With no apologies to J.D. Salinger. I usually don’t pay much attention to our roofs, as numerous as they are. My day began with my shoveling off the roofs of our pickup truck and Pete’s Subaru – this was after he told me that he was afraid they might collapse.

I failed to get around to shoveling off the roof of my Subaru – I didn’t have the time. We’ll see if it collapses. Hey, this is an experiment.

As I was shoveling, I looked around at the other roofs. Let’s see, we have seven roofs total, and they all had at least four feet of snow on them. Oh Oh. I then began to assess the situation. Roofs on the horse shelter, iffy –

Pete cleaning panels

if it goes, the horses most likely will be outside, or will hear creaking and move on out. The roof on the chicken pen – not so iffy. The chickens seem now to be hanging out in their roost, which is in the goat pen. The roof on the goat shed, iffy, if it goes the goats will be flattened like pancakes.

Woodshed roof – not iffy because it just contains wood. Roof adjacent to the woodshed, not iffy because right now there’s nothing in it. Roof on the black hole, not iffy because it’s not occupied. Horse trailer roof, not iffy because it’s not occupied. Garbage shed/tack room/greenhouse/outhouse roof, sort of iffy because the tack room and outhouse might be occupied. Horse hay shelter, somewhat iffy because it might be occupied by someone removing hay. Hoop House, iffy in that if the snow breaks through the roof, all the plastic will have to be replaced. This is costly and time consuming.

Pete and I went to town, and I momentarily forgot about the snow loads on the roofs. I shoveled at the Meeting House, and then we distributed books. I did not think about the snow on the roofs of the buildings that I momentarily occupied.

We came home and I resumed thinking about the snow load on the roofs. We quickly prioritized. Pete shoveled the base of the hoophouse so that he might then push the snow off the topmost areas. He then shoveled the snow off the trailer. After, he shoveled the snow off the goat shed. Then he shoveled the snow off the woodshed.

Me, I first cleaned the horse pen. I got as much as I could, then hauled it up behind the hoop house. I have this mental game I play – I pretend when I’m hauling manure up there that I am on an expedition in the Antarctic and hauling a heavy sled over bumpy terrain. This makes the job less onerous.

I next shoveled the snow off the small shed adjacent to the woodshed. It wasn’t high on the list of priorities, but I did it because I do have a fear of heights, particularly when shoveling snow is involved.

Pete turned out to be the real hero. I was just the back up. Today we were the Lone Ranger and Tonto of the far north.

Next: 344. 12/15/22: Storms Rising