It's Saturday, a rare snow quickly accumulates across Washington DC. After spending last summer in Atlanta, I am eager to take advantage of this wintery-holiday. After a little debate, I decided to build an igloo, so that I can finally have a place of my own.
The first step is to collect the snow from the driveway. Carrying the snow down from the driveway is slow and tiring, so I decide to move the cars off the driveway, and push the snow with the shovel to pile at the end of the driveway. But at the time I would get to one side of the driveway, the snow is already ticketing on the other side.
I eat lunch and when I come back the driveways completely covered again. It's going to be a challenge to pile up enough snow to make an igloo, but I am full of energy today. The work takes me back to Hoiles Avenue and makes me a kid again. After clearing the driveway, there is still is not enough snow to make an igloo.
So I begin shoveling in the backyard. The recycling bin turns out to be a valuable tool for transporting snow. Around this time, I was joined by Christie who can always be counted on for some hard manual labor. We took turns, one person would shovel while the other person would carry bits of snow. Then after we were tired, we were switch chores, pretty soon the entire backyard was cleared of snow and the pile is finally large enough to start digging. We start by using the shovel to dig the entrance.
Once the hole is deep enough, we get down on our chores and dig with a spade. The ground is cold and wet, and being inside the igloo can be rather claustrophobic. We dig out enough snow to fit an entire person inside the igloo. In the back of my mind, I worried about what would happened if the snow were to collapse on us while we were inside. It's important to be careful in digging, so that we don't put through the side wall, or roof of the snow pile.
The excess snow gets pulled out of the igloo with the shovel. We continue to add more snow to the pile, however now it comes from the front yard. The neighbors have to be wondering what kind of kooky people shovel their yard. It's only taking 5 hours but eventually we create a cabin large enough to hold both of us. It's still little too tight to be a comfortable living space, but probably good enough for a day's work.
Our Igloo is complete and it's even strong enough for a 190 pound person to climb on top. Today has been the success and we will definitely be sore in the morning. Unfortunately, the warm weather caused the igloo to collapse overnight. So even though the igloo will fade quickly, the memories will last a lifetime.
