A Snowy Weekend

The snowstorm that was forecast to hit us actually did materialize and it dropped a fair amount of snow on us.  Sheila and I spent about three hours clearing out the driveway, the paths, the mailbox, the fuel tank, and the roof.  This is the longest amount of time snow removal has ever taken us!

We removed about 14 inches of snow and, since then,we've had another few inches.  I actually expected far more snow to be dropped on us this storm but, considering how much work it was to clean up today, I'm thankful that we got considerably less snow than was forecasted.

Thanks to some of Sheila's old co-workers, we have a nice snowblower and that has come in handy many, many times since it was gifted to us.  This helps out my spine significantly but, I should point out, it is still a painful experience.  The snowblower is actually a bit too heavy for Sheila to handle so I am the one to manhandle the snowblower while Sheila gets started on raking the roof and doing a little cleanup with a shovel.

The snow was actually too deep for the snowblower today.  The wheels did nothing but slip which is probably why it took us about three hours to clean everything up this afternoon.  The snowblower was slipping, my feet were slipping, and it was rather frigid out there too. As cold as it was...  single digits... we both came inside three hours later completely soaked to the bone...  we peel off each soaked layer of clothing and collapsed.  After all the slipping around today, I'm going to have to look into purchasing some sort of chains for the drive wheels.  

We've already had a fair amount of snow thus far this winter so our biggest problem today was finding a place to put all of today's snow!  This has resulted in banks of snow as tall as our windows in the house.  Actually, I'm thinking that when I finished removing the snow from the roof, I could have just stepped off the roof onto one of the snow banks rather than using the ladder!

I'm not sure how Sheila is feeling tonight, but I am exhausted.  What is really crazy is that I'm still fighting this month-long cold...  I still have a sore throat, runny nose and thick, nasty gunk running down my throat.  My spine, bones and joints are screaming at me and I feel like I could sleep for a week!