Paints and stories

Mommy bought home watercolor paints!

What fun!

And we also have some Thomas the Tank Engine books. "Wanna read Thomas Train!"

And now for something completely different: Mud season

After all that snow, it warmed up pretty much as forecast, a general thaw, and we may be seeing the first beginnings of mud season. Even so, there's still a lot of snow.

Here's our deck, completely full of avalanche debris from the roof that fell today while we were out playing in the yard with Edana. This is very heavy windslab and can't be shoveled very easily, so we'll just let it melt and hope for the best.

Here's a fresh delivery of firewood. I took advantage of the nice clear dooryard and the warm weather. I had the dump truck that delivered it drop it off right in front of the barn doors, and later threw it all into the barn. This was because the regular firewood cribs are five feet deep in snow.

The view through the barn doors, Flame on guard.

Tucking into Amish hay. A very pregnant ewe, one of four we kept last year. We now have twenty-two chickens, thanks to the clutch that hatched later last year.

The beginnings of mud: A general thaw in the dooryard. Edana has been jumping in muddy puddles.

Using the little tractor to bring down the loads of firewood from the barn.

Two inches of meltwater in the back of the workshop. This will eventually flow away, but in the meantime, it's a bit of a pain.

Mopping up, après le déluge

 

Edana "fixes" the generator with a screwdriver.

It was a very big snowfall in the end, around 25 inches while still light and fluffy, but the strong winds soon knocked it down to a heavy wind slab that was much harder to move.

It was hard to keep equipment going. I got my own Land Rover-powered plow stuck around six or seven times, but was able to winch it out each time after twenty or so minutes work. Luckily we have plenty of handy trees and fence posts around here, for winch anchors.

I got my neighbor's much larger plow truck stuck only once, but once was enough. It took a total of about five hours to free it. We were forced to abandon it in a snowbank Monday night. The Land Rover winch, plus a lot of digging and some great help from my other neighbor, eventually did the job Tuesday morning. I was pretty pleased to see it with four wheels on the road.

If you read the previous posts for this storm (named "Orson"), you'll see that I pretty well knew this would happen, but borrowed the vehicle anyway. The Rover was capable enough to do the job, although some more winching might have been needed, but I wanted to do it faster.

I won't make that mistake again.

By the time everything had all blown over Tuesday, with another storm forecast for Wednesday, I was pretty pleased to be able to hire the services of this machine and driver for some serious snow removal. This is an articulated five-ton loader, a piece of construction equipment. In about thirty minutes work, it moved all our snowbanks back around twenty feet and scraped the driveway down to the roadbed. We will need the space if we get another nor'easter. You need to have somewhere to put all the snow.

A little light plowing later in the week, and then one last clean-up today, including excavating the Camry from its snowy grave, and we are done with snow moving for the time being. The jet stream has lifted north, and we're in some easier weather, and very thankful for it.

Here's the two heroes of the hour. These two machines, plus my neighbor's snowblower, kept moving snow despite the severity of the storm, while other much stronger equipment was defeated. Both are over forty years old.

Here's the Rover tugging the Camry free.

And here's the damage to the Rover's plow, made worse by this storm. The hitch tongue is well bent. It will require a serious repair this summer. My best bet is going to be to dismantle the tongue and cross bar from the rest of the assembly, using the eight nuts and bolts at both ends, and order a new one from the Canadian company that makes the plow. I should probably get a new winch strap while I'm at it.

Easily 24 and not done

We have a couple feet already and about three more hours of snowfall to go until the main part of the storm passes. The power started flickering, so I pulled the genny onto the porch to warm up. It runs on propane and is hard to start when cold.

Silly bugger me, should have done that twenty hours ago, I realize now.

It can stay there until spring!

Here's what look like "varves" of snowfall on the porch window:

While our daughter is happy enough to stay home and play. Mommy found her a new toy at Goodwill, a play castle for just four dollars!
 

12 so far

Eighteen to twenty-four

 (click to enlarge)

That would be the expected inches of snowfall in the next thirty hours in this particular neck of the Maine woods. On top of the eight we got yesterday, the eight we got Thursday, and the ice we had already, things are starting to get a little silly.

The Land Rover plow truck is holding up as well as could be expected, considering that various injuries and illnesses make it the last available plow-truck and driver combo in the Great Farm hamlet. It now plows nearly a mile of road each snowfall, never mind that each stretch has to be done at least twice and often four or six times to make it safe. This truck and the plow it carries were never meant to plow snow for as many miles as it has been doing. It has shed a heavy lateral spring, and the spring pin that sets the plow angle looks ready to pop out, the base that holds it having sheared off. I expect the lateral spring will show up in a snowbank eventually. The spring pin can be replaced with a heavy bolt. I never change the angle anyway.

I've been told I can borrow my neighbor's much heavier truck while he's in the hospital. This is a one-ton, and much better suited for this kind of mileage, but it's also an automatic flatbed and as a result somewhat loose in four wheel mode and light in the rear to boot. The combination of the two characteristics mean that it is easier to get stuck that the Rover is, and if I get my neighbor's truck stuck while he's in the sick bay, there's no-one to help me get it unstuck. The Land Rover at least carries a winch for such things, as well as that awesome Land Rover low range and fully locked wheel hubs all round.

I have had to refuel the Rover, something that has never been necessary before. In past winters, one tank has always been enough. This year I may go through three or four.

In other news, work has of course been back underway for four weeks now, but the number of snow days has made it seem like less. It feels more like the second than fourth week, given how little we've been able to cover in some classes. No doubt we'll catch up eventually.

Our kid has been with us at work a lot because the day care center has had more and longer snow days than the college. Aimee and I trade her off between classes, and she runs around our various offices and other work spaces. She loves to come to work, and is always happy when we tell her she's not going to daycare.

Sooner or later the jet stream will lift north, taking with it the storm track, which currently is right on top of us. Spring won't take long to come after that, although we can expect a heck of a lot of mud when it does come, given all the snow.