Tennessee Igloo

A good snow is like Halloween in that it gives the power of the roads back to pedestrians and brings neighbors out of their homes, together. If the snow is deep enough, it takes the neighborhood and erases the boundaries of my yard-street-your yard and everyone is playing freely all over the place. That was the picture of our neighborhood two weeks ago. We received six inches of snow, which is the most snow that I've seen here in the last twenty years. Yee-haw.

Inspired equally by a neighbor who tried this a few years ago and our homeboy Curious George, Burl and I formed some plans to build an igloo. As the night snow fell, we let the kids build a snowman with neighbors right before bedtime. Jammies and all. Therefore, snowman was crossed off our list. The next morning, we woke up and swallowed breakfast and started working in the front yard before eight o'clock. 

For a few hours it was a huge event. My brothers came over, Jenny walked by, the neighborhood kids helped (even rolling over snowman body parts to help our efforts), and John got to stay home for a bit. The only person that didn't help was Fern. That poor girl did not like the snow. She spent the ENTIRE morning in the house by herself. Mainly she just watched happily from the window, but every time someone checked on her she was giggling and content. Introverts are swag like that.

Eventually the efforts dwindled down to Burl, Daniel, and myself. I made a pirate flag for the top, and while Daniel went to the neighbor's house to build them their own igloo, I decorated it. Tacky and homey. 

 

We were very proud of our first igloo. We plastered pictures of it across social media and patted ourselves on the back. The next day my uber-in-shape brother and I were in pain. I hurt in places that I didn't know could hurt, but it's hard work crawling through a two foot opening and digging out a 3'x6' tunnel.
Miners, I feel you. 

The igloo stood proud for four days through 60 degree temperatures, and we were pleased. We each have mental plans on how to improve our fortress for the next snow. There's a trend now, and snowmen are out. Igloos are the new black.