Long Live the Queen

We recently had a break in our cold weather. We awoke Saturday morning to temps in the thirties. This time of the year, we aren't used to such balmy winds. We usually have to wait until the end of March or April to get warm enough for snow to stick together.

We decided to take advantage our good fortune by going to our favorite sledding hill. When we last visited our hill, it was coated with a nice thick layer of ice which Sweet Pea's airborne chin greeted abruptly. I assured her that this year the snow on the hill would be much softer. Currently, our hill is half snow and half mud. Which slowed us down just enough to ease last year's fear of flying down the hill. Hiking up the hill, of course, was just as laborious as last year.

When we were muddy enough, we went home to build our first snowman of the year. Sweet Pea did all of the rolling. Number One Son was too tired. SP informed me that she had built a snow queen. That gave me an idea. A snow queen needed special royal robes, so I found some teal colored Christmas lights and dressed her up. SP found a flat piece of ice for her crown. I added a lighted tree topper, inherited from my Grandma Peg, and our queen's crown was complete.

Since our warm weather was going to continue overnight into Sunday, I was doubtful that our queen's reign would make it through the night. Especially, since the Christmas lights were burning themselves into her as well.

And sure enough, by ten o'clock pm, she had toppled.

She was beautiful while she lasted. I'm sure she will rise to power again come March.

And just so Mother Nature could keep me on my toes, the temperature dipped to 8 degrees by three o'clock pm on Sunday. So I was standing out in the frigid wind, pulling tangled lights out of a block of ice, instead of something productive like an afternoon nap.

Time for Frosty to Head North.

Old man winter is looking a little crippled and tired these days, and the forecast doesn't improve for him. We are expecting 60 and 70 degree days this week. It's hard to believe that we had enough snow to make our biggest snowman of the year just last Friday.

When the kids went out to play in the snow last week, I went outside with the purpose of putting a few things away in the garage and getting things ready for spring. I had no intention of building a snowman. If the kids wanted to build one, they could handle it themselves.

After getting the bird feeders filled and a few deck chairs out, Sweet Pea came to show me what she had done. When I went to the front yard I saw a snowball which was bigger than SP.

"Did you do that yourself?", I asked.

"Yeah, can you help me with the rest?", she pleaded.

Since she had gotten off to such a good start, I couldn't resist.

I rolled her snowball to a suitable spot in the center of the yard. That added added a another two or three layers to the already chubby snowman.

Number One Son was also helping. He had rolled another ball to be the middle of the snowman. His snowball was dangerously approaching the girth of our first snowball. So I warned him not to roll it anymore. Unfortunately, he stopped rolling it about ten yards away from our base. So, once again, I had to roll another snowball over to the middle of our yard. Once it reached the base, I was confounded by the age old snowman problem of building a snowman middle that was too heavy to lift onto the base. I tried once or twice to lift it with very little success. So, with a hernia looming, I was forced to resort to getting a board from the wood pile and sliding the middle snowball up a ramp to its final resting place.

Lastly, the head went on with no problem, as I had just enough strength left.

As the kids packed snow onto the snowman's love handle creases for stability, SP made the observation that our snowman stunk.

"What do you mean, 'It stinks". I think we did a good job.", I inquired.

"I mean, it's all covered in poop.", she answered.

Since the snow was extra wet and sticky, our efforts had rolled up all of the dog and rabbit poop in the yard. So we had to cover those spots up with clean snow.

Once our creation was complete, SP decided to make a snow puppy to stand next to our snowman.

This week, however, our snowman is looking a little worse for wear. His puppy must have run away, and he has certainly let himself go. And just like all of us who get older, his face was the first thing to go. I will probably find his face this spring when the mower tries to chew up the rocks we used.

A New Friend

When your weary,

Feelin small,

When tears are in your eyes,

I'll dry them all.

I'm on your side,
When times get rough.
And friends just can't be found,
build a friend out of frozen water.