Ten Things to Do on a Snow Day in New England

I am a native New Englander, but I’m not particularly fond of winter.

With that said, I will admit, I get excited like a little kid when a big storm hits. This is especially true if work is cancelled because the roads are impassable.

I live on a small pond, it’s a mile long, and a quarter mile wide. Presently, it is a total whiteout and I cannot see across the pond. Visibility is about 500 feet.

As long as we have electricity, heating oil, food and internet access I am content to stay home, even if it means that Barbell Club is cancelled this evening.

The weather forecaster was right on the money, we’ve already added a foot of snow to the three feet we got a couple days ago. It’s been snowing all night, all day, and we’re going into this evening with it still coming down.

Last night, I tossed a chicken and veggies into the slow cooker and made some fantastic chicken broth. The chicken was deboned and the meat was reserved for a Chicken Enchilada. What a fragrance to awaken to this morning!

After coffee, I made breakfast. It was leftovers. Suzanne had a stuffed pepper with two fried eggs. I had an omelet stuffed with baby spinach and chicken marsala.

As we sat down at the cafe table in the kitchen, I felt cold water under my feet. I looked to my left to see that the bay window I was sitting next to was flooded.

It seems the huge snow drift outside the window was melting from the heat of the window. The large window sill had a pool of ice cold water cascading onto my feet. I tossed a couple towels onto the sill and ate my breakfast, as Suzanne looked at me with that look.

You guys know the look to which I am referring. It’s the look that reminds you that you didn’t shovel all the snow from the last storm, and now we have ice dams.

Our house is a lakeside cottage, built in 1900. The house is a patchwork quilt of no fewer than four additions over a century, added by a DIYer who never met a building code he liked.

The lot is only 60 feet wide, and the house is over 50 feet wide. There is a seven foot fence that runs along the west boundary of the lot, and I have just enough room to run a snowblower, but no place to cast the snow. So I direct it straight ahead knowing that I will have to move it again at the end of my 100+ foot run.

This 100 foot “alley” is the only was to get my heating oil delivered. So clearing this path is not really optional. Also, the roofs are flat on this side of the house, so when I shovel off the roofs, the snow has to go back into the alley, to be cleared a second time. A few winters ago, the snow in the alley was over the fence.

You may be getting an idea why I do not particularly like winter.

So after breakfast I ventured out to clear the Alley, and to remove the snowdrifts from our bay window. The snow was already 8 inches deep in the street and the road had not been plowed yet. The temperature was a balmy 10 degrees, with a driving 15-20 mph breeze, to take the wind chill below zero.

Two hours later, I was done clearing the alley, two driveways and two sidewalks. I couldn’t feel my toes or my fingers. I shed my snow encrusted clothes in the hallway and poured myself a steaming hot cup of chicken broth.

While I was outside, Suzanne was prepping food for the week. Yes, she gets all the food prepped in advance, so when we get home from work, we simply add some veggies, heat the entre in the microwave or on the stovetop, and we’re eating a healthy homemade meal in minutes.

Today she made the Chicken Enchilada, Beef Stew, Roasted Yukon Gold Potatoes, Pumpkin Spiced Baked Oatmeal, Baked Sweet Potatoes, Flourless Chocolate Brownies, Red Peppers stuffed with seasoned ground beef, olives, capers and golden raisins.

She had most of this done before I came in from the storm. Yeah, she’s that good. She has Monday Meal Prep down to a science.

I completed the weekly food prep by making a pound of Almond Butter. I’ve got to have my Almond Butter.

By now you may be wondering, where is the list of things to do on a snowy day. Here it is:

1. Sleep in, wake without an alarm
2. Linger over my bulletproof coffee
3. Have a relaxing breakfast (preferably without your feet in ice water)
4. Venture out into the cold, to clear snow off cars, walks, driveways and roofs
5. Cook a lot of food
6. Eat a lot of food
7. Drink a lot of hot beverages
8. Take a long nap (if you can get someone to join you, your list may be 11 items)
9. Laugh at newscasters doing “live shots” on location, with yardsticks
10. Repeat items 6 through 9 as needed

As evening is approaching, the snow is falling at 2-4 inches an HOUR! Yeah, you read that correctly. And our forecasted accumulation of 8-12 inches is already exceeding 18 inches, and the weather service says it will go past midnight.

I’m gonna go have a brownie, and go to bed. I’ve got to get up early to do another snow removal WOD.

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