January Snow

The winter has not been a good one. Last year (2013-14) there was a lot of snow and truthfully I handled it much better than all the sleet and freezing rain this year. Up until today there has been only a crusty frozen few inches covering the ground. The driveway is a mass of icy ruts from the melting, rain and re-freeze.

When it rains in winter I have water issues to deal with. After the all-day rain last weekend, I had many inches of water to push out of the garage. First I had to dig trenches in the driveway to direct the water off to the side. Thankfully I had a door put in on the back wall, and it comes in handy in pushing the water out the back.
The water problem is an easy fix. The garage has a drain, but it’s clogged with sand. It’s been like that since I moved here a few years ago. So a new drain, in the back corner at the lowest point would solve the problem.
Just like all the other problems, big and small, nothing can be done about fixing them without money to hire someone to do so. So I deal with the issues as they arise, as best I can.

At least today it’s snow coming down and not rain. It should never rain in winter. In fact it should never get above freezing. That is when all the problems occur. Ice forms and makes walking treacherous and shoveling impossible. These are the things I forgot about while living in Florida for 27 years. I remembered the snow, but not the ice. Shortly after I moved north in 2005 I fell and cracked my head open on black ice. A few stitches later and lesson learned.

If we end up getting more than the 3-7 inches predicted, I will have to start up the snowblower and try to clean up the driveway. It was a bit difficult getting the thing started last time, which was the only time I’ve had to use it so far this season. Usually by now we’ve had a number of big storms here in New Hampshire – like the big one in October 2011. My daughter is disappointed as she likes to go snowboarding. The slopes have been making snow, but it doesn’t compare to nice, fresh powder.

This snowfall looks so pretty. Maybe the rest of the winter will be normal.