We enjoyed that patio to no end. It was shaded most of the day and it always caught a breeze. Well . . . that was then, this is reality. We built a porch on that concrete slab and no matter how man times it may or may not flood, it is ours and we enjoy it to no end. We should have elevated the original patio by a good two feet.
Just to be clear . . . Dennis and I are not going dancing. We can barely lift our feet let alone our arms after moving the snow. It was a great workout. In a perfect world, Dennis could have come home from his road trip and worked on getting the lawnmowers prepped. Maybe next month the mowers will be able to be gotten out. For right now, we are satisfied on having had a productive day of good local effort. It also helps that I had a slow cooking roast with carrots in the oven while we were outside. Nobody has to cook supper. We may very well each take a fork with the roaster between us and call it a meal. No fuss, no mess, no additional dishes. Hey . . . we are older retired folks, there are no set rules on Stauffer Avenue.