Completing a Chore While Comfortably Cold

7 March 2012
7:44 PM

Sunrise at	7:36 AM	in direction	100°	East
Sunset at	6:29 PM	in direction	261°	West

Duration of day: 10 hours, 52 minutes (6 minutes, 44 seconds longer than yesterday)

Some activities are most comfortable in the cold.  Shoveling light powder snow at 20F fits in that category.  Snow, Snow, Snow.  We have had nearly 48 hours of constant snow here in the Interior.  At one point it did stop and the sun cast rays upon piles of snow everywhere, but that was brief.  As we talked about the snow accumulation in the office, my manager noted that it was better to get out and shovel the stuff from important areas before it became heavy.

"Drat," I thought, "He's right!"

So after eating, and checking out the Iditarod site for an update of current standings for middle/back of the pack mushers, I put on my jacket and a light weight pair of wool blend gloves and went out.  I looked at the deck, which extends all along one side of the house and around the back, to assess the situation.  Half of the side deck is roughly 10 feet wide and the other half 8 feet.  I always tell myself I will shovel the 8 foot wide side since it is the easiest and stop.  It extends from above the garage in front to the front steps and it's easy to push snow under the railing onto a long drops.  At the back of the deck, the yard surface is higher and we have mounds of snow in those directions, not yet melted from previous storms and shoveling efforts.  The mounded snow is high enough that I couldn't possibly shovel any more in that direction.

I began, pushing over 14" of dry snow off the deck in that direction.  We have placed a gate at the top of the stairs so the dogs can go out into the yard from any of the doors that lead onto the deck and be contained within the fence.  As I began cleaning the portion of the deck at the front of the house,  I thought, reasonably enough, that I should shovel behind the gate to the stairs so that the gate could be opened.  Following through with that thought, I shoveled behind the gate, pushing off snow in a section that had not risen above the deck surface yet.

And so it went - run the shovel along the edge of snow until no more could be directed by the shovel toward the front and then do the same by the gate.  As I finished the front half of the deck, I noticed my neck was getting wet from flakes that fell now and then and pulled up my hood.  My fingers were a little tingling, but not really cold.  I did not bother to button up my coat or put on shoes warmer than my fleece lined Crocs which I wear around the house

By this time it was clearly twilight and I told myself I would work until it was dark - knowing full well that twilight lasts forever here; still, it gave me a stopping point.  But as it passed from civil twilight into nautical twilight, I only had a small portion of the side deck to clear. I kept working.  I always tell myself I will shovel the 8 foot wide half of the deck and then stop, but I never do.

I did not attempt to clear the back deck all the way behind the house.  It is not wide, probably no more than 4 feet wide, but over the length of it as well as the steps leading into the back yard, the snow is very deep.  I had no where to start for pushing it off the deck.  That I am really willing to leave until tomorrow.

When I came in, the house seemed hot.  I took off my coat, and clothes and realized my fingers were tingling as they began to warm, but it wasn't a problem.  The temperature was absolutely perfect for a evening in March in the Interior of Alaska.

The dogs wanted out and as I opened the door for them, I noticed a fine layer of snow already dusted the deck I had just worked for over an hour to clear.