Glaciers, garages and a proactive approach to snow

It’s really good my husband doesn’t read my stuff. He’d probably be annoyed. Earlier today he came into the house and announced that the snow pack on the roof of the garage was about to fall. This didn’t really surprise me. Though it’s only February 1, we’ve had a strangely mild winter. Things are melting as though it is already spring.

He went on to say that if it fell and winter returned, we’d likely not get into the garage for two months.

Hyperbole, anyone?

For anyone who’s never dealt with snow that slides off a metal roof, you might be thinking, “How bad can it be?” This is where I have a admit that he’s not exaggerating – sort of.

When the snow does slide off, it all slide off into one giant pile right in front of the garage door. It’s a really big pile. It lands in a truly inconvenient place. This all is accurate. Add to that, we do not have a tractor. We have shovels. And we are not young, so yes, this is less than convenient.

But not impossible

For all the years we’ve lived in the frozen north (since putting a metal roof on the garage), we’ve dealt with snow pack slide off. We’ve been smart insomuch as not risking parking inside the garage when it’s about to go. Getting up in the morning to discover that NOW is when you have to do hours of back breaking shoveling before you can get the kids to school is no fun. So, we’re proactive in not getting blocked in. We’re also proactive in trying to knock some of it down as it creeps slowly to the edge of the roof.

Ultimately, with continued warm weather the snow will fall. It will plop right off the garage and land right in front of the garage door, and this will be inconvenient. It will not, however, impact our lives for the next two months. Possibly, the next two days, but not the next two months.

We could be more proactive

Yes, I’m aware there’s actually devices you fix to your roof to alleviate this problem, but I’ve heard (from my husband) they’re expensive. I would look that up to see just HOW expensive, but I don’t know what they’re called. I also, quite literally don’t care enough to bother.

Yes, we could’ve been outside every time it snowed with the roof rake (which we DO own) cleaning off the roof before it accumulated. However, this would again require me to care much more about it that I do.

I tried to point out the bright side

I said, “Hey, if this is the worst of our problems, we’re doing pretty good!” (I try to be positive. You can read more about that here.)

He didn’t want to hear it.

It’s only February, but spring is on its way. I guess I’ll just shut up and get ready to shovel.