You never know what you'll see while walking through the countryside, including a kitty cat on a snowy barn roof.

January 28 2020 - Tuesday morning

19 degrees/cloudy/calm winds

Pentoga Road

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, Monday was once again, all about snow.

Mark texted last night saying that our local Habitat for Humanity - Restore caved in yesterday afternoon. Yup, too much snow on the roof. That's the second local structure in the past two days that has collapsed.

As someone said the other day, "We've got March snow (accumulation) and it's not even February."

I had an uneventful seven mile walk Monday morning. Seems I always see something that strikes me as beautiful or unusual. Yesterday was the cat on the roof. It had walked up the snow and was lying on the metal roof soaking up what little sun was shining.

Tennessee Williams was from Mississippi, but obviously, he was vacationing in the UP when he wrote his epic, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

Back home, I got busy clearing snow from the roofs of the garage and storage shed. 

I had just started when Sargie joined me. She worked alongside of me for the rest of the day, right up until dark.

Jambo's lane had become so narrow that it would have been difficult for a vehicle to have gotten through. Knowing they were coming down at some point yesterday, I took the snowblower and widened it by almost five feet.

I sure love my new machine and it runs like a top. The Ariens was made in the good old USA, right next door in Wisconsin!

 Sargie and I took a break and enjoyed a short drive. One of our favorite activities is to look at homes sporting the longest and most icicles. Yesterday's winner was in Crystal Falls.

I started working on the back storage shed immediately after returning home. The accumulation on the wood furnace shed was also dangerously high.

The snow on part of the garage and all of the wood shed was entirely too hard and deep for the Minnesnowta. There was only one solution. Climb the ladder.



While I was shoveling, Sargie was in the house putting a huge spiral ham in the oven. It wasn't long before I heard her below. The girl was back outside, working on the snow from ground level.

Sargie found a long piece of wood and discovered that she could make large amounts of snow slide off the metal roof by striking it from below.

It was almost dark before the storage shed was free of any snow. 

If we get our usual February and March snowfall, it will be past the windows and solar heater. At least I won't need a ladder to clean any from the roof.

I heard noise coming from the opposite side of the barn. Sargie was busy removing snow and ice from the furnace shed.

The several feet of snow and ice caused some damage to the flue of the wood furnace. I'll put that on my list of things to do. It never ends.

It was pitch black before we came in the house. Sargie made mashed potatoes and ham gravy while I was in the shower.

 Her ham and gravy was some of the best I've ever tasted. Ah, a Sunday meal on a Monday night. After a day spent shoveling snow, it was the perfect table fare.

Sargie's back to work today, the last Tuesday of her working career. I'm going for my walk then begin cleaning the snow from the wood shed along the drive. The ice maker has quit working and even after thawing the thing completely out, refuses to churn out cubes. I want to take one last look at the four wheeler before loading and taking it to the mechanic's. Both Andy and my friend, Big Jim, have sent in new causes to look for. Then there's that flue to replace on the outside wood furnace.

In other words, it's going to be a busy day.

Are we surprised?

After all, everyone knows that a man's work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...