November 4, 2007 

The Single Homesteader Challenge #2

id I mention there was ALOT of snow dumped here yesterday? About 7-8" before it packed down on my truck hood. I finally found a old ancient (bad) snow shovel and this morning I am going to attempt to shovel out my driveway (which I am guessing to be a little over 800-1,000 feet) otherwise I will not be able to go anywhere anytime soon. There used to be a tractor here which was the main snow removal option in the winter. But along with my ex, it too has gone. There is no other option other than using the snow shovel. It will take me quite awhile I am sure, but maybe I can yet go down another jeans size *laugh*. I keep thinking about how to hitch up the dog team to something, but the adzact details on that are not coming to me yet. A person has to keep their sense of humor about such things and learn to think outside the box for options to solve problems such as this.

There looks like another storm front coming in, although the weather report says it is supposed to stay clear all day. The front is moving very slowly, but it does look like snow clouds. My area is supposed to get more snow this upcoming week, but I live on a mountain, so pretty much anything goes.

So I will not be butchering chickens today I think. It is quite horrifying to see how much snow has fallen off of the shop roof already. It is almost touching the eaves in places.

I am counting the days until the hogs get butchered.

9:07 am Update (yes I changed my clocks back)

Been at it for almost 2 hours and I am not quite to the dog pens. So that is roughly 1/4 of the driveway. I decided I should come in and get something to eat (I was getting a bit nauseous) and alot to drink. You do get very dehydrated at this elevation and with the lack of humidity. 

I measured the settled snow on the top of my truck and it is indeed 7 inches deep. To all the Aussies and Kiwi's who were questioning me and were horrified by the snow last night.. Yes, this was all from yesterday. The ground had no trace of snow on it yesterday morning. 

Shoveling snow was my first job when I moved to Canada. There was no other income and I was helping support 2 people. I moved here 3 months before NYC 9-11 happened and so my immigration took longer than originally planned. I should have been able to work within 3 months and I was not able to officially work until 8 months later as they were going back further for background checks and such than they had been before. I had to survive, so snow shoveling was an option. I used to do 3/4 of a city block up to multiple times a day. At least this is a light fluffy snow. I am trying not to compact it before it gets removed from my driveway. I am worried if the sun hits it though and it is too warm, that it will become glare ice. I am already planning on where to park my truck off the property and have a toboggan sled to skid all my stuff to and from it.

11:09am Update (aka Needed more fruit juice time)

I am trying to keep ahead of the sun and any heat. As it warms, the snow will get heavier and heavier. At this point I have gone 76 paces. So I have approximately shoveled 228 feet x 9-12 feet wide at this point this morning. I am a little over halfway down to the gate. Thankfully the neighbor has plowed the shared part of the drive. I think I am looking at 2 more hours of shoveling.

Part of the reason I am chronicalling this is a note to me how long it should approximently take to shovel the whole driveway. You never know, by the end of Winter, I may be setting new records for myself.

3:23pm Update:

I have given up for the day and will get back to it tomorrow morning. Maybe an hour or two more work.

Picture Above: I got about 60 feet past the bend to the left.

Picture Below: Curves around to the left in front of the cabin. I also shoveled a pad for turning around.