Major Snowfall

Well it turns out the weather man was right for once...sort of. The Heavy Snowfall Warning said that the Annapolis Valley would get up to 30 cm of snow compared to 10-15 cm everywhere else. Well we did get more snow than anywhere else it's true. In fact we have officially 44 cm or 17 inches and because of the wind some has blown and drifted. In my driveway and the road in front of our house the snow is up over my knee caps. Boy am I glad I bought winter boots yesterday!

Steve and I were out this morning using the snow blower to clear the driveway. It took 20 minutes just too get it from the shed to the driveway. Then the fun began. The snow is wet and heavy, not a light 17 inches, so the blower doesn't really like it very much. It was heavy going. Steve got our driveway down to about 4 inches of snow and headed over to our neighbour's house to do hers but the blower died after 5 minutes. The engine was running but there was no power to the wheels. It turns out that 2 bolts that maintain the drive chain in the correct place had sheared off at some point due to metal fatigue so no we'll have to go get new ones. But Steve can fix it so that's good. The boys are out right now shoveling and the girls have come inside to warm up because they've spent the morning building huge snowmen and sledding down the neighbour's hill. Pea soup with ha and fresh baked white and multi-grain bread with butter. Yum!

Oh No! Here comes the snow plow...DON'T DO IT!!! Too late, he just plowed in the neighbours driveway again. Time to grab the shovels and dig her out once more. It's days like these I'm glad to have teenage sons.

The boys are back now from digging her out. They wouldn't take any money so she came over with a ham bone and some cookies. I'm baking her bread right now too, it's a very neighbourly day today. I thought I just heard a truck spinning it's wheels and was planning to go help push but when I looked out the window it's a tractor plowing the sidewalks. The snow is so heavy and deep though that he has to back up and get a run at it. He can push about 10 feet before his giant wheels spin and he has to back up and take another run at it. Very interesting. But hey, it barely stopped snowing and already the roads are becoming passable. Which is good because Steve has to get to work tomorrow. The thermometer is showing 4 degrees so everything is starting to melt and making avalanches of all the snow off roofs and vehicles. The trees are fine because most of them are leafless now thanks to the recent wind. So all in all it wasn't too bad of a snowstorm and we never had to worry about losing power. We are toasty warm and have the windows open a bit because it's almost too warm in here with the fire going and the oven going too. And the bread is delicious. So we all have full and warm bellies.

We'll give it a while and then see if the roads are good enough to drive. We need dog food, bolts for the snowblower and some veggies. Nothing major. We have to also order tires. I got hold of Canadian Tire and they haven't even ordered the tires we need yet and said we need to come into the store. So it looks like it will still be another week yet. But at least we know they're on their way.

Anyways, I hope you're all having a good day today wherever you are. I'll post some interesting articles in a couple of hours after I take the bread out of the pans and get some chores done around the house.

Elizabeth