Typically, my ambitions for the Thanksgiving weekend extend to stuffing myself with turkey, relaxing with family, and lazing around the house not watching football. This weekend we had a couple of projects involuntarily added to the agenda by mother nature. Hmmm...wonder what that fluffy lump is between the house and the garage?



As you might suspect, it involved shovelling snow. Lots of snow, as in a "shovel your roof before it caves in " level of snow. In the last two weeks we've gotten over a hundred inches of the stuff, a record for this time of year. And next week it's supposed to rain. Adding rain to snowpack this deep adds an incredible amount of weight, and packs down to a nearly inpenetrable layer-cake mixture of ice, slush, and powder snow. Since we have shingles instead of a metal roof we can't rely on any of it shedding itself, so it's time to dig out the ladder and get to work.



This was taken after shovelling the garage roof, and before we cleared the house. Yes, that is a ways up there, my extension ladder barely makes it to the roof from the back deck. Our house has a pretty good view from the upstairs, it would have a great view if we had a third story! We spent a lot of time with the snowblower going last week to keep the walkways clear, but we hire a guy with a loader to clear the main driveway area. The lumps in between the house and the garage are becoming more clear now. The one on the left is the skiff.



Hey, that's where that thing went! I knew I left it parked out there somewhere. Next week I get to dig out the snow tires so I can actually make it up the driveway. Oh yay, more shovelling...I'm gonna have arms like Popeye by the end of this winter.

Where on earth are you?!

I live in southeast Alaska, in a little town about 90 miles north of Juneau. And we got about 15 to 18 inches of new snow last night, heavy wet stuff this time. Good thing we can both walk to work, the car is going nowhere until the roads are plowed.

You've just reminded me why I moved from 11,000 ft. in Colorado to 1,500 ft. In Texas. Good luck with all of that, popeye arms indeed. In all honesty I miss it most of the time, a week or two "visit" usually cures that though.

Whew!

Lon

WOW!

Good luck man

looks like heaven to me...... but then again i'm not very bright.
steve

Better eat a LOT of Spinach!!

Speechless. My joy is that you enjoy Alaska as you do. I see it as a young man's happy place. ;?)

Actually, my wife is pretty sure that her "happy place" is looking a lot more like Hawaii these days. If it keeps up like this all winter, I'm beginning to suspect that it might adversely affect my enthusiasm for living in Alaska year-round. And I WILL have arms like Popeye!

That's just not right!

For that truck, just put on some goggles, stick your head out the window and when you get it up to 45 or so it should blow right off. It will also keep those pesky tailgaters at a distance.

Have fun with that stuff, be safe.

Kent

thats serious work ,,,, they guy in the pick up must be delivering another load of snow .hes been working hard to get enough for you guys to store it all on the roof.
joking aside , this country would stop totally if we got a foot of snow , thats serious .

Would you believe that most of that snow was gone within two weeks? We're down to about a foot and a half of ice and frozen slush, it's been raining on and off since the end of November. We expect more snow in the spring, when it gets too cold to rain.

As far as the roads go, it's not bad at all once the heavy snow is cleared from the main roads. It takes a couple more days until the side roads are cleared. If you want your driveway done, you'd better either have your own equipment or contract with a private operator. We do both, but we have a lot of driveway to clear with just the snowblower. The driving conditions aren't bad with fresh snow, in fact it's the smoothest the roads get around here.

The rain on top of the ice is much worse, you have to have either studs or chains.

good grief ,,,, here its +12 degrees ,,, this time last year it was -12 degrees ,,, the world has slipped a tooth on the timing belt i think.

Ok ... Ireland is out! Dude ... It's looking better and better right here. 8()

I still think you could do a lot worse than the Texas hill country.

Wouldn't take long to learn the language either, it's a lot like English.

o oww my god