Icicles

I can't take much credit, but we've been growing a successful crop of Icicles around here.
We got some heavy snow days last week, and this week has been warm.  Because of that,
the snow is slowly melting off the roof and freezing again; melting, then freezing.
That melt/freeze process sure creates some beauty!

These are from inside the house:

You've heard of Ice Fishing?  Well here we have Ice Hunting.  And that's not hunting FOR ice.
That's hunting WITH ice as your weapon!

We had a few days of dangerous-looking cicles as they grew ominously long, and told the Bugletts not
to play under the eves.  Then they came down.
It was quite an avalanche when the roof finally let them go. We watched from within the quaking house!

As children raised in a river valley, my love and I never experienced living in the snow.
Imagining it would be frigid, uncomfortable, and complicated, we worried how we'd
fare with a brood of small hoodlums during North Idaho winters.
Having now weathered two snowy seasons we've come to some conclusions
on the matter:

1) Good quality snow clothes and foot gear beat bread bag covered
     tennis shoes held in place with rubber bands.  
     (no disrespect meant to my folks who gave us memories in the occasional mountain 
     snows despite the budget gear we were outfitted in)

2) Not having anywhere we have to be, or a time we have to be there by, reduces complexity
     a zillion-fold.  It also makes for cozy days/evenings at home not worrying about how many
     inches accumulate.

3)  In the event that we need to get to town, 4 Wheel Drive and studded tires are where it's at.

4)  We're not in a hurry to have animals that need feeding, mucking, milking, or egg-collecting.
      (It's still cold - even if it's not dreary!)

5)  Snow is beautiful.  It's clean, white, bright, and lovely.  It's much more pleasant to spend a
     winter in than bone-chilling wind,  icy hand-numbing rain, gray skies and muddy brown    
   landscapes.  I don't know why we didn't try it before now.  We're sold!