Cat scratching? No. Wintry, yes.

The picture shows tools that are necessary to cope with large snow storms in Wisconsin. On the left is the two-piece snow rake used to pull the white stuff off the roof before it contributes to an "ice dam." This occurs when enough snow is on the roof to insulate the shingles and permit heat from the house to melt the lowest level.

Water then rolls down the roof until it reaches an area near the edge that isn't heated from below, where it freezes.

After a few days of this, the ice builds up until water flowing down from above pools and eventually works its way *back* up under the shingles. Now it is free to begin soaking through and eventually begins dripping into the house. Not good.

The snow started falling at about dusk on Tuesday and didn't stop until about 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday. Counting final clean up on Thursday morning, I snowblowed all the asphalt and concrete surfaces and raked problem areas of the roof five times.