Snow Removal: A lesson in neighborliness

I have mentioned before how awesome my neighbors are. They look for ways to help each other out, and this is never more apparent than during the snow season.

We've gotten dumped on this January. We've now had 3 12"+ storms this month, plus several other small snows (3-6") in between those. That's a lot of shoveling! The biggest problem with all this snow in the city is that there becomes no where to put the snow. So not only are you shoveling 12+ inches of heavy snow, you have to walk it to a spot where you can dump it.

We got dumped on again last night. By 10:00 am, when I got to the front after playing with the kids in the back, to my delight I found that my neighbor had already snow-blowed (can that be used as a verb?) my sidewalk. The neighbor across the street (a different neighbor) came over to finish my driveway. I just had to do the steps and walk up to my house! This is after that same neighbor did my driveway a few days ago.

While I grumble about all the shoveling, it does provide an opportunity to get out and see my neighbors. Everyone is out, shoveling, and there is a camaraderie in this that's good for relationships. If it weren't for this snow, I probably wouldn't really see my neighbors in the winter! We see them lots in the summer, but in the winter everyone tends to hole up since it's so cold and dark.

In case you were wondering what 3 blizzards in less than a month look like in terms of volume of snow, here are some pictures!



Maisy's not sure she wants to go out in this...

The brown house across the street belongs to Peter and Warren, two of my snow-blower elves.






Some really cool frost that formed on the windows in the kids' room:










Oof, Rebecca's car - still gotta dig that one out!






My trusty steel-cored stead: