Snow Stress and Spring Salutations

Ugh, this winter. It was a long one, wasn't it? So much snow... That last big snowfall on March 9th almost did us in. Every building was groaning under the weight of the snow. In fact, our machine shed was groaning so much, that on March 11th Kurt realized the support beams in the roof were literally snapping. *Snapping!!* He had no choice but to climb on the roof and start shoveling. I took one look at the fully extended ladder and realized the most helpful thing I could do was to start calling friends and family. Thankfully we found some who were able to assist. Others were too busy trying to clear the roofs of their own buildings. It was an immense and utterly exhausting task, but the building was saved. Whew.

My husband hastily shoveling waist-deep snow off of our machine shed.

Here you can see three of the four snapped supports. Two of the main beams were also cracked, and two more supports were bent and strained almost to the breaking point.

But, we are well past that snow stress now, and the hope of spring is in the air! The car said 50 degrees today! The snow is melting quickly, the treacherous ice has already melted from our driveway (leaving a mud mess, but I'll take it!), and the record snow totals of February are becoming a distant memory.

We read a fitting poem by Robert Frost in the class I teach at our local homeschool co-op. Here it is:

To The Thawing Wind

Come with rain, O loud Southwester!

Bring the singer, bring the nester;

Give the buried flower a dream;

Make the settled snowbank steam;

Find the brown beneath the white;

But whate’er you do tonight,

Bathe my window, make it flow,

Melt it as the ice will go;

Melt the glass and leave the sticks

Like a hermit’s crucifix;

Burst into my narrow stall;

Swing the picture on the wall;

Run the rattling pages o’er;

Scatter poems on the floor;

Turn the poet out of door.

Yes, spring winds, come, bring back the singer, bring back the nester, and turn us all (especially my kids!) out of door.