April Snow Storm Challenges: The month started out with a snow storm was pretty to look at but resulted in several challenges. Starting with a storm that began with over an inch of rain followed by a heavy snow that fell overnight.We woke up on April Fool’s Day to a beautiful view out of our back window. Little did we know that the joke was on us.
When I let the dogs out there appeared to be only a couple inches of new snow out the back on the deck so I wasn’t too concerned. Later in the morning I happened to look out the front windows to see my neighbors blowing out a lot of snow from their driveways. I noticed that the snow piled at the end of our driveway was over 3 feet high.
Challenge #1 – Snow Cleanup
I got dressed and went out to deal with the snow. Turns out that there was over 8″ of fresh, heavy wet snow in the front. Jae needed to go to work so I had to hustle to clear a path for her. The snow was so heavy that our 10 HP snow blower was struggling to blow the snow. I could only take about half a blower width at a time. It took me 2 hours to blow out the driveway and sidewalk. For most snow events it would take at most an hour. No big deal. We get spring snow most years. But it got worse.
Challenge #2 – Canine Cleanup
After blowing out the snow I went to the gym and did my hip replacement rehab. When I got home I walked to the front entry way to see if there were any packages. I noticed a smell that wasn’t supposed to be in the house. I checked the main level and couldn’t find an evidence of a canine accident. Then I went upstairs and the smell was stronger. I entered the master bedroom and the smell was really strong. I turned on a light and discovered that indeed one of the dogs had had an accident. If that was all it wouldn’t have been a big deal. But, after the accident our Robo Vacuum went to work and valiantly tried to clean it up. The result was not pretty. I spent the next two hours using a small carpet cleaner to clean up the vacuum’s failed attempt throughout the entire room. A couple days later we had a professional carpet cleaner come in and clean the room. The vacuum has not been cleaned up yet and I’m not sure it will be.
Challenge #3 – Tree Cleanup
On the morning of April 6th, after feeding the dogs their breakfast I noticed a flash of color through our White Pine down the hill that looked like a cracked branch. I assumed it was a tree in the park north of our property. Later in the day I went down the hill to investigate only to discover that the heavy snow had broken off a couple very large limbs from our White Pine. That is the second major damage event to that tree in less than a year. The pictures in the gallery show the damage. That cleanup won’t happen until the snow is gone and the lawn is dry enough to drive the tractor on.
Update 4/14/23
The weather was nice and sunny. The ground was, for the most part relatively dry so I decided to start the cleanup. The first step was to use the chain saw to cut up the limbs into branches that could be chipped and firewood. I loaded about half of the branches on the small trailer and drove them up to the sport court where I will chip them. Once all of the branches are taken care of then I will bring the Kubota tractor down the hill and get the firewood, which I will give to a neighbor.
Update 4/17/2
Branches chipped. I made a short video of the chipping process. Chipping isn’t that exciting or interesting. The reason for the video was to test the time lapse capabilities of the GoPro since I will use it on an upcoming project. Here is the video. Don’t worry, it is short.
So the April Snow Storm that started out so pretty to look at, ended up causing a lot of work.
