Thursday morning I got up, headed upstairs to feed the dogs and was greeted by a burning electrical smell. Fortunately, it didn't take a genious to figure out where it was coming from as the refrigerator was making a nasty whining sound. I unplugged it, scooted it out from against the wall, and let it sit to cool off.
After feeding the dogs, letting them out, getting dressed, and letting the dogs in, I measured the snow I was about to shovel; 10". After shoveling for almost an hour and a half, I had the deck, path to the dog pen, path from the door to both vehicles, and path to the oil tank cleared. I also had cleared off both vehicles, and shoveled that snow off to the side also.
WS had worked late the evening before trying to get the snowblower put back together. He didn't have the new parts yet, but figured he could get it to work well enough to do the burms and and the driveway. He was just coming in as I went to bed, so didn't get a chance to ask him how it went (I didn't hear him start it), so I figured he couldn't get it together and working since he wasn't out snow blowing.
I figured I could get the Jeep to blow thru the berm at the end of the driveway (it is downhill after all), so no big deal. When I got into the house, there was WS cleaning all the doghair out from around the motor/compressor of the fridge. That was going to be my next project, but he beat me to it. So, I waited for him to finish up and plug it in. Blessedly, it started up without too much noise, and sounded like it would be okay. So, I didn't have to empty the fridge/freezer before going to work - great.
Thursday night I got home and WS was snow blowing. I measured the snow on the deck and found we had gotten another 6.5" of snow - and it was still snowing. I shoveled for an hour or so, re-clearing what I had cleared thaat morning (after starting laundry and stoking up the woodstove). There was another 1/2-3/4" of snow on the deck at that point.
Shortly after I had finished up laundry (folding dry stuff and hanging wet stuff), I heard WS pulling the snowblower into the shed. It was hard to miss as it was making horrible sounds. He got both berms taken car of and about 1/3 of the driveway cleared before it just wouldn't do any more work (he figures he bent the shaft - which is one of the parts he is waiting on).
Friday, WS came home after work and put the blade on the 4-wheeler, and plowed out the rest of the driveway - he was in the middle of it when I got home. I didn't bother shoveling the 2-3" of snow that we had gotten as the forcast was for sleet and rain, and I wanted the snow on the ground to soak it up. That way, paths wouldn't turn into an instant sheet of ice.
For those keeping track, we got close to 20" of snow between Wedneday and Friday. We actually got more snow overnight Friday, I know becuase I let the dogs out at 1:30am and they came back in white. Then, it started raining. We probably got a couple of inches of rain Saturday morning. Then about 3, the sun came out and stuff started melting. I'm guessing that it got in the 40's, warmer than it has been in quite a while.
I don't know whether Mother Nature is mocking us by making almost a useless task of moving the snow, or whether she is just trying to give us some exercise.
You really must teach the critters to help! Surely, you are getting your exercise.
Posted by: Cop Car | March 04, 2012 at 10:35 AM