Getting warped

[altivo]

No, not that way. I'm putting a warp on a loom. I'd rather do it by daylight, because I'm using fine linen threads, but there just hasn't been time during the day what with all the cleanup from the snowstorm. It took us two full days to get snow out of the major paths around here.

We've been spoiled as a result of not having a major snow accumulation like this for the last several years. An inch or two is of no consequence. It just gets trampled down and then melts into mud. Eleven inches won't do that. It's more likely to pack down and become ice that might last for weeks and be very treacherous to walk on. So Gary uses his old Ariens snowblower (27 years old now, he actually pulled the receipt out of the owner's manual tonight to see) to cut footpaths or double wide footpaths (for the wheelbarrow) over all the necessary routes. Interconnect two barns and the house, sheep pen, horse yard, and the woodshed. Then there's the real killer, the double wide path from the barns to the manure/compost pile. That one is a good eighth of a mile in length. Forget shoveling it by hand. Forget pushing a wheelbarrow through a foot of snow to get back there, too. Of course the driveway has to be cleared from the house to the road, as well. We don't bother with the rest of it where it goes back to the barns and the pasture. And... you have to clear a patch in front of the mailbox. The snowplows pile snow there so deep that the letter carrier can't reach the box.

Overall I'm sure the snow is a good thing. It covers plants and insects in the top layer of soil and protects them from wind chill and drying. It's pretty right now, though it will be gray and ugly from air-born dirt in a week or so unless more falls.

Comments

[hgryphon.livejournal.com]

And I was hoping you took on video games... Actually, you might get a kick out of "Bookworm Adventures." It stars a librarian. ;)

http://www.popcap.com/launchpage.php?theGame=bwa

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Heh. Who has time for videogames? I never can figure that out.

[hgryphon.livejournal.com]

1) People without enough life to take up all their time.
2) People who give up parts of their life to make time for the games.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

(1) is pretty easy to cure.
(2) however, seems like a dangerous disease to me.

[hgryphon.livejournal.com]

I gave up TV and a good part of my Internet routine for gaming...

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't count giving up TV as giving up part of your life. That was no loss and videogames are as good a trade as anything for it.

If by internet routine you mean socializing, though, even if it was only IM, then that one I'd count as a loss. Even though I don't generally use IMs, they seem more valuable to me than gaming. ;p

[lobowolf.livejournal.com]

Ugh...you can have my snow :P We haven't had any yet, since it's been unusually warm. Friday night we had thunderstorms and a downpour, but it's back to more seasonable temperatures today (30s and 40's). Friday morning it was in the 60's and by Friday night it was in the 40's, so it was a wild front.

I have a 38 year old Ariens snowblower...still runs, though it's getting a bit tired. I was having some issues with the carb float sticking..I should probably just buy a whole new carb for it (it's a pretty basic Tecumseh design).

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Those snowblowers are tough. I can't tell you how many dead lawnmowers and suchlike we have sitting around here, but that Ariens keeps running. It has been overhauled twice, I think, and the carburetor is the thing that does wear the most. He had an electric starter added to it about 12 years ago, the kind you plug into a wall outlet, and that makes it much easier to start as opposed to pulling the cord. We use it now on unpaved surfaces, which I thought would never work, or at least not for long, but it keeps going.

Those thunderstorms you had on Friday were probably part of the same mess that gave us the snow. We had noisy thunderstorms on Wednesday, and there was thunder and lightning with the snow as well, which is pretty unusual. Watching the radar, though, it looked like Lake Michigan ate the entire storm. Big as the thing was, once it got out over the lake it just dissapated. The odd thing was that the weather service predicted this storm a whole week in advance. They almost never get that right, but this time it was accurate to within an hour or so.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

You're a pony get out there and trample it down :D

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Trampling just makes it worse. You get bumpy, very slippery ice.

[deffox]

There are times I'd love to have a decent amount of land. But at the moment I don't envy you having to move that much snow. There are some perks of being in an apartment.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Well, people who don't mind spending money and accumulating gas engine stuff have tractors and bobcats and that sort of thing for the job. That big equipment can be deadly dangerous though, and expensive to maintain if you don't have the mechanical skills, which I certainly don't.