Irene walked over the lump that would be stairs if the snow were lower and onto the small porch on the outside of the large building.
To be completely sure, she tried to push the door open, but quickly found that it was reasonably frozen and the snow along the bottom was keeping her from doing so.
Unlike the door in the first house, this one opened in one direction. That meant people couldn't get trapped by the snow since it opened into the building rather than out.
There were no immediate tools to move the snow this time, so Irene opted to drag her feet in front of the front door and first work away what was fluffy rather than stuck. Henry did the same, and they both took care of each half of the small porch until they got all the way down to the ice.
"Could we dump water on it?" Henry asked.
Since they kept their waterskins close to their bodies so that they wouldn't freeze, they always had melted water with them.
