Old Man Winter

Truly a winter wonderland.

Strange brew... 

There was one serious snowfall in December shortly after my return, followed by  a Green Christmas.  Likewise in January.

In fact our first "real" blizzard didn't occur until late in the month.  Since that time, in the 33 days past, I have had to clear the driveway 17 times!

That's right, seventeen!





Let me put this in perspective, typically I don't bother breaking out the motorized gear unless I have at least 6 inches on level ground and drifts of a foot or more.

Donny helping out.

While sometimes, as in the first three days of this week, little snow has fallen, but with high winds blowing what did, that created drifting 2 feet or higher requiring either blowing or plowing or both.

A week ago I had my local tractor/blower guy come in and blow back some of the accumulated drifts that were as much as 10-12 feet high.  Drifts that I could no longer blow over while driveway clearing with my own blower.

Widening the Heritage designated

County Line road.  Not plowed beyond this point.

During this 33 day cycle, we have had double digit school cancellations and of course that does not include weekends.  We have sat behind a snowed in County Line road several times for more than a 24 hour cycle and in a couple of cases into 2 days. 

Long time friend Rusty used to quip before we moved, "what are you going to do on those days you can't move?"

My answer then, "throw another log on the fire and read."  Well we don't have a fireplace but I have done a heck of a lot of reading.

For much of the last 33 days our access road has been barely wide enough to drive and in fact route 101, the Irishtown road has had a single lane for more than half this period.  Only in the last week has our CL rd been widened by a massive snow-blower to 2 lane width. We hear weather broadcasts telling us this is more snow accumulation and colder temperatures that all last year (which began in earnest in November and continued into April.) In fact some reports say this is the most snow and longest running cold winter in recorded history.

There has been so much snow on the ground that even riding the Polaris hasn't been an option, not that I've been much in the mood after spending so much time shoveling, pushing and blowing!

Plowing stops just beyond our neighbors driveway.

                                                                           

Spring... is only 16 days away... yeah right, maybe on the calendar it is.