Chopping Days

April has arrived, which means Chopping Days have begun!  

Chopping days happen every year at the border between winter and spring, when I get the itch to help the sunshine dispel the snow and ice ASAP.  So it's not a calendar date which begins this Event, and it isn't (officially) celebrated beyond my driveway.  (But I'm sure there are other Choppers out there--North Country winters drive us to some drastic measures.) 

They begin with a certain intensity of the sunshine, punching microscopic holes in the ice that slowly grow and connect and make the ice noticeably weak.  Chopping Days begin with a low boil in my blood that insists we go outside, and inevitably I stomp around with my boots to see if the ice is old enough yet.  

And when the time is right, I just go at it!  Make way for spring!  Make way for picnics!  Make way for play!

Plus there's real satisfaction in swinging a mattock around and smashing ice...especially when those ice chunks are immediately fashioned into an ice palace by my boys, so thrilled to be outside in fleeces and helping the spring come faster :0)