Ah, can you smell that moist Caribbean air! Sniiiiffffff… ahhh!
I can!!!!
Yesterday, all of the Maritimes were in red warnings about a blizzard approaching. And here it is (there is a car in there somewhere)…
In the evening, as the snow was dissipating, we went outside to do a bit of clean up before bed. I figured it would be good to get a bit of a head start before morning.
So I shoveled out our path to the driveway.
Where our car was fully engulfed in a snow drift!
Chantal walked around on her snowshoes to check out the house and roof.
Which of course was covered in snow! I tried my best to plow my way to the backyard in boots.
But my path was totally plugged! I did eventually make it to the deck for a great size comparison picture.
Yup that is me on the deck with a drift that sits on the ground! I am standing on the deck which is 3 feet off the ground, so that makes the drift about 7 feet high!
The last adventure before sundown was to check out the road. The government had pulled the plows from the road about an hour earlier so the drifting was already well underway!
So, with a job well done and some of the snow moved, it was time to call it a night and head to bed!
Morning…
No path… bigger drifts. That’s the funny thing about blowing snow!!
Soooo… back to digging out the snow!
It’s like deja vu!
But with a whole lot more snow around our car! Check out the pretty sculpted snow formations! Reminded Chantal of soft serve ice cream.
As I plowed my way through the drifts to get to the driveway…
Chantal started the process of clearing from on top of the hill with her snowshoes.
Knowing full well that the plows had only just started clearing the road (only one lane at this point with 4 foot banks still yet to be plowed)…
And as there was plenty of snow yet to be shifted off the road and into the ditch (or driveway) as the case may be, I hatched a plan in which today we would clear the driveway while leaving a large mountain at the end so to deflect the snowplow’s snow until they finished their clearing job. Then, I could finish mine without having to go out every few hours when a plow passes to clear my driveway again and again and again (just a piece of wisdom that I’ve picked up on the island: snowplow snow hardens very quickly after being thrown onto a driveway, so it is important to get at it quickly while it is still “fluid”).
Anyway, Chantal and I made an excellent team. I dug a trench behind the “wall of snow” at the front of the driveway while Chantal pushed layer after layer of snow from further back up the driveway into the trench and I tossed it over the wall. She pushed and I tossed. Scoop after scoop after scoop.
During a few breaks in the action, Chantal shuffled around the yard to take some pictures of our new landscape (the birdfeeder measures 6 feet tall).
Half our roof was covered in snow and the other half was pretty much bare! Really, one should not be able to see the top of a roof so easily. I think we have enough snow now!
After an hour or so we had managed to clear half the driveway.
(Water bottle for size comparison).
But there is still a lot more to go.
Tomorrow, I will dig a walkway to the road on the other side of our barrier to monitor when it is best to finish the process. Until then, the birds are well fed with seeds…
And Chantal needs a nap!!!
