January 8, 2008 

xcellent day today. It seemed I got most everything done which I wanted. I went to work and there was a small kafuffle with the project I finished last night for 5 minutes and then all went as it should.

After things were tidied up at work, I got to go home and ice pick and shovel 2-3 feet of snow off the back of the house. The eaves are not very far away from the house and it dropped wet soggy snow, which turned into a block of ice at -17C. So thank you to whomever invented pickeroon/hookeroons, which are actually used for the logging industry. I think mine is an antique, but it works fine as a pick, which I have used it as such for many a time over the years. My snow shovel however is beyond pathetic and as soon as I have funds for it (the vacuum had to come first.) I was moving snow/ice blocks which were bigger than "Cyrus".

I had to show you why I am whining moderately about my snow shovel. I think this one also came with the house and I am lucky I had one, although it may be a couple thousand years old (no, not really!!). Now you know why it also took me forever to dig out the driveway each time. No, it is not supposed to have the curls on the edges and yes, it looks like a Mack truck ran it over multiple times. For all I know, one could have.

I can't complain too much as I actually have a snow shovel!! I am so glad I made a do-it-yourself-at-home snow removal device which will be in the next magazine issue. It saves me about 11 hours of shoveling!! But it won't do me any good for today's project.

Below is the size of the snow/ice blocks I was chipping away from the house. Once I got a section broken, I had to pry it away from the house and use my whole body to roll them far enough from the house so  that when the deep snows sluff (I looked it up, you can spell it two ways) off the roof again (and they will), it will not be a bigger and near nigh impossible mess to deal with. I have about 8 of these blocks behind the house now. I thought kid-like about them for a moment and thought they might make a good igloo or snow fort.

The problem is when this snow/ice starts to melt, if it is right up against the house, the moisture may come through the walls of the house and create mold as well as other damage. I certainly want to prevent any issues with the house.

I started on the end which didn't have as much snow and working my way over to the ugly end. I was sort of avoiding that section until morning, as I have to move all the frozen solid snow away from the dog meat freezer and then take the meat out, so I can move the freezer away from the house to get the snow packed around it. What you can't see well in the picture is I have to shovel a 5 foot area in front of the area which I am removing snow to be able to roll the blocks.

This afternoon I took a break for a few moments to watch a pair of coyotes playing in the creek line across the road. They were having a grand ole' time romping about in the snow covered field. At first I thought they were hunting mice, but they were just playing. The other one was difficult to get a picture of and I didn't notice it at first until I saw an ear twitch and realized there was more than one. I will keep my eye out for them and make sure they do not start creating chaos. I enjoy living side by side with the wildlife, but we both need to compromise. That means them leaving my livestock alone.

I am just taking a break now for a bit and then it is a load or two of firewood down to the house. But as chilly as it got last night, I suprisingly didn't use that much in the last couple days.