I wish I were writing about some crazy motorbike adventure ride I was doing in recent weeks... but I'm not. Instead I'm writing about some crazy zany snow clearing hard labor!
Strange strange winter weather. Virtually NO snow until mid January and since then almost weekly blizzards sometimes thrice during the week.
Last time we were out of our home anywhere was Saturday the 14th. Brenda and her compatriots were in C'Town for a panel disillusion on electoral reform both in PEI and Canada. I went along with my still and video cameras to record the session. A strong turn-out as it happened and the lecture room at UPEI was well attended.
The next day the scheduled blizzard hit. It snowed and blew all day Sunday and Monday. I finally got out about 6pm in gathering twilight to begin the job of whittling down the new snowbanks. By 7 it was too dark to work and in truth I wasn't really in the spirit, the going was tough.
Tuesday during a very bright and sunny day I surveyed the situation and called Donny Cole my local motorcycle riding tractor driving snow blowing neighbor. Of course at that time there was no chance of him arriving anytime soon, you see, DC lives on Irishtown road the main route into Kensington and beyond but our own access road, the County Line road had not been plowed and showed no signs of any activity. I literally whittled away at the 5 foot high drifts working until noon and again in the afternoon after a lunch and Tylenol break. My back was killing me!
By evening I had shoveled, blew and pushed as much as I could do and had a passable driveway although the plow had still not made it in this far. I was told by one of the neighbors that they got in to within 1/2 mile from us but three of us were still stranded, they simply could no get through any farther and had retreated to bring heavier equipment having been stopped by a 12' high snowdrift. There was no point in Donny coming this way he would have been hard pressed to attempt an attack on that kind of snowbank.
It was Wednesday morning before a plow got through and it managed to clear a very rough one car track through to the hill where they quit plowing, this being a Heritage road and all. Out I went again to clear what the plow had deposited in my drive but the Big Bear could not budge the hard bank and huge lumps of snow the plow managed to leave. By this time I could see Donny at my nearest neighbors and before long he had arrived. Over the next hour he attacked the hardening compacted banks of 'water' and succeeded in widening my driveway by several feet. By the time Donny was done and I'd brought my equipment inside it was already beginning the next go round.
It's now Thursday and we are snowed in yet again!
This morning I see I will be back on the quad and blower clearing once again the newly deposited white stuff.
To top that off, another larger blizzard is forecast for the coming weekend, which of course is the day after tomorrow.
Like I said... I wish I were writing some MC adventure story...
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| compacted drifted snowbanks |
Strange strange winter weather. Virtually NO snow until mid January and since then almost weekly blizzards sometimes thrice during the week.
Last time we were out of our home anywhere was Saturday the 14th. Brenda and her compatriots were in C'Town for a panel disillusion on electoral reform both in PEI and Canada. I went along with my still and video cameras to record the session. A strong turn-out as it happened and the lecture room at UPEI was well attended.
 |
| That bank you see by the trees is the drift straddling County Line road |
The next day the scheduled blizzard hit. It snowed and blew all day Sunday and Monday. I finally got out about 6pm in gathering twilight to begin the job of whittling down the new snowbanks. By 7 it was too dark to work and in truth I wasn't really in the spirit, the going was tough.
Tuesday during a very bright and sunny day I surveyed the situation and called Donny Cole my local motorcycle riding tractor driving snow blowing neighbor. Of course at that time there was no chance of him arriving anytime soon, you see, DC lives on Irishtown road the main route into Kensington and beyond but our own access road, the County Line road had not been plowed and showed no signs of any activity. I literally whittled away at the 5 foot high drifts working until noon and again in the afternoon after a lunch and Tylenol break. My back was killing me!
 |
| you could create an igloo out of this stuff |
By evening I had shoveled, blew and pushed as much as I could do and had a passable driveway although the plow had still not made it in this far. I was told by one of the neighbors that they got in to within 1/2 mile from us but three of us were still stranded, they simply could no get through any farther and had retreated to bring heavier equipment having been stopped by a 12' high snowdrift. There was no point in Donny coming this way he would have been hard pressed to attempt an attack on that kind of snowbank.
It was Wednesday morning before a plow got through and it managed to clear a very rough one car track through to the hill where they quit plowing, this being a Heritage road and all. Out I went again to clear what the plow had deposited in my drive but the Big Bear could not budge the hard bank and huge lumps of snow the plow managed to leave. By this time I could see Donny at my nearest neighbors and before long he had arrived. Over the next hour he attacked the hardening compacted banks of 'water' and succeeded in widening my driveway by several feet. By the time Donny was done and I'd brought my equipment inside it was already beginning the next go round.
 |
| view from the top of my driveway after 6 hours of labor. |
This morning I see I will be back on the quad and blower clearing once again the newly deposited white stuff.
To top that off, another larger blizzard is forecast for the coming weekend, which of course is the day after tomorrow.
Like I said... I wish I were writing some MC adventure story...
 |
| View from the bottom |
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