We arrived at our house at 10:30 on Friday. The nor’easter that hit the area Tuesday and Wednesday set all kinds of records for snowfall. We had followed the storm on the Weather Channel so we knew the snow would be piled high and would require a lot of work to clear.

We couldn’t even see the entrance to the driveway. The town snowplows had made a mountain of snow that was nearly shoulder high. My plan was to climb the mountain of snow and walk up the driveway to the garage to get the snowblower. Then I could clear a path down the driveway so that Christine could get to the house while I cleared the driveway.
Climbing the mountain was harder than I thought. I kept sinking with each step, but eventually, I got over the mountain. Then I had to make my way up the driveway. Someone had walked up the driveway at some point, so I was lucky to be able to step in someone else’s foot holes. I learned later that our neighbor Gary got worried about us during the storm, having seen no activity, and walked up to ring the doorbell to see if we were okay. How nice of him to do that. Next time we leave on a trip we probably ought to tell at least one of the neighbors.

I made it up the driveway and was able to get the garage door open and the snowblower started. The height of the snow was about 22 inches. With the sun yesterday apparently about 8 inches of snow had receded since the overall storm total in our area was about 31 inches. But even still, what we faced was a lot of snow.

I did come down the driveway with the snowblower, which really taxed the poor thing. The width of the blower is 24 inches and the snow was a little higher than its mouth, so it had to work really hard to clear a whole 24 inches in the first swatch down the driveway.
Then came the mountain at the end of the driveway. That was a considerable challenge! It took about 10 minutes for the snowblower to break through the mountain (this video will take a while to load).
But eventually, I was able to cut through the mountain.
Our mail, which had been held by the post office, was delivered on Thursday, so it was in the mailbox, which had been pushed sideways by the snowplows.
Christine collected the mail and made it up to the house. She then helped to shovel near the front door. Manually shoveling was very difficult due to the weight of the snow. She also helped a great deal with breaking up the mountain at the end of the driveway by slicing off chunks and chopping them up so the snowblower could more easily clear the snow. That was a really big help. Again, I thank God I have that big, honkin’ snowblower!

You can see the indentation of the front door panels in the snow from inside the breezeway. And I don’t think I’ll be grilling anytime soon.

After we shoveled and blew for about 4 hours, with the sun helping to melt the snow, we got the driveway cleared (for the most part). And the car was in the garage.

Suffice to say, we were exhausted, but happy to be home and in the house.
And that brings to a close this adventure. We’ll be staying home now until July and we hope to be catching up on yard work at the house this spring. I never did get the flower beds in shape after being away until July last year and missing spring entirely. When the snow melts, we’ll be out getting dirt under of fingernails. Can’t wait! And also, we plan to get to the cottage early and get some projects started there. We have a lot to look forward to. I’ll try to post some progress reports on how the backyard is looking during spring. We do have some lovely flowers and shrubs.
Thanks for going with us on our adventure. I wish you all a happy spring!