It isn’t the cold that causes ice dams
nor the warmth for that matter.
It isn’t even the snow piling up on the roof.

When the first days of bitter cold come,
we hunker down.
We can outlast the cold.

We worry about the snow piling up on the roof.
Will the structure support the weight?
We read about barns collapsing.

Then, the warmth comes.
The snow and ice melts off portions of the driveway.
We talk about how balmy it feels
even though it is barely above freezing.

On the roof, the snowmelt heads to the gutters.
Some of it becomes beautiful icicles.
Some of it freezes on the edge of the roof.

It isn’t the cold that causes ice dams
nor the warmth for that matter.
It is that back and forth across the freezing line
as snow melts, pools up, and freezes again
causing unseen damage.

Yet that same back and forth
between freezing and thawing
is what makes the sap flow
into giant networks of tubing
that have replaced the old sap buckets.

Soon the sugar houses will be boiling sap
bringing additional sweetness
to the end of a long cold bitter winter
as we repair the damage from ice dams.