"There is no shame in making an honest effort." - Epictetus
Dispatches from the Snowpocalypse
This showed up on my phone's weather app a couple of days ago.
The snowfall total was a bit more than the alert forecast, at least at our house. We stuck a yardstick into the snow and it read 17 inches - but it was still snowing. By the time I had finished plowing, another 3 inches had accumulated where I'd already cleared.
Below: Driving home from clearing the church parking lot prior to the arrival of the storm.
Below: On the way home from work after night shift. The storm had just started in earnest.
Below: Storm was just finishing up. About 20 inches total in our neighborhood. It varies quite a bit locally due to terrain.
Below: Clearing a path around the car, so that I can clear off the car, and then clear around the car again!
Below: Off to work with a bit of a "mohawk" look. I did clear the grille and headlights.
A few more, from the day after. I've pulled people out of the ditch before - but only when they hadn't left their vehicles abandoned beside the road.
It was also time to plug in the dehumidifier in the shop.
I was a bit surprised to find that one of the plow headlights had gone out - I realized it when I had finished plowing at church. The bulbs are quite new, at least from an "operating hours" perspective. They probably have less than 5 hours use. I replaced the dim incandescent bulbs in January with some really nice LED bulbs, and didn't have to do very much plowing the remainder of last snow season.
Then, as I was plowing our property, I noticed that the other bulb was flickering intermittently. I have no idea whether we are looking at a bad connection or if they have failed electrically. There is no airflow in these light enclosures, so it may be that the bulbs are overheating - they have huge heat sinks for cooling, and so I'm assuming they require some airflow that they maybe are not getting. Or it could be the pounding they take when the plow hits something frozen under the snow... I guess if things smell burnt it's the former.
Below: Low beam lamps used in the snowplow, followed by the high beam bulbs
I have some normal incandescent H7 (low beam) bulbs on hand to get by for a while, and some replacement LED bulbs on order.
Snowpocalypse EDIT and UPDATE: 3 December, 2022
The back deck. I'm not sure how high the rails are, but they are roughly waist-high. The grill is mostly under the overhang part. I'll try to get to this tomorrow, and the front walkway as well.
Up front. Mind, I had already shoveled the walkway an hour before this was taken. The TV dish is absolutely buried. I keep a swimming pool brush on an extension rod just for cleaning the dish off.
Got off work at 6 AM and slept for a bit. Then it was time to begin moving snow again - something you can't do a whole lot of while you are working 12 hour-long night shifts.
I headed to church to re-plow the parking lot, but didn't get too far. Out by the road, the delivery service had left two 50lb boxes full of dog food sitting in the snow. I guess their thought process went something like: "If I get stuck in this driveway, I won't be able to make any other deliveries." Fortunately, I spotted the boxes before any human dirt-bags, raccoons or bears did.
After dropping the boxes off in the garage, I resumed the trip to church again. It's a good thing that I'd plowed the parking lot previously, because the snow was really deep. Plowing two snowfalls worth would have been tough - It took a couple of hours as it was. Below: The old church building is on the right. I take pictures before and after. I've been accused in the past of pushing snow out of the parking lot, across the street onto a neighboring property. I don't do this, because it's not very neighborly - I always push snow inwards from the street. It's also illegal to push snow across a roadway.
Before returning home from church, I opened up the headlight housings on the snow plow. Each low beam had the same wire come loose in each housing! All I had to do was pinch the female spade lug connector tighter (with my teeth) and re-connect them. Both lugs were very loose until I chomped on them a bit. Happily both lights worked once they were re-connected to power. Halleluja!
Then it was time to re-plow our driveway, which had accumulated about 6 inches of fresh snow. The driveway entry had even more snow, as did the mailbox, due to the county snowplows throwing slop off to the side of the road. It was getting dark by the time I got home from church. Days are short right now.
The snowbanks are already quite tall, and we aren't that far into snow season. If this continues, I may need to hire someone who can push the snowbanks back a bit further - someone with dirt-moving equipment. The snow bank is well above the level of the hood already. Nice lights!
Below: Backed up a ways from the snowbank. Working to the left, pushing the snow forward. Lots of backing up and pushing involved.
Below: Maybe I should install an indoor swimming pool. There's no shortage of melt water.
Time to trek over to the house and clear the dachshund side of the dog pen. The husky doesn't care. Steam is just exhaust from the furnace.
Pretty busy for a "day off"!
Final Snow Update 3 December 2022
The cloud cover cleared overnight and the temperature dropped to 2 degrees F (-17C). Snow always compresses over time, so the yardstick readings are probably a bit lower than when it was freshly fallen.
It was a gorgeous day, if cold. The dog was excited to be on the back deck again.
Below: The man cave, and some views off the deck. Still need to clear the walkway at some point, although I can walk down the driveway to the roll-up door. I should get out the x-country skis now, and get some different perspectives of the forest.
Below: A couple of photos from out front. If you look closely, there is a dog in the left front window. It's too bad she can't be trusted to stay close :(
No comments:
Post a Comment