For most, snow days are usually filled with sleeping, watching TV, and drinking hot chocolate. But Leo Lorden, ‘15, chooses to spend the days of heavy snow in his truck, blaring music and plowing what he calls “white gold”.

After seeing one of the worst winters this generation has ever seen, Lorden has been doing anything but relaxing these past few months. “It never ends,” says Lorden.

1:00 a.m. wake up calls and sliding in the snow isn’t anything out of the ordinary for Lorden. Red Bull and lots of coffee are the essentials, and Lorden is on a first-name basis with the workers at Dunkin’ Donuts, Hollis Sunoco, and even the Village Store.

With over 50 driveways, Shell gas stations, and the Hollis Post Office to be plowed each storm, getting  gas is the only essential stop. Most driveways need to be plowed before the morning commute, making an early start imperative. With the amount of snow from the majority of the storms, Lorden and his shoveler will have to plow and shovel each driveway as many as four times.

After all the snow had been plowed and driveways are clean the work still continues. Calls upon calls about homeowners getting their roofs shoveled, requesting snow removal, and many other tasks–and with each call Lorden Landscaping gets backed up even more.

Towards the end of the season Lorden hit a bad streak, totaling his truck. At 2:00 a.m. Lorden was driving down Pine Hill Road heading back into Hollis when Lorden lost control of his truck on an icy hill. He tried to get control back but couldn’t, hitting a telephone pole and three trees on the way down. This was a pretty big setback for Lorden Landscaping, but since then Lorden has rebounded and started making money once again.

Lorden faces another challenge on top of all the calls: he has to attend school. With school ending at 2:24 p.m., work would usually commence right away. But Lorden attends Mascenic High School, to participate in the Automotive program, which means he doesn’t get back till nearly 3:00 p.m. Work for Lorden and his workers begins around 3:30, and the day only ends when it’s too dark to see.

Spring is on the way and Lorden and his employees are ready to go.

In Lorden’s words: “So much to do and so little time.”