Fontana watches for birds

Snow on the bird feeders

Snow covering the icy ground this morning.  Just another day during a New England winter.

Winter can be beautiful, and I love seeing the snow.  Life in the north can be tough, and especially so for an older woman without a man to help out.  I’m capable of shoveling the deck and entryways.  I lug wood and build a fire in the wood stove.  And I run the snowblower and shovel out the mailbox.  I even feed the birds and sometimes make my own suet for them.  That means shoveling a path through the backyard to get to the feeders.

But the things that are most difficult for me are the problems that arise that I can’t fix, like when there is too much snow on the roof, or the driveway is all ice and we can’t get the car out.  It’s hard for me to buy sand because it’s too heavy for me to move.  Or when snowstorms cover the mailbox with heavy cement-like snow that I simply can’t lift with the shovel.

As my son has gotten older he can help more.  He’s not happy about it, and he is away at school all day of course, but I do have that.

Here’s the thing; I am only getting older and I have no one to turn to for help.  I hire the help when I can’t handle things, but I don’t have much money for that either.

Living in New England can be beautiful, but for me, the work and worry overshadows the beauty most of the time.