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.