The back door is packed in with ice and snow.  The problem is that the melt water has nowhere to go other than inside the house.

Digging out the back door will take a while, as a large ice wall has formed over the winter.

The ice wall at the back door on Main Street.

But determination, and tools will cut it out.  The serrated edged, reinforced steel spade was invaluable.

20 minutes of snow work. The reinforced steel spade was the only tool that made a dent.

Here’s the result of on hour of snow shoveling and ice chipping.  Stephanie says we should use the 100 year old two-person cross-cut saw to cut through the ice wall.

Finally my bruised ribs made me stop after an hour.  Here’s how far I got:

The backflow of ice is right against the door. Not good.

Steph did some more after this, and Ray, the resident handyman, did some, too. Stephanie reports that the ice is now away from the door entirely.