"Winter happens," was Mike Barthel's response to the collapse of a greenhouse under the weight of snow at his Brainerd business, Erickson's Greenhouse, on New Year's Eve.
"I got (the greenhouses) designed so you pull the plastic back on the edges where they come together, so when the snow falls off, it falls down into the house so it has a place to go," Barthel said looking at the collapsed structure Wednesday, Jan. 2. "But it just came so fast and so much that it just couldn't swallow it fast enough."
At least $10,000 worth of structural damage plagues the business, owned by Barthel and his daughter, Amanda Stone. But luckily, the only plants inside when the incident happened were leftover Christmas trees.
"It wasn't our main one, thankfully," Stone said from the roof of another greenhouse Wednesday, as she cleared off snow to prevent a second collapse.