Just A Little Off The Top

By now the storm is old news but this is the first day that we have full internet service.  Our feelings of isolation were quite severe.  Our nearest road is nearly one quarter mile away with our snow removal machines rendered useless by the depth of the snow.  The old reliable snow pusher cleared a path from the kitchen door to the generator.  Its air intakes and exhaust were at the top of the must do list.  Next a narrow path was opened down each side of the car.  Finally Ben and his mighty truck arrived.  It took him some time but soon enough we could reach the road.

Similar narrow paths freed the truck.  Peering through a small area of cleared windshield, I  put the truck in 4 wheel drive and blasted free from the deep snow between the truck and the plowed ground.  While I continued to plow, Becky cleared off the truck hood.  The hand snow pusher rather easily cleared the roof of the truck.  Our garden tractor converted to snow plow has no space in the shed.  It was no small task to change that huge round white lump into a useable plow.

 

With open ground cleared by the plow truck, my snow blower was able to open more ground near the car.  A major concern here is where do we put the snow following the next storm so the cleared area is rather large.  We did not see any of our deer until yesterday when four appeared in the front lawn.  They pushed along in belly deep snow making slow progress.  Then one of this year's fawns decided it was time to use a series of jumps to more quickly move to the apple trees.  The rest quickly followed but food was hard to find.  On the other side of the house we always clear an unnecessarily large patch of lawn.  Prior to yesterday's dusting of new snow, a sizeable group of slate gray juncos eagerly fed on the cleared ground.  Later in the day this deer found relatively easy access to grass.  This morning deer could be seen in the darkness before sunrise right outside the kitchen window.  Our feelings of isolation are gone.

Finally Snow Cover Almost

This last month of 2017 has featured nothing but unusual weather.  The flat water sections of the nearby Unadilla River have frozen solid three different times.  One of those bitter cold nights resulted in clear ice perfect for skating if it had been thicker.  We have been looking for some snow cover to insulate the plants.  Several consecutive forecasts consistently predicted a three inch snowfall for us.  The evening before the possible snow fall featured high closely spaced parallel ridges in the clouds.  It could have been that corduroy clouds were a sign of impending snowfall but nothing happened.  Our plants remained exposed to the bitter cold.

There have been several nights when a possible accumulation of one inch of snow have been forecast.  We cannot be certain that what little white stuff accumulated overnight was snow rather than heavy frost.  With the subzero temperatures spanning several days, the blanket thickened.  These arbutus plants had a generous cover of fallen pine needles and now some snow nearly completes the blanket.  Perhaps the next dusting will finally hide these evergreen plants.  Rabbit tracks were evident close by  but with the protective cage  these leaves remain uneaten.

This first plowing of the lane was not really necessary.  Both the state and county road crews have been clearing and salting the roads but accumulations of snow are so thin that the plows have little impact.  I was faced with pulling two huge empty trash cans up the hill.  Two trips with the lawn tractor took care of the cans and it made no sense not to plow at the same time.  Besides, the plow on my lawn tractor is overwhelmed by three inches of snow.  I plowed wide since the next event will pile the new snow inside of the ridges made this time.  Plowing now also pushed aside some of the stones that came to the surface as rain water washed away the fines.  Having those stones gone before the snow blower is used is a real benefit.  The tools needed for shear pin replacement and new pins are in the tractor compartment but old bare hands in dry cold air bleed easily if bumped.  It is much better to avoid breaking the shear pins.  We are ready for another new year and we try to take some advantage of and enjoy each new day

The Long Driveway

This photo requires an explanation as few clues about its subject are obvious.  The S curve of our lane passes between a hedgerow and a thicket of wild berry bushes.  A white arching plume of snow can be seen but the machine moving the snow is hidden from view.  When our move here was in the planning stage, I intended to live here happily until I was found face down in the garden.  Actively working right to the end was the plan.  Absolutely no thought was given to the possibility that a long slow decline might precede my final exit.  Now some things that were once taken for granted are presenting a challenge.

In the beginning of our time here, a hand snow pusher was the only tool used to remove modest snowfalls from the driveway.  A hired plow was called in for deeper storms.  After he stalled at the top of the hill leaving a mountain of snow blocking our road, a better solution needed to be found.  A small lawn tractor with plow served us well for years until the transmission failed while pushing snow up that same hill.  The repaired tractor still serves for small snowfalls but a tougher tractor equipped with a snow blower handles larger storms.  This picture would be more impressive if the snow plume was in a higher arch. Cold windblown snow stinging my face would be the result of a more impressive  snow discharge.  A close look at the volume of snow leaving the chute is worth an audible "wow".
 

Siting the house at a considerable distance from the road seemed like the logical choice at the time. We own only a tiny amount of road frontage so there was really no other choice.  The first gap in the snowbank is the shared lane that marks the spot where our land opens up.  The town road is near the top of the photo.  Sometimes I lure delivery drivers in by sanding this slope.  If they think that they can drive all the way to the house, they are committed once they crest this hill.  Now the dark gravel is beginning to peek through the snow.  It will warm with trapped sunlight and the lane will soon be clear of snow here.

Our S curve cannot be seen from the road but to date every driver that has reached this point has made it all the way to the top.  I clear enough width so that two vehicles can squeeze by each other here. When we leave the house we cannot see if someone else is driving up the lane.  If conditions warrant it, sand is also spread here but I tend to be miserly guarding the sixty gallon sand stash stored in the basement.  It must last until the spring thaw.

This final curve leads to the meadow that we call home.  Two days and two machines were required to handle the recent storm of unusual size.  The snow blower  can move an impressive amount of snow but it seems to be always on the verge of getting stuck.  Its rear wheels move downhill into untouched deep snow whenever the going gets hard.  One pass was made during the middle of the storm so that the tractor could move snow without becoming stuck.  A second effort followed the end of the snowfall.  We only almost became mired several times as learning how to operate this machine is ongoing.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that the tasks that must be completed in order to live here are tending toward becoming beyond my ability to complete them.  If my customary good luck continues, I will leave here just before nature overwhelms me.  The two decades that this land has been ours have been filled with a lifetime of encounters with the natural world.  When we do leave, we will take this blog with us so that we can revisit the happy years spent here.