Dark and Light

This is a bit of an explanation as to why the blog has gone dark for three weeks or so.

Three and a half weeks ago the weather forecasters shocked the snot out of us by getting the “what, when, and how much” guesses right on the mark.  I mean dead in the bulls-eye.  We got the “eight to fourteen inches of snow” exactly when they predicted.

The next morning I fired up my monster snow blower and got to work.  I was thinking it would take me two or three hours to get the driveway and parking spaces cleared.  At the end of my first trip to the cattle gate at the entrance to the driveway down by the road, the blower snapped both of its auger/blower drive belts.  Okay, I’ll just go into town and get a couple more.

Mrs. Barn and I did just enough shoveling to get my truck off the property and into town.  Unfortunately, my experience was replicated many times in the county as this was the first time in four years we needed to get out our snow blowers, and a lot of them broke their belts on the same day.   As a result there were none in town.  Anywhere.

Okay, I’ll find some close by on the interwebz so it can be here the next day or two.  Alas, my phenomenon was apparently replicated thousands of times across the mid-Atlantic and none were close by.  Eventually I found a place in Milwaukee that had them “in stock.”  It’s been three weeks and they have yet to arrive.

Meanwhile, we spent dozens of hours shoveling the driveway and parking area by had so that life could proceed with little further disruption.

This was not the worst snowfall we’ve seen since buying here 25 years ago.  I remember planning to come for a long weekend in maybe 2009(?) or thereabouts to work on the barn, and when I checked with my pal Tony he told me not to bother.  “The snow is as deep as the top of the cattle gate.  You aren’t getting in.”  Two weeks later I got in, no problem.

You see, our normal weather pattern is for a storm front to come through and dump some snow, followed by a couple very cold days, followed by a couple weeks of mild (above freezing in the daytime) weather.

Not so this year.  Yes, we had a storm front with the snow, exactly how much is unknown because the howling winds moved it a bunch even after it fell.  Yes, I saw and shoveled snow that was 8-inches deep.  But, I also saw and shoveled snow that was more than a foot deep.

Patiently we waited for the mild weather to return and take care of the snow cover on the driveways.

It never came.  It still hasn’t

Once we started getting the long range forecasts for last week and this week I knew we were in trouble.  If it got as cold as predicted we would be using a week’s worth of firewood every day.  Every day.

Fortunately I had about half of next winter’s firewood already cut, split and stacked.  Unfortunately, it was up next to the barn.  This meant I had to get a truck up to the barn to retrieve it.  And for that to happen, the whole driveway to the barn and much of the parking area next to the barn had to be shoveled by hand so we could replenish our firewood inventory at the cabin.

So I did.  Shovel the complete driveway.  This meant that from beginning to end I/we shoveled almost a quarter mile of driveway.  By hand.  Much of it twice as there were several subsequent weather fronts coming through dropping more snow.  Sunday’s yield was 5-6 inches, fortunately light fluffy snow so the shoveling was easy and (comparatively) fast.  Still, I would guess that in the ten days between two weeks ago and yesterday I estimate 50 hours with my hands on the shovel.  I make a point of going slow and steady.  Almost every night I was almost asleep by the time supper was over.

This is by far the most and longest-lasting snow cover we have had in our years here.  This coming weekend we will have a few days at or above freezing, with sunshine, and that should cure all the ills.  It follows two really cold weeks, including this REALLY cold week with five consecutive nights near or below zero at night.  This morning was -10 when I checked at 8AM.  We haven’t used a week’s worth of wood per day, but still it’s been a lot.  Around a dozen arm loads per 24 hours rather than the normal half dozen.

All that Light has been why the blog has been dark.