Snowpocalypse

The Snowpocalypse is upon us! Save yourselves!

New England has not been kind to us since our arrival on Jan. 15th. Four large Nor'easter winter storms slammed the area since we touched down in Beantown, bringing an accumulated 45" of snow. Let me start by saying, I remember now why a garage is so important. Kevin remarked that he forgot how much fun scraping ice from a car windshield was before you could go anywhere. The new morning protocol is, warming up my car, donning heavy winter gloves and scraping the windows.
Needless to say, I had to quickly refresh my skills in shoveling.

The snow piles at Kevin's parents house are unbelievable. They are taller than Boston Mom!

As terrible as it is to deal with, I have to admit it really is beautiful after a big storm.
A view of Meriden Connecticut. You can see the accumulation of snow especially after looking at the paved sidewalk.

This past weekend, Kevin, Joe, and their Uncle Bernard engaged in a dangerous New England tradition, "raking the roof". Because of the large amounts of snow that fell in such a short period of time, houses, and office buildings are at a greater risk of their roofs collapsing. Several buildings and homes in the New England area have already fallen in. So the boys set out to help Kevin's Grandfather. Thankfully he is visiting Kevin's Aunt in New Jersey and wasn't around to experience the storms.

Raking the roof is exactly what it sounds like. You climb up on your icy snow covered roof and start raking the snow off just as if you are raking leaves. If you are one of the lucky few who bought one before the storm (as Grampa did) you get a shovel that is bent at a 90 degree angle and attached to a 20 foot pole. Then you can rake the roof from the ground!
Kevin on top of his Grandfathers house. I'm sure that if Grandpa were there, even at the age of 94, he would have been helping. Luckily he is in New Jersey.

This is not an optical illusion. That is Uncle Bern on a ladder with an axe. These are not your Grandfathers icicles.... actually they are Kevin's Grandfathers icicles. These mammoth ice flows are about 9 feet tall and 3 foot wide. I have never seen icicles of this magnitude. A snow ball isn't going to knock these baby's down, you need an AXE!
Kevin "raking" snow off the roof. It was such a nice day the boys didn't really need jackets.
Kevin cut a path down the spine of the roof to relieve some of the snow pressure. The snow was about 3.5 feet deep on the roof.
Joe coming up to relieve Kevin for a while.
So much snow.
Kevin, Joe and Uncle Bernard worked really hard, but luckily they were able to mix the work with a little play.

Stay warm, and thanks for following our blog!