Mail and Trails

It's just not a quick walk to the mailbox this time of year.  

Well, to be honest, it's a 1/2 mile trek anytime of year, but now it's a much more risk-filled adventure!

 Here I am, braving the dunes to make it to my car.  The wheelbarrow in the foreground is there just in case I am possessed and feel like shoveling out our front deck to reach the front door.  Hasn't happened yet.

 Here you can see that the front drift, piled from the snow slide off the roof, has almost reached its source of snow pack.  When this snow slides, it sounds like a train and packs the snow like cement.  This also happens to be on the north side of the house where, unless I shovel and pick at the ice left behind, the snow will likely remain until July.  Oh joy.

 Everyone keeps making remarks on Facebook how lovely and fun the snow looks!  It is lovely. It is fun.  Especially when you look at a picture of it in your warm climate.  I must admit, I am not a fan.  I have come, played, and now I'm done with it.  Now I understand why my dad did not relish "snow days" when we were growing up on our farm in Kansas.  Snow just means more work.  There are no such things as "snow days" in real life.  Especially not here.  It has to be pretty wicked to call off school or call in to work.

 I have arrived at the mailboxes, not really picture-worthy, and slowly rolled the car into the mail-bay.  The road is on the other side of the snow pile, so you never know if there is another car getting ready to  pull out.  In fact, it is wise to drive very cautiously on side roads with driveways for the very same reason.  The more traveled roads have wider clearances:

 But it doesn't take long before you enter one-lane only cleared side roads.  Normally, these are two-lane roads, but it seems our plow guy decided one lane was enough.  I try to keep these roads to a minimum.  Our house is only about 100 yards down this road.  That isn't too bad.

 Creeping out of the driveway is another blood-pressure elevating activity.  Again, the snow is so tall that seeing over these piles of snow is impossible, even in the truck.  Rowdy, however, is trying to melt it all down, one stream at a time.

 Yes, that is how far I have to pull out of my driveway to see if anyone is coming.  Basically I just have to hope I crawl out slow enough that if there is another driver, he/she is driving slow enough to avoid me.  Fortunately, snow-packed roads are not very slippery.  That will start to be a threat when it begins to warm up during the day and freeze at night; probably next month.

 Makes you want to buy this house, huh?!  What house, you ask?  Oh, the one behind the snow drift.  Let me shovel you a path...

The backyard is really lovely!  I made some trails for our house-sitter to walk as he takes Rowdy for his walks.  I imagine he won't be quite as excited about crossing the lake, though I have not had any issues on it since February.  That's probably not reassuring.  Thus the trails in the yard.  It reminds me of playing "Fox & Hens" when we were growing up!  This would be an amazing course for that tag-like game.  There is little chance of cheating and cutting corners.  Even Rowdy sticks to the trails!