I need a new method of snow removal.

Saturday was pretty cold.  I didn't do much, mostly some cleaning, at least until I found out that my pipes were frozen.  That was a little disappointing; last winter my pipes didn't freeze until well below zero, between -15 and -20.  We only reached about -10, though there was a lot of wind (steady 35mph) Friday night which probably accounts for the difference.

Sunday was actually pretty nice, so I went out for a bit.  It was shallow enough that I didn't need my snowshoes.  Looks like my daylight pipe froze up for the well.

There has been a lot of something walking through my yard.  Those aren't my footprints.

They really seem to like circling the pile of dirt at the bottom.  

Some of them looked like deer, and I saw one set large enough to be a moose.  I don't normally see deer prints with the pegs in the back, so apparently it is a large one.  

There was one set I couldn't identify.

I also had a new set in my backyard.  The track had degraded too much to tell, but I think it is either a opossum or raccoon.  

I went back and looked at the "highway" in the far back.  It appears that a couple of trees came down and while it wasn't devoid of tracks, there weren't many back there anymore.

Apparently at some point part of my cliff came apart too.  Those rocks weren't there last winter I am pretty sure.

After the chill on Saturday, my creek was frozen.  I could hear a slight gurgle, so there was still some water running underneath.  

After hearing Greg thinking about going ice fishing on Saturday, I decided to see how thick the ice was.  My creek easily held my weight, despite being crappy air filled creek ice.

I got some stuff ready to work on the floor in the shed, but I didn't really feel motivated to do anything with it.  I also took some pictures to get a document ready for the house (how far they can expand, etc).

Once I went back in, I got my pipes thawed, and was able to run laundry.

We got a lot of snow Sunday night and Monday.  We were supposed to get 3-5 Sunday night, and another 3-5 during the day on Monday.  I woke up Monday to a lot more than that.  In the areas that weren't drifts, the snow was up to the very top of my boots.  The drift areas were over the top of the snowblower (>24").  

To add insult to injury, I apparently broke my snowblower at some point.  I am not sure exactly when it happened, but I jerry-rigged something up to at least allow me to use the snowblower.  

I snowblowed in between all my meetings during the day.  It got above freezing late morning though, and this problem reared its ugly head.

I waited until the evening to finish so it was below freezing again.  I got everything cleared as best I could, I need a garage though, I can't reach the center of the cap.  

And of course, as I completed everything, I pulled out the tractor to scrape it down good, since I have the snowblower set kind of high, and as I went to put the tractor away, it started sleeting.  A lot.  

I had intended to get a three point snowblower for my tractor for this winter, but due to supply issues, couldn't find one in stock.  Next year I will definitely get one though.  I spent most of the day clearing snow, since it was a heavy wet snow the walk behind snowblower struggled a lot.

I did some prep work for the house and the shed floor, but I don't think I would mark those as being in progress yet.  I also noticed that I had no traction issues with the tractor, despite the fact that I haven't put the chains on it yet.  If this snowstorm wasn't enough to require chains, I am not sure what they provide other than tearing up the driveway, so I probably won't bother with them.

Winter Projects:

• Install chains and anti-gel in tractor.
• Get power center out of truck.
• Fix shed floor.
• Review options for house (mobile home vs stick built vs modular)
• Put up more shelving/hooks in the carport