Posts Tagged ‘shoveling snow’
Melting Begins
After all that fussing we did about covering Mia, and her not wanting our help, it appears our fears over her fragility were unfounded. She has fared the storm looking totally in control. Through wet snow, then blown snow, and finally, bitter cold, Mia coped just fine and looks no worse for wear.
A toppled and snow-packed birdhouse currently out of service.
Our ATV, on the other hand, has failed to start since I parked it in the middle of the storm after clearing a rudimentary path from the road to Cyndie’s side of our house garage. I will try again when it has warmed up significantly to see if anything changes.
I have never enjoyed battling gas engines, and as a result, my troubleshooting skills are minimal when they fail. My primary methods involve trying the same thing over and over, hoping for different results.
Without that to plow, and my resistance to cranking up the big diesel tractor to clear a little snow that will soon melt, we have resorted to hand shoveling a large amount of snow, while leaving other significant areas to (hopefully) melt quickly in the coming days.
Yesterday, Cyndie took a heroic turn clearing the snow from in front of my side of the house garage while I worked to shovel a wide path to the propane tank. The level has dropped below the trigger point to order a fill, and the dispatcher put us on the schedule for the next time a truck is in the area. Based on past occurrences, it won’t be a long wait.
The forecast teases that temperatures will be above freezing today and stay there for four consecutive days, ultimately reaching the low 60s (F) by Saturday. It is our hope that further shoveling will be unnecessary as a result.
Those rain sheets will come off the three horses today, and we will prepare for the paddocks to become mud-sasters for the foreseeable future. It has become obvious that to regain the solid base we had years ago, a new layer of lime screenings should be applied.
That’s a project that requires more oomph than either of us is feeling inspired to muster at this time. As long as there remain a few spots where the horses can get relief from standing in deep mud, we can get away with delaying doing anything about the issue. It becomes a mental health exercise for me to practice not constantly ruminating about it in the meantime.
Here’s to a quick meltdown across the land. It’s time for the snow to go.
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Dog Tired
He did it to me again. That’s two days in a row. Asher took off when I wasn’t looking and disappeared beyond the range (I’m assuming) of my ability to persuade him with the electronic collar. They should have a setting where the collar automatically starts vibrating when your pet gets a certain distance away from the controller.
For some reason, on Sunday, I grabbed the mailbox off its base when plowing the driveway, and I left it in the shop garage. There would be no mail delivery, so I took it off with a plan to replace it after the township plow cleared the road.
As Asher and I headed out for a walk yesterday morning, I took him to the shop garage to get the mailbox. The garage door button is inside the shop, and I stepped inside to close it. When I came out, Asher was nowhere in sight. I thought he had gotten trapped inside the garage when I lowered the door, so I opened it back up.
Nope. He was gone. I grabbed the mailbox and started hustling my way down the driveway when my phone rang. It was our closest neighbor, Eileen, who lives on the other side of 650th St, reporting that Asher was at her place. At least that was closer than a mile down the road, and this time my forced march to retrieve him was all on plowed surfaces. Still, that’s more walking under stress than I wanted to be doing.
On his second walk of the day, Asher was confined to a leash. When we got to the end of the driveway, I discovered the plow had come by a second time and filled the end of the driveway, and also knocked the mailbox into the ditch as it passed. So much for my bright idea the day before.
Under protests from Asher, I tied his leash to the hay shed to give him a grand vista to enjoy while I went to get the Grizzly to clean up the end of the driveway. Unfortunately, the ATV wouldn’t start. I guessed I might have flooded it using the choke to entice it to fire, so I left it to sit and did some shoveling by hand.
First order of business was to clear a path out of the back of the barn so I could dump manure. The mess around the overhang was about to get out of control, and the wheelbarrow was already full because I didn’t have that pathway cleared to dump it.
That should have been enough time for the flooded cylinders to clear, but I still couldn’t get it to fire. That left me carrying a shovel to the end of the driveway to heave scoops of the mess by hand until I had enough of an opening for Cyndie’s car to fit through.
I ended the day exhausted and muscle-sore. And tired of the dog. But a solution to my dog concerns arrived last night when Cyndie successfully returned from Florida. She had tennis shoes on when she walked in the door, and it looked so funny to me.
She will be back in winter boots today!
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Snow Coping
There isn’t much I can say about yesterday’s struggle against the elements that is much of a surprise. Really, the thing that made the day most challenging for me was the fact that Cyndie was still gone. If the universe allows, that problem could be solved by the end of today.
I made it a priority to get the path to her side of the garage cleared while letting other plowing and shoveling wait for later.
It was not easy to plow through the deep snow on the pavement. I didn’t lower the blade very far for the first several trips down and back along the length of the driveway. That mostly created a mess, but perseverance and many repeated runs eventually allowed me to get down to the asphalt.
As the snow continued falling throughout the day, the flakes kept melting on the driveway surface, much to my surprise. However, by evening, the temperature had dropped enough that the wetness on the pavement began to freeze, and soon flakes began to collect again.
Asher had worn out my willingness to let him roam, and the horses received the briefest of visits to fill feed buckets, so the rest of my time was filled with shoveling and doing some laundry. Housekeeping under the barn overhang was skipped entirely, so that will be a fantastic mess by today, I’m sure.
I can honestly say I am looking forward to returning to sharing duties around here. If I am going to walk Asher through the woods, it will help greatly to have another person to help tromp a path into the deep snow. Walking him anywhere other than on the plowed driveway was practically a death march yesterday.
He behaves as if he knows I cannot keep up with him.
I will never get the floors as clean as Cyndie does, but I’m doing my damndest to make the place presentable for her return tonight. First, I suspect there may be some drifts that need to be cleared, based on the sound of the howling wind all night long.
By Wednesday, the temperatures are predicted to rise above freezing with appearances from the sun, so all this snow will melt and swamp the lowlands. The horses will be pleased to find Paddock Lake filled to the brim for splashing.
We will be going from snow coping to mud mania for a while. I wonder if I can get away with calling in sick for a few days.
Don’t tell Cyndie I wrote that.
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Wintery Again
This is more like it. It’s feeling like real winter again around here. I worked all day yesterday clearing snow, and with Cyndie’s help doing some shoveling, we got everything done in one day. That’s quite an accomplishment. It usually takes me two days to get to the roof raking and then cleaning up the mess of snow pulled to the ground below.
I took a picture from a similar spot to one I took on Saturday to provide a comparison of the change two days later:
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Having made that run up and down the driveway in the middle of the storm Sunday night made yesterday’s work much easier. I ended up spending a lot of time trying to plow around the barn and hay shed because I hadn’t touched that on Sunday, so it was the full depth, and the base level was still a little wet and messy.
I needed to clear the loop wide at the approaches because we are getting a hay delivery tomorrow morning. I still worry it might be a challenge to pull a trailer around from the driveway to circle in front of the shed. In the summer, vehicles can just overshoot onto the grass to complete the turn.
The Yamaha Grizzly ATV did a heroic job of performing everything I asked of it. The driveway almost looks professionally done.
If we had been up at the lake instead of here during the storm, we would have come home to quite a challenge. As it was, I was able to proactively slide the mailbox off its base when I was plowing Sunday night, to protect it from the blast of snow that shoots off the township plow blade. When I first made my way down to the road yesterday, it had been plowed, so I was able to reattach the mailbox before the mail delivery arrived. I’m feeling rather chuffed about finally remembering in advance to try this.
I usually find it in the ditch, having been wrenched sideways off the base, and kick myself for letting it happen another time.
Now that it is wintery again, I shouldn’t be surprised there’s a 50% chance of a dusting to a half inch of snow today and tomorrow, just so my plowing efforts won’t stay completely clean for long.
I guess I should be careful what I wish for, eh?
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Our Comeuppance
There isn’t a vast amount of international perspective that I can refer to from my limited travels to other countries of the world, but I believe it’s been enough for me to understand that my home country doesn’t deserve to boast about our democracy as if it is the beacon of greatness above all others.
In fact, I have come to believe that our form of government is proving to be a failure. Our democracy isn’t working. Voting for individuals to represent us is supposed to give power to THE PEOPLE. If the majority of people in this country don’t want our government to bomb boats or commandeer oil tankers from Venezuela, our representatives should have sway in the actions of the current administration.
If we don’t want ICE agents to wear masks and travel in packs, driving in unmarked vehicles to nab citizens off the streets without legitimate charges or warrants, THE PEOPLE should be able to persuade our elected officials to adhere to our laws.
Judges on the Supreme Court should be ethical and unbiased. When it becomes obvious they are not, THE PEOPLE should have a way to ensure that our government officials in each branch are being held accountable.
I admit that I once thought our democracy was better than most of the governments in the world. I’m embarrassed that I thought poorly of populations that allowed atrocities to occur by their leaders, or corruption to run rampant in their systems of governance.
Well, I now can understand it when people around the world feel the citizens of the United States are responsible for the inappropriate actions of our government. We thought we could rely on the checks and balances of our form of democracy to keep the wishes of THE PEOPLE in place. I’m afraid it’s not working.
We, the people, have made this mess. It appears we are getting some comeuppance.
At least my ATV and plow are working well again. We probably gained 6 or 7 inches of new snow from the last system. There was no evidence of my boot tracks from Tuesday night on the driveway yesterday morning.
That’s my path through the new snow upon returning from the barn after feeding the horses. After plowing the driveway, I moved to pulling snow off the roof in the two problem spots. While shoveling away the mess that had been created on our front steps, Cyndie texted that we would be receiving feed for the horses in around half an hour.
That meant I needed to switch focus and get down to the barn to dig out the big doors and slide them open. One of the doors wouldn’t budge. It took some creative persuasion to eventually bust it free, and I got it done just in time to see the huge red Gertens Garden Center truck coming up the driveway.
I had tried to plow that circle around the hay shed extra wide in advance of a hay delivery sometime in the near future. I wasn’t thinking of the feed delivery. The last few times, the driver parked on the road and drove his forklift up the driveway. The driver yesterday had never been here before. He decided to back out to the road and bring it up on the forklift.
He wasn’t confident that the big truck wouldn’t slide sideways. I’m happy he chose the safer option.
I’m feeling a lot less cocky about everything these days.
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Pushing Snow
After a day of clearing more snow, it became glaringly obvious to me that not having to deal with much snowy weather for the last two years has left me way out of practice. Day two of the post-storm clean-up included some roof raking, deck shoveling, and hand shoveling the area in front of the shop garage, since I have yet to remedy the issues with the ATV plow setup.
Gladly, Cyndie came to my aid with the last bit of driveway shoveling, just as I was running on fumes. The killer for me is working the roof rake with my arms over my head, especially with one bum shoulder. It’s exhausterating, to coin a custom word.
It felt like a bit of an insult to receive a fresh dusting of flakes before we’d finished the driveway shoveling. I’d almost forgotten what it was like when snow and cold were the norm at this latitude.
It could snow a little almost every day, and people just get used to there being a coating of snow to navigate on foot or by car.
I really should fix up the plow situation today because there still remains plowing to be done down to the barn and around the hay shed. When I finish that, we can resume clearing out the hay shed of the rest of the bales of moldy hay.
When I clear significant snow this early in the season, it is important to push it well beyond the edges so there will be room for the next snowy event. I will need to accommodate wide turns around the hay shed because there is a delivery of fresh bales sometime in the near future. That means pushing snow well into the grass around the corners.
Seems pretty obvious what my priority for the day should be.
A shot of yesterday’s sunset…
…and the 3/4 moon reflecting the sunlight that was dropping below our horizon.
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Multiple Failures
Yesterday was a failure for me in two ways. My ill-conceived attempt to simplify the connection of the winch hook to the plow blade proved woefully insufficient. To distract me from that frustration, I turned on the Vikings football game and was faced with a profound embarrassment for the team and all of its fans.
It looked like we probably got around 5-6 inches of snow accumulation from Saturday’s storm. The ground isn’t frozen solid yet, and what little residual warmth still exists was making the base layer just sticky enough to be annoying. It stuck to the plow blade and to the shovels. It is such a draining tedium when half a shovel-full stays on the shovel after every attempt to toss it.
I have needed to plow so infrequently over the last two winters that I guess I’m out of practice. I forgot how much the nylon rope on my winch stretches as it gets repeatedly snugged with a constant back and forth from lifting and dropping the blade. The added weight of snow sticking to the blade exacerbated the issue.
The kicker that ultimately caused me to give up trying was that the mechanism to pull a pin back, allowing the blade to be angled, stopped working. I assumed it was frozen with packed ice and snow, so I parked the Grizzly back in the garage to be dealt with later.
That left me doing more hand shoveling than I would have liked, but I got enough done to receive our guests for brunch with the place looking satisfactorily welcoming.
Today, I will be giving the winch lift issue the time and attention it deserves to resolve it. I’m not sure if the problem with the pin for blade-angle adjustment was an isolated incident or something more concerning. The mechanism was used when we bought the ATV, and that was 13 winters ago. It won’t be a big shock if something’s just plum worn out.
Like any good glutton for punishment, I turned on the football game after our guests left. Ouch. Seriously, ouch. It was painful to witness. The one positive I can take from the spectacle of the offense’s epic ineffectiveness is that I have no reason to look for entertainment in watching them play for the rest of the season.
I’d rather settle into my favorite recliner and finish some of the books that I’m currently juggling.
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Delayed Escape
I’m still at home this morning. The snowstorm that the weather service named “Lola” created more work than I could complete in a day. And it was miserable work, indeed. On most occasions, I actually enjoy clearing snow. Yesterday was not one of those days.
First of all, we awoke to more than 8 inches of heavy, windblown snow plastering everything. Beneath that coating of white was a layer of slush left from the gradual transition from rain to sleet to snow. All of that rain had nowhere to go since the ground is frozen and once again, hydrostatic pressure pushed water up through the concrete floor in the basement or along the block walls and soaked all the area rugs.
Cyndie said she would tend to the horses so I could get a start on plowing. It would have been easier to stay with her. The wind was ferocious and new snow was still falling. My goal was to try just breaking through with a couple of passes to make it a bit easier to do when it stopped snowing. It was barely possible. The machine and I got coated with a complete layer of sticky snow as I tried blasting my way through the deep drifts with the blade only lowered part of the way down.
After breakfast, I was using a roof rake to pull down the giant drift overhanging our front door and letting Asher play with his favorite ball while dragging his 30’ leash behind him. I noticed he had stepped away from the ball and I called to him to command his return. He gave me that look of mischief, turned, and ran full speed the length of the driveway.
I knew right where he was headed, to the neighbors across the road, where he started barking ferociously at their cat. I needed to trudge through the deep snow on the unplowed road to climb the rise to their driveway and was completely exhausted when I finally reached him. The ONLY redeeming aspect of this angering situation was that I got to visit briefly with our neighbor, Eileen.
Walking the equally arduous distance back in my seething frustration left me too tired to finish shoveling away the snow I’d pulled off the roof. I went in for lunch and waited for it to stop snowing while Cyndie took up the task of clearing the mess of snow in front of the garage doors. Every scoop of the shovel would end up sticking.
It’s hard to plow by the house because there’s nowhere to push the snow, so hand shoveling is usually easier. When there is almost a foot of snow, nothing is easier.
I made reasonable progress cleaning up the rest of the driveway with the plow in the late afternoon. The township plow on the road left quite a thick mess I needed to hand shovel because it was too much for the Grizzly to push. At least the driver was nice enough to be cautious around our mailbox this time.
Looking back toward the barn, you can see by the snow line in the trees how that hill protects from the north wind. The whipping wind had cleaned all of the upper branches, but the lower half of all the trees still held snow.
I won’t be surprised today to find blowing snow has drifted into the driveway again. I’d like to head up north before dark, so I intend to do the absolute minimum of additional plowing or shoveling with that in mind. Best laid plans, and all that… Wish me luck.
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Nuisance Amounts
So far this winter (even though winter solstice is still nine days away), we have only been receiving what I call nuisance amounts of snowfall. It’s barely enough to justify shoveling, yet too much to leave on steps and walkways. Last week, when Asher and I got caught in that epic snow-burst, we couldn’t see the barn. In the end, so little snow accumulated that it was all gone two days later.
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Yesterday morning, I spent a few minutes clearing the driveway closest to the house with a shovel.
I like having the cleaner pavement, but that minimal covering of snow isn’t enough to deserve firing up the ATV to plow, and I’m not inclined to push the shovel the rest of the length of the driveway to the road. I saw the township plow go by on our road, so I carried a shovel when walking Asher. That big blade didn’t throw up enough snow to make any difference.
I shoveled what little there was anyway. So now the top and the bottom of our driveway are cleared, and the middle is just a series of tire tracks and footprints until we get enough sun to evaporate whatever snow remains.
Since the temperature was forecast to drop precipitously overnight, I made sure the horses had plenty of good hay to stoke their internal furnaces. They are decidedly picky about one of the batches of bales we’ve been trying to use up on them, and they regularly ignore any amount that we mix into the hay nets. I chose to dump some of those dregs out on the ground where we are building a hay path for traction in advance of future icy conditions. That way, I could fill the bag exclusively with hay they prefer.
What’s the first thing that happens?
Mia comes over and starts eating the hay I dumped out.
I don’t blame her. Free of the netting, she can dive in and more easily scrounge out any desired nibbles mixed in with the stringy grasses she doesn’t like. She probably thinks of them as “nuisance amounts.”
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Not Fooled
April. Really?
Fool me once…
I thought I was going to shovel snow. APRIL FOOLS!
It was more like cement. Maybe stucco. Plaster?
Just to add to the ruse, nature makes it look gorgeous.
I fear this mess will be un-plowable. How fast will it melt? I’m going to clean up around the edges and see how conditions change after the sun shines on it for an hour or two.
I don’t think the horses see much humor in this kind of practical joke. Our trees don’t think it’s very funny, either.
My new zero-turn mower is due to arrive on Tuesday.
Happy April everyone!
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Relative Something 