SnowCD

One year, after we had been in Spokane for a couple of years, we had a storm dump 18 inches of snow in 24 hours.

We don’t get lake effect snow. This is not Buffalo. It’s not uncommon for us to have storms drop 6″ – 8″ in a go, but 18 inches was a bit much.

The next day, we had a much less unusual 6″ snowfall. But, let’s see (counts on fingers), that’s 24″ of snow in 48 hours.

I was not prepared. Not logistically. Not emotionally.

I used to be one of those “wait until the snow stops before you shovel.”

NO MORE. Now I go out and shovel every few hours in daylight during a snow event. Active snow events make me nervous. Plus, it’s easier for me to shovel 2-3″ at a time, than 6-8″ (or 18″), because let’s face it; my back and shoulders are not what they were when I was in my 20s (and I haven’t been in my 20s for a very long time). Anything more than 6″ takes forever and I’m sore for the rest of the day.

We have a walk, front sidewalk (with no hell strip), the cars, side alley, back patio, back stairs… and the sun room roof. (We have a sun room with a roof that isn’t pitched properly, so ice dams form at the gutter if you don’t rake the roof after big storms.)

[Fortunately for us, we have a couple of amazing neighbors with big snow blowers, and it’s not uncommon to come outside to find a path blown down the sidewalk. (So thankful.)]

Thanks to said amazing neighbors, the job isn’t as huge as it might be otherwise… but it’s still a big job that isn’t much fun. It’s one of those things that I hate to have to do, but I allow myself to hate it and carry on with it, because the longer you leave snow sitting around, the harder it becomes to move. It can get heavy because there’s a lot of it, because it’s wet, or because it has compacted from sitting around too long.

We got ~6.5″ of snow last night, between midnight and 7:30a. Our amazing neighbor plowed a path, so all I had to do was shovel around it in front. I cleared the front porch, the walk, the alley and half of the patio, the back stairs, and raked the roof. Fabulous and talented husband, finished the patio with our little snow blower and cleared the cars.

As I type this is 9:45a, and it’s still snowing — projected to continue for the next several hours (although it looks like we’ve had the bulk of the snow already, so my next few forays shouldn’t be as intense).

I’ll be out at lunchtime, and again after dinner. And we’ll do it all over again tomorrow, if necessary.