Snow Fort Frolicking

Scott trudged through twelve inches of freshly fallen snow as he worked to complete his chores. He had just finished bottle feeding the youngest calves and was making his way to the heifer barn to feed the heifers. Caleb and Kelsey were milking the family's forty head herd while Luke stocked the catwalk above the bunk with square bales. As the children worked in the barns, their father worked to clear the driveway of snow. School had been canceled, but the milk truck was still expected to come for pickup so the snow on the drive had to go. 

Dale was using the farm's red and white, Gehl, skid loader with the bucket on the front to scrape the snow to the edge of the driveway and pile it up into huge mounds. He would disappear down the driveway, pushing pile of the white and fluffy obstruction and return a few minutes later pushing a different pile. This cycle continued until the drive was clear. Then he got to work on the gravel areas around the barns. The children finished their cores and gathered in the kitchen for crock pot oatmeal as their father carried on. 

Finally, Dale joined the rest of his family in the warmth of the white farmhouse where he availed himself of the oatmeal and the coffee and retired to his seat in the living room to warm up under his large orange and brown afghan. The children milled around in the kitchen discussing the ever important issue of what they were going to do with their unexpected day off from school. 

“Before you kids make any big plans for the day,” Christa interjected. “Do you guys all have your homework from yesterday done? Just because you don't have school today, doesn't mean it won't be due tomorrow.”

There was a small pause as the five kids each ran through a mental checklist of their classes and the assignments that were due before thy all concluded that they had, in fact, gotten all their homework done the evening before.

“Okay, good,” their mother responded with visible satisfaction. “You guys are free to go then.”

With that, the kids decided to go play outside for a little bit while the snow was still fresh. They all got bundled up in their coveralls, hoodies, and coats and made their way outside. They stood on the sidewalk in front of the house and took in the scenery before them. 

The red bank barn stood before them, shedding the snow from it's roof little by little as the aluminum warmed slowly in the winter sun. A few cows milled around in the barnyard, starting slightly from time to time as the barn roof's payload plummeted to the concrete around them. The wind blew snow off of the top of the blue Harvestore silos, creating the illusion that it was still snowing, but only around the barn and the shop. A black and white barn cat stood in front of the lean-to outside the milkhouse, puzzling over the dilemma of how to get across the large windrow of snow that stood in it's way. Finally, it attempted a leap and landed up to it's belly in the snow on the other side. It struggled through to the cat dish where six or seven other cats of varying sizes and color patters stood drinking the still warm milk from that mornings milking.

“Whoa,” Luke interrupted the silence. “Look at those piles of snow.”

“Yeah,” Caleb concurred. “The one up by the bunker is probably the biggest pile I've ever seen.”

With that comment, the three boys made their way towards the bunker while the girls hung back in the yard with a couple of sleds. The bunker was a large trough about twelve feet wide and thirty feet long. The boundaries of the trough were the large shale bank on the west side and a large, earthen mound on the east side, while both ends remained open. The floor of the bunker was concrete. It had originally been built for storing silage for feeding the family herd. After a few years, it's purpose shifted from storing silage to storing sawdust for bedding.

The pile of snow in question, stood well above the five foot bunker mound and extended at least ten feet out. The boys stood on the bunker mound for a few moments until Scott broke the silence.

“Just think of the snow fort we could dig out of this thing.”

“No kidding,” Caleb replied. “We could have a regular igloo, probably with rooms and everything.”

“We need some shovels,” Luke nodded.

The three snow fort technicians made their way to the upper level of the bank barn in search of shovels. They found what they were looking for in the old granary. They returned to their newly designated construction site and got to work. They started digging in the top end, at the level of the bunker wall and worked their way down. Caleb was the primary digger . He dug his way into the mound as Scott and Luke cleared the debris way from the opening. Eventually, Caleb got deep enough into the developing structure that he sent his youngest brother after a smaller shovel. Luke returned with a pair of fold out army shovels the boys had gotten from the Surplus Junk Store (that really was the name of the store.) 

After the shovel swap, the work went a lot slower. Caleb dug with the army shovel and piled the snow onto the much larger, aluminum grain shovel. When he gave Scott the go ahead, the second son would pull the grain shovel out and give the handle to Luke so that he could pull it away and dump the payload. In the meantime, Scott would push a second grain shovel into the hole for his older brother to fill. The work continued in this shovel brigade manner until Caleb tossed the army shovel out.

“There,” he declared. “I think we're done. Anymore digging, and it might cave in. you guys should come in and check it out.”

“Is there enough room for all of us in there?” Luke inquired of the master digger.

“You bet,” the oldest brother replied confidently. “I've got two separate wings down here.”

And so he had. The younger brothers slid down into the snow fort on their rears and looked around. The distance between the floor of the structure and the ceiling was about three feet. A three foot long tunnel led into a room that measured about four feet deep and seven feet long and was centered on the entrance. Caleb sat in the north wing as Scott made his way into the south wing. Luke sat in the middle looking back and forth between the smiling faces of his older brothers.

“This is really cool,” he said with matching enthusiasm.

“Of course it's cool,” Scott replied with a chuckle. “It's snow. Snow has to be cool in order to be snow.”

“You know what I mean, Scott,” Luke laughed. “I'm really surprised that it feels so warm in here.”

“That's because snow is really good at holding heat in,” Caleb replied with the look of a seasoned professor on his face. “It's holding our body heat in. If we blocked the doorway, it would get really warm in here.”

“Yeah, but we're not going to do that,” Scott cut in as he looked at his wristwatch. “It's almost lunchtime, I think. We should probably head back to the house.”

“Good call,” Caleb responded as he verified the time. “We'll bring the girls out later to check it out.”

The boys crawled out of the snow fort and began the pilgrimage to the house. They went in through the basement and shed their outer layers before walking up the stairs into the kitchen, dropping their boots on the shelf as they passed.

“So,” Christa greeted her boys as she ladled hot chocolate from a pan into mugs for the girls. “What did you boys do with your morning?”

“We made an igloo!” Luke exclaimed. “It's up by the bunker and it's awesome!”

“Well, you probably need some hot chocolate to warm you up after all that cold work,” their mother replied as she filled three more mugs. “Lunch will be ready in a few minutes.”

The Henning children sat contentedly around the kitchen table, enjoying their warm reward for a morning well utilized.