Winter 2008

January 5-6, 2020 Blizzard Warning (21 Photos)

After suffering through very disappointing snow accumulation last year (one blizzard in early January, followed by a warm spell which melted it all, concluding with super freezing cold temperatures and no snow for the remainder of the year). I was hopeful that 2020 would be much different. The season started off well with a 20cm dump Christmas Eve, and now we have a 45cm dump and Blizzard Warning forecast to start later today into tomorrow.

Snow began around 3pm and got heavier and heavier as the evening progressed.

Mark French picked me up suppertime as he needed a hand at his brother's garage in Mount Pearl.

Justin recently purchased a new shop truck, a 2019 GMC 2500HD Duramax and just had his snow plow installed a couple days ago. With the Blizzard underway we had to get the Amber plow light installed and working for him to be able to legally and safely complete his snow clearing.

While French installed the back rack & mounted the light, I tackled the wiring connecting the light to the factory plow light switch in the overhead console. Meanwhile Justin and Stroh got the OEM summer tires swapped for his steel wheels and snow tires.

It was late but we got the job done while the storm raged outside.

With our work complete we stopped to Tim's in Paradise for a quick coffee on the way home.

The next day was calm and daylight revealed a landscape blanketed in 45cm wind driven heavily drivted snow.

I'm so glad I got out yesterday for an ATV ride as the trails will be impassable without tracks for awhile now!

My trusty Honda 9/28 Snowblower never disappoints as I set to work clearing the driveway in relatively short order.

Here you can see where I follow an often overlooked procedure in the owners manual. You let the tracks ride up onto the snow taking off a layer of snow equal to the full height of the bucket. Then you back up and remove the bottom layer. Quick, easy and does not require any drift cutters or shovelling.

Job done (for now! lol)

Next up was the arduous task of shovelling out the basement well. It's a PITA job that has to be done by hand. One trick that helps a lot is that I blow all the shovelled snow out into the backyard. If left near the railing it drifts in worse during the next storm.

On January 7th we had another 10cm snowfall which was a lot faster to clean up but still a nice addition to our early ever growing snowfall accumulation!

Cheers, MIKE