yesterday was the first night of snow clearing on side streets this winter, and I have finally figured out which zone we are in…
I have learned to go out as soon as the plows go by to shovel the end of the sidewalk otherwise it turns to concrete and is nearly impossible to move…
they arrived about 10:45 pm and my housemate went out and shovelled our sidewalk and the one next door… in his shirtsleeves, but he did have his gloves on…
a nice treat, although I was dressed and ready to go, lol…
they did a great job at the end of the driveway so there was nothing to shovel there…
I did stand in the window and wave to each of the drivers of the graders and plows as they went by…
it was bitterly cold and I didn’t take a photo until they were doing the other side of the street, lol…
was out for the first full sidewalk shovel of the year on Thursday…
last week I did the very front portion of the sidewalk closest to the road, lol… but the shovel I used was not good… it was heavy and the snow clung to the metal…
we went to Canadian Tire and checked out all the options… finally I chose this plastic one…
it worked well and as there wasn’t much snow on the ground it didn’t take too long…
a bit later in the day, I shovelled to the back lane so that the garbage bin could go out;-)…
a friend was coming over so I went out and did a quick shovel of the snow… there wasn’t really much out there, although the wind was a bit chilly… it was nice to be outdoors for a few minutes…
when she arrived we had tea in the living room and a great visit… multiple topics were covered as we discussed life and the odd times we are living in…
it was so lovely to have an in-person conversation…
she brought me a lemon loaf and also picked up some tulips and hyacinth at my request…
after she left, I had a fun time filling vases with tulips and distributing them in every room in the house…
there might still be huge amounts of snow outside, but in here it is Spring;-)…
I had called the city as the fire hydrant in my front yard had been covered with a windrow when the city cleared the snow from the streets recently…
they also missed cleaning the end of my driveway… it hasn’t been shovelled for the last few storms so it was hard to tell there was actually a driveway there, lol…
anyway, a vehicle came with a big scoop on the front of it and I had a great time watching how well the driver maneuvered it… they cleaned out the area around the fire hydrant, and even got out to be sure where it was… for a minute I was worried about what would happen if they hit it… yikes…
then they cleared the windrow at the bottom of the driveway… they backed up and went down the street looking for places where they could dump it…
finally, they scraped a spot in front of the neighbour’s where two cars had been plowed in… the neighbour dug one out and moved it back a few feet, but there were a couple of inches of packed snow where the car had been… they danced around the vehicles… very talented people…
when I was out shovelling today, I took a few photos along the walkway… I had noticed crevices in the middle of the front snowbank and took a picture of one close to the sidewalk…
I hope it doesn’t cause an avalanche into the sidewalk, lol…
put on long underwear, an extra vest, mitts over gloves, my Canada Goose jacket, and went out in the extreme cold to shovel a path to the garbage and recycle bins…
I had hoped to put them in the lane for pick up but there was just too much snow… hopefully, next week it will be a bit warmer so I can finish digging the path out all the way to the gate…
thankfully there is a bit of space in both bins so they should be fine for one more week…
there was a huge drift up against the back door and it took a while to get through it…
as I moved further into the yard, the path got narrower… it was cold out there…
it was just wide enough for me to carry out the bags, lol…
sure do miss my beloved, he would have shovelled and snow blowed a great path all the way to the lane, no problem… and had fun doing it, lol… he did love to play with the snowblower…
it was cold out there – felt like -35 Celsius – but I had to take out the garbage and recycling…
Friday is garbage day, so I wanted to check whether the bins needed to get to the back lane or not, lol…
happily, once the path was cleared, there wasn’t enough in them to need to drag them out this week, but next week may be a different story…
the snow is getting deeper and the pile alongside the deck is higher than the deck boards… this time I was really working at tossing it further, but it is a struggle…
I also dug a narrow path along the driveway to get to the vents for the furnace, to be sure they were clear of snow…
there is a ton of snow on the driveway, but I just moved it over so I could make my way…
spent time in the garden on a beautiful warm day… we’ve been under extreme cold warnings for what seems like forever… shovelled a path to the garbage can and back gate… also cleaned the area around the hot tub…
finally cleaned off a good portion of the upper deck so I can get to the bird feeder… it was difficult to get the snow and old seeds out of the feeder, but I managed…
and just a few minutes later the chickadees were back for fresh snacks…
my middle grandson arrived yesterday afternoon to do some shovelling…
he made a path from the house to the garage… and then to the back lane… all around the hot tub… and the top deck…
there was a lot of snow and it hadn’t been touched since Thursday…
he, of course, arrived with runners on his feet, lol… he had good gloves but his hands got cold, so for part of the job, he used grandpa’s garbage mitts that I had brought outside…
the driveway got a quick shovel as well as the sidewalks… they had been shovelled and snow blowed twice by the neighbour…
enjoyed the winter solstice by going out and shovelling the sidewalk…
also took a few photos while I was outside…
last night there was just a skiff of snow so I decided to clean the sidewalk… I hadn’t done it for a few little snowfalls and as I worked away at it I realized that was a mistake…
some of it was acting a bit like cement and was rather difficult to remove…
herbiggirlpants 