Snowmaggedon - Part 2

I used to love snow days. You get to play outside building snowmen, make snow angels and then warm up with cocoa. You then get to relax inside and do nothing but play board games. I feel like those are the thoughts of my young self. I'm not so sure I like snow days anymore.

 

Last Thursday it started to snow. It was light and dry and beautiful to watch coming down. I was filled with excitement for the snow. By Friday we had several inches. I was planning a fun day out in the snow with the kiddos when the hubby informed me we had to go knock snow off of the greenhouses.

 

 

Sounds easy right? A little pat pat here and the snow comes down. Wrong! The problem is that snow is heavy. When you have several inches piled up it is super heavy. That super heavy snow can cause the hoops (metal poles) of the greenhouse to bend under the weight and then collapse. This happened 5 years ago when we lost 17 greenhouses in a snowstorm. I happened to be pregnant and out of town during this snowstorm so didn't get to experience the real world snow day.

If you ever have to clean snow off of a greenhouse here is our method that seemed to work the best:

1. Find an intrepid fellow (Jim and his brother Jerry) with a leaf blower and throw him on top of the greenhouse. Have him blow the snow.
2. Said intrepid fellow should bounce up and down on top of the slippery greenhouse to try and loosen the snow. Be sure not to lose your balance so you won't slide down the greenhouse with the snow.
3. Have someone on the inside of the greenhouse (this was one of my jobs) with a long stick or pipe and bang the snow to loosen it even more. It's best to work simultaneously with the blower up top for best results.

 

The above picture shows my pal Fedey using a pipe like a battering ram to knock the snow from inside the greenhouse. You can see the outline of my brother-in-law Jerry standing up on top of the greenhouse. By the way the greenhouse is covered in plastic. Plastic when wet is super slippery. We were so lucky that neither Jim or Jerry fell off of the greenhouses!

 

 

When it was all over. I hurt so much. My shoulders, my back, even the palms of my hands ached. That night it snowed another 4 inches so we got to start all over again the next morning. Ack!

 

I realized several things over this two day snow clearing:

1. When you are not used to doing manual labor you realize how much of a wimp you are and that you really need to start lifting weights.
2. It's amazing the sense of accomplishment to see your efforts making a difference. To literally see and hear the snow sloshing off of the greenhouses was very satisfying.
3. Family is awesome. All of Jim's nieces, a couple of nephew-in-laws and various other family members all came out to help. They have no connection to the nursery but came together as families should but rarely seem to do.