Last sugaring season we barely had any snow in the woods. My husband and I both hoped for more snow for this year. Well, we got it. There are a lot of fun activities that come with the snow. I would have loved to take advantage of the fresh powder and go snowboarding. Or join my daughter when she went sledding down our hill. However, when we are getting snowfall on a weekly basis, we really didn't have time for such activities. Instead, we had activities like shoveling (and when I say we what I really mean is my husband sat in the nice warm truck and plowed while I was out in the cold and shoveled the walkways around the property). After one such evening of plowing my husband went to start shoveling off the roof. I had finished my shoveling and offered to help, hoping he would say no. He said yes. I bravely climbed my way up the ladder, shovel in hand. He helped me onto the roof. I shuffled my way back from the edge, terrified of falling off. Then I got the tutorial on how to shovel the roof. You start at one side, push off only at certain areas, make sure it's nice and smooth with no bumps, etc. I think I heard the phrase 'work smarter, not harder' at least a dozen times. I was thinking he should have just been grateful I got on the roof and if he didn't stop talking and just get to shoveling I was going to push him off with the snow. In retrospect I'm glad he had it all figured out as it made the next time all that much easier. We finally finished after about an hour. He quickly climbed back down the ladder and I started having a panic attack. What was I thinking climbing up here? I threw my shovel and tried to climb on the ladder. First attempt didn't go so well. I had sat on my butt and tried to scooch my way onto the ladder. All I could see was myself falling what seemed like ten stories to the ground. Second attempt I clung to the ladder rings for dear life. I inched my feet from rung to rung; the longest ten inches I would travel for each step. I reached the ground, thankful I made it down without breaking a limb. Looking back, I could have easily jumped the few feet from the roof into the pile off snow we had just shoveled off. But, at least now I'm not afraid to help shovel off the roof. I just hope we don't get too much more snow so I don't have to venture up there again.
