Winter in Canada

Another blast of winter around these parts over the weekend.... hours more of shovelling.  The piles are getting so high it's almost impossible for me to toss a shovel full up that high..and, when I do..it comes rolling back down to the bottom again.

When I visited my sister on her little farm, she taught me how to pile manure.. for making compost.  I decided I had to do it that way or it wasn't going to work.   Once it gets too high and pointy, it just doesn't work.  The horse poop balls come rolling right back onto your boots.

So, I had to push the shovel back and forth over the top of the pile of snow just like we used the pitch forks to do with the pile of poo ...flatten it out a bit and then..I could pile on more.  Then...more shovelling it back and forth...my arm was killing me by then.... so I could throw on more.  In the end...the piles are still 5 feet high..but, at least now they are also almost 4 feet across so I can still get a bit more on top.  If I could get out onto the middle of the lawn I could rake or shovel a bit more off the top towards the middle of the lawn and get them down a bit more...but, it is 4 feet deep on the lawn... I'm only 5 feet tall...forget it.  The sun is shining today... maybe some will melt... hahah yeh, right...it is only -12C..so maybe not yet....

I got a bit crazy and turned on the Christmas lights...which I have been unable to get off that bush,  seeing as that snow is pretty deep ...I was leaving them til it melted a bit more... now it snowed a lot more!

Click on the picture to see it larger so you can see details and see how deep things are.  I even had to make boot holes about a foot up my pile in order to step up to toss more snow on.  I had to shovel out the rather large patio because I have some morons coming on Tuesday to take away our granite slab to try to fix the ridiculous cutting mess they made of it last week.  Of course, this was after they assured us they do this all the time.  Liars.  I have no idea what is next if they can't fix their screw up.  As usual, for us...just one more bloody disaster after another with every.single.renovation we have ever done.  We were done with renovations remember? ? ... ..but, then..the oven conked out and we decided to replace it with a range because it was never supposed to be that close to a stove top .. a minimum of 12 inches apparently is even code and necessary so as not to cause damage to appliances underneath the stovetop.   No inspectors... no salesmen (of course) ...no installers...nobody ... ..nobody told us that 5 years ago when we did the last big reno.  We only noticed a teensy tiny line of print on some obscure size charts of the oven when we were measuring for the new range.  So had to have granite re-cut to accommodate it.  Don't believe anybody for a second when they say they do this all the time.   And, if you are one of the lucky ones who has actually had it done and got a great job?... good for you.  

  

SNowmaggedon !!

Things came to a standstill all over the city with that last dump of snow.  It was easily a foot and more..
It took us over 2 hours to shovel ourselves out of the house and around the city sidewalks and our own walkway and front porch area... oh, and patio.... a LOT of shovelling!

I think the movements and strengthening of Tai Chi have helped a lot.  No soreness in the rib tissue at all today... even my mid back which was feeling it yesterday ...is fine this morning.  A beautiful brilliant sunshine morning.... so pretty with all the snow.  But, the driving!  Yikes!

The snow shovellers who do our neighbours' driveways .... got good and stuck when they tried to leave.  It took them at least 45 minutes of struggling and digging and moving trailers and snow machines off and onto their truck to get out of the predicament.   They used almost all of a big bag of mixed salt and gravel too.... nothing was working.  I figured they must not have proper winter tires or something... and, man...why would they not have a 4 wheel drive for that type of thing?  Snow shovelers getting stuck in snow.  Great.  Wonder where they are today?  there is another 6 inches to shovel since they were here last.... mine is all done.  Thank goodness we kept shovelling as it was falling.  It would have just been too heavy to even move by now.

The birdies were around all day looking for seeds and suet... the snow cones on the tops of the feeders fell onto their little heads if they hit the perches very fast or hard...especially the big Flickers... it was pretty funny ...  my entertainment each day anyway...

And, today ...I give you a little Black Capped Chickadee nibbling at a seed.  They take one out of the seed dispenser and fly onto a branch to nibble away at each seed til it is gone.  Such dainty eaters.

Well, still have one side of the house to do some final shovelling ..... off I go .. maybe it would be a great day to walk around the block to see if any photo ops present...although it is still -29C this morning in spite of the sun...... hmmmmm..... we'll see....

Somewhere under that bump...is the birdie bath ..... I know it is ......

Everybody's still digging out..

We had a real old fashioned blizzard for a couple days and now... we are all digging out.  Lots of folks are in a pile of snow a lot worse than ours... some in the north end of the city have drifts up to the roof line... glad we don't live there..

This was bad enough...and it was tough to shovel... the wind blows it so hard it becomes firmly packed and can't just be shovelled...you have to bang it with the edge of the scraper first in order to break it up and then shovel it ... I worked and worked hard for an hour and a half the first day...and had to give up...I just couldn't bang it or life on more shovel full....

While I was resting...I heard a snowblower...and thanks to my neighbour.... had a walking size path done on the rest of the city sidewalk that surrounds the house...we are on a corner lot..so quite a lot of shovelling from front to back and also the front sidewalk to the house...a big porch into which the snow blew two feet deep and the driveway at the back ... which rtanged from a fot to two feet deep all across it.... I worked another hour yesterday to clear the second half of the driveway...and today....I must make a start on the patio... which has a tiny path dug up to the steps ...and the rest still needs moving....

The wild winds blew it off the roof and most of it landed inside the patio... and there is only way in and out..to shovel it out ..or ...try to toss some of it over the 5 foot surrounded wall..... sheeesh.....

at least the sun is out...but, today it is bitterly cold at -25C ...and there is a breeze...so minus 35 for windchill... every bit of skin must be covered or you risk frostbite.....

here's to you Old Man Winter!

Oh, alright no point in complaining ...

Just get out and shovel....and shovel....and shovellllllll........