Got Snow?

I do.  A whack ton of it, as the lovely Rows Red put it.  My son and I tried to keep up with the snow as it fell, each of us taking a turn shoveling a couple of paths but when snow falls at the rate of more than 3 inches an hour, it's kind of a futile task.  So here is what we woke  up to last Saturday morning.   That little tree poking out from its cold blanket is taller than I am by a couple feet.  Those two big lumps on the other side of the lamp post are the cars.  The first task we had Saturday morning was to dig a path to a puppy potty place because my two dogs are less than 10 inches tall each, and my son's Golden Retreiver Sully is a 4 month old puppy.  Sully at least has the ability to rabbit through the snow and loves it.  He scrambles up on top of those snow banks then kind of dives face first into the snow below it.  Mickey and McKenzie, the two tinies, kind of looked up at me as if to ask are you sure the rug is off limits?   After the pups used their potty space, the next task was digging out the rabbits so I could get water to them.  At feeding time while the storm was still gearing up, I gave all the bunnies extra hay and pellets but water in winter needs to be doled out fresh a couple times a day.  The rabbit hutches are under the grey tarps.  Digging them out was not an insignificant task.  I managed to get 6 of them dug out but by that time, I was pooped!  My son shoveled out the rest of the rabbitry.    He also dug out the shed where I keep hay and pellets for the rabbits.   After all that, we both needed dry clothes, some food and a rest.  Later that day, we tackled a path from the front door to the garage so we had access to the wood pellets with which we heat the house. 

 

We started The Big Dig part II - cars, driveway and 100 feet of sidewalk by the street - on Sunday.   After we got the cars dug out, I took a brief break but my son continued digging.  Some guy in a pickup truck with a plow stopped and asked if we wanted him to plow us out.  "Only" $250.00.  Yeah,  money sucking scumbag.  Facing the wall o'snow with just shovels when you're already exhausted, wet and cold becomes quite the dispiriting task but to have the greedy gouging nasty side of humanity show up in the middle of it was really unpleasant.   We kept shoveling, reducing our expectation of getting it all done to hoping we could clear at least enough driveway to get a car through.  And then a young (about my son's age) man  we didn't know appeared on the other side of the wall o'snow.  With a snow blower.  "Want some help?" he asked.  Still tasting the nasty of the last guy, I responded suspiciously with "how much?"  He looked surprised and said "nothing.  Neighbors help neighbors.  At least in my world."  Holy Cow!  Turns out he is the young guy who bought the house across the street from me a few months ago.   He said he was up on his roof shoveling when he caught sight of my son and I with our David like shovels facing that Goliath of snow and told his wife "they need help."  He had the driveway completely cleared in about a half hour!  Another neighbor with just shovels said the young man had already helped a couple other neighbors earlier in the day.   Yes, a very good guy who has my deepest gratitude and admiration.  And once I get done with all the shoveling and chipping, he will also have a batch of brownies. 

Still to do: continue chipping away at the ice dam on the roof at the back of the house and setting up a mailbox.  The snow plow wiped out my mailbox early in the storm, sometime on Friday afternoon.   The post is still there but completely buried.  I haven't had a mail delivery since then.  I know about where the post is of course, but have to start poking the snow bank to see if I can pinpoint exactly where, then start digging... well, more like carving at this point ... through all those hardened chunks tossed up by the snow plow then further compressed by the rain we had a few days ago. 

Yup, a whack ton of snow takes a lot of hard work to clear.  But there is a good deal of satisfaction in meeting the challenge. 

Comments

[Laurie]

That's a LOT of snow. You got whacked harder than we did. And yeah, that bastard. Mine is fired after the shit job he did. Bless your neighbor. Good person.

DH managed to completely shred a fiberglass driveway marker with the snowblower. It's in pieces EVERYWHERE.