I for one would much rather do three rounds of a wet four inches of snow removal, than tackle a single round of a wet twelve. Wet heavy snow is so defeating when you want it over and done with but you can only make slow headway on it with a smaller shovel. I do not own a snowblower. It’s a fight I have with myself every year. I want one, then we go a couple of years with just bitter cold temperatures and not a lot of snow. Then we get a season like this, where it has snowed enough to warrant shoveling four of five times and we aren’t even into winter officially yet. Not for another ten or eleven days I think. But this show removal strategy that 8 have is based off of me having to shovel by myself, or having the help of my wife and children for small parts of it. But don’t count on the help at this point. This tends towards it being a solo endeavour.
So to save myself any back or arm strain 8 will venture out into the falling snow to do multiple smaller clean ups, instead of just one heart attack inducing massive round of snow clearing. Either way, I hate it. One or two snowfalls can make it feel like “Oh we’ll have a white Christmas this year, how picturesque” more than that will make me curse the skies loudly, and often. I shake my fist at thee. Why yes I do bite my thumb at thee also! Fuck-wad!
So here I am at eight o’clock in the morning, sweaty and agitated about the knowledge I have multiple shoveling sessions left, not only for today, but for the foreseeable future. I am going to run out of places to put the snow if it keeps up at this pace. Wouldn’t be as terrible if all 8 had to do was the driveway, but the front walk needs done too, the side of the house to access the shed, and the back patio (to mitigate any potential flooding of our basement via the back wall, and window.) it’s like doing two full driveways each time. Makes the sixteen inch single dumping of snow a day long task to clear. Not only that but my heart started to race, and would not stop doing so for about an hour afterwards, even once I sat down, then laid down. It was unpleasant.
All the more reason to give up on the log splitter day dream, and focus on a snowblower as a reality for myself as I get older. I will soon be closer to fifty than forty, so… Heart health is more important than ever! Also taking it slow, with frequent rest stops is the smart play here too. If we get a lot more wet snow I think I will start to see some broken tree limbs that I will need to break down. This is also why 8 prune our trees every single year, because if one goes I would like very much for it to not be able to reach the house, and damage our roof, or windows, or wall integrity.
I don’t see myself walking the dog at the farm today. Likely just around the block. His toe still looks kinda nasty, so I do not believe that he will want to go and place an exposed wound into snow, and road salt mixed together. That sounds deeply unpleasant to me. He has the run of the yard if he wants to have zoomies undisturbed by salt and brine. I think that’s a suitable compromise. I’d prefer the wide open spaces of the farm where he can run, and run unimpeded, but the roads look ugly, and the farm lane may very well trap my vehicle in its wind blown snow drifted grasp. Not cool. I should probably put a small shovel in the car for just such an occasion. I used to have one, but it shattered one icy day. C’est la vie!
***My plan to clear up sequentially rather than in one go has proven itself to be a good strategy. However, after the third round I am exhausted, and very sweaty. The plows have gone by twice filling in the end of my drive with heavy, wet, packed down snow, and grey slush. It’s extraordinarily tiring to move. I pray for a break for a few hours before the snow returns, but that seems unlikely. As soon as I finish there is a layer of snow covering all that I have completed. It beckons for another round! I’m going to sleep like the dead if my back and shoulders don’t ache so bad it keeps me up tonight. I thought this might be a threepeater and done, but could go as high as five or six before the night has come.
In other news our very helpful elderly neighbour affectionately known as Sarge has succumbed to his bone cancer. He completed one round of chemo in the fall, but it was ultimately unsuccessful. Poor guy. He was a trusted friend with that snowblower of his during the deep dark months of winter. A wonderful sight to behold when you were trying to dig out from under the road plow man’s bounty laid on your door step. Always quick with a conversation, and a smile/chuckle. I suppose his house will go up for sale in the coming months. A local celebrity gone with the wind. Salut.
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