How to Avoid Shovelling Snow

After the storm, Dave and I knew we had a lot of clean up to do.  So after breakfast, we bundled up and went outside.  Dave cleared about half of the driveway in front of the garage using the snow blower.  I helped him clear the Jeeps of snow, and then together we got most of the snow off the snowmobiles and the trailer. 

Let it be know that after this, I went to work continuing to shovel.  I cleared the back steps and the deck from this:

To this:

Do you like how the snow pile is almost level with the deck?

While I was busy with that, Dave decided it was time to play. And by play, I mean start up his snowmobile and run it up and down the street.  Behold (and excuse my shaky camera work):

It didn't take him 5 minutes to load the sled back on the trailer.  It took about 15 minutes worth of trying (I finished shoveling the deck by this point), and then he stopped because he couldn't get the sled lined up and kept sinking into the fluffy snow.  But before he moved on to clear the driveway, I needed to do one thing. 

I attempted to make a snow angel, but once I got on top of the snow, I kind of sunk in a few inches and then couldn't move my arms or legs to make wings.  Dave helped me up, but I think it looks more like the snow version of a chalk body outline in a crime scene than a snow angel.

We went inside, warmed up and grabbed some lunch, then went back out to finish the job.  Dave finally got to work and cleared the drive way (and put the sled back on the trailer), while I cleared the front steps.  I intended to walk towards the front door and then clear the snow backwards, from the door to the driveway.  Unfortunately, I went about 5 steps before I ran into a drift that came up to my hips and I could got any further.  So I started shoveling from there.  Luckily it was light and fluffy snow, so it wasn't hard.  But since there was 2 feet of it, it took multiple shovelfuls in the same spot to get down to the concrete.

A little fun and some mildly back-breaking labor, and we can get our cars up and down the driveway.  More importantly, we were able to get the trailer down the driveway and go snowmobiling in Hollis, NH with our friends Felise and Nick on Sunday.

Photo Op! Nick and Felise

And then Dave and me.

My brother texted me on Sunday if I preferred 2 feet of snow or morning jack hammers from a water main break.  The snow.  Definitely the snow.

Thanks for the snowmobile pictures, Felise!

Time Lapsed Photography (Blizzard 2013)

I owe you updates on our trip to Florida and our adventure in buying a new washing machine, but I'll give you the most timely update first. 

We got a bit of snow. 

Like a couple feet.

The official (according to the news) amount is over 24 inches for our town, but Dave thinks it was closer to 20 inches.  Hard to tell since the wind during this storm was so fierce (and continued to be so after the storm), that the drifting was pretty bad. 

The story goes that while the weather reports indicated early this week that we'd see snow this weekend, it wasn't until Wednesday that things started looking like this would be a storm, then something more than a storm.  Luckily most people took the warnings seriously and on Friday we got down to business.  Knowing the storm was expected to hit during the evening rush hour, most places indicated they'd close business at noon, and my work was no exception.  I took the train into work, left at noon and Dave picked me up since he's be able to navigate the weather in his Jeep fairly well.  Luckily it was just starting to snow heavily, but the roads were still traveled enough that it was just wet on the main highway, and only slight coating on the back roads.  We got home, hunkered down and had lunch and at 1:30 pm on Friday, I sent out this picture:

2/8/13 1:30 pm

Then we watched it accumulate.

2/8/13 2:35 pm

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At about 9:00 pm, Dave wanted to try to clear some of the snow to make it easier on himself for the final clean up.  So he cleared about 8 inches of snow off the driveway, while it was still coming down hard and the wind was blowing at sustained speeds of over 30 mph.

I took another picture before bed.

2/8/13 10:39 pm

However, I knew it would be a much different sight in the morning.

2/9/13 8:32 am

Finally, at about 11 am, the snow stopped falling, clouds actually began to part, and the winds slowed down to just big gusts.

2/9/13 9:43 am

2/9/13 11:02 am

So we had a lot of clean up to do, but that's it's own story.  Of course.