More snow fun! And Man vs. Driveway

Yup, it snowed last night-- probably another 5 inches. Crazy! This is more snow than we got TOTAL all last winter, and we've only just begun. As everyone keeps telling me, this is shaping up to be a "real" New England winter. Lots more snow than before. Which presents some new challenges, which I will get to soon enough. I am just glad we had a nice, mild "transitional" winter last year. We couldn't have timed it better if we'd tried!

Anyhow... We didn't really have any plans for the day, aside from clearing the driveway. But a local friend really wanted to go sledding, so I invited her and her kiddos over to enjoy our perfect slope! Seriously, we bought a house with the ultimate sledding hill. It is so cool to be able to just go out back and sled to our hearts' content! At any rate, she came over after lunch, and the kids had a great time. The four of them play together really well-- her kids are the same age, but switch the genders. Nikos and her daughter will be in the same grade, while Maya and her son will be together. Through all the same schools, too! A convenient friend to have, indeed!! Anyway, here are a few pictures from their snow adventures...

And one from when they came back in. These two love each other! I sense future blackmail material!! Perhaps in high school?

Meanwhile... Gus was working in the driveway. Allow me to back up a few days, to the last snowstorm. On Thursday morning, Gus had cleared the driveway before leaving for work. However, it was still snowing-- another two or so inches fell after he was done. I should have gone out and cleared it before he got home. Hindsight is 20/20! But I didn't, and figured it was shallow enough that driving on it wouldn't be a problem. Gus thought the same thing. No biggie. He drove on it on Thursday night, and again on Friday morning. And Friday afternoon was when I realized two things. One was that our driveway was now covered with hard-packed snow and ice. The second thing was that the forecast didn't include any temperatures that were above freezing, for as far ahead as I could see. Soooo... the ice had to go. And thus began the battle of Man vs. Driveway (or, in my case, Woman vs. Driveway).

I spent about 2.5 hours out there on Friday, shoveling and salting and chipping away at the mess. I got maybe a quarter of the driveway clear. It was 27 degrees, and I was SWEATING! It was a ton of work! I took a break at one point and did some research. I decided that we absolutely, positively NEEDED a chipper/scraper tool (this exact one). I was literally hacking away at the ice with a garden hoe. It was not very effective!

First thing yesterday morning, the four of us headed to the store in search of better equipment. We got a new shovel, a chipper/scraper thing, a salt spreader, and Gus got a pair of Yaktrax (impulse buy--they were on sale! They are very cool, though!). Then we came home, got the kids settled inside the house, and got to work. The chipper/scraper/whatever-you-call it tool was the BEST. Seriously, we should have just gotten two of those. It was still slow-going, but would have been impossible without that tool. By the time the snow started falling, we (mostly Gus!) had gotten this far... Remember, the entire driveway had been covered! And there was an icy snowbank at the end of the driveway from the plows going by!

When we woke up this morning, the driveway was completely covered-- but it was with light, powdery snow. Gus made quick work of it with the snowblower, and then set to work on removing the rest of the ice. And he did it! The sunny weather helped a bit, though today's high temperature was still only 26 degrees. He also cleared out the little parking pad we use to turn our cars around. It looks SO much better now! And I feel a lot less stranded, seeing as how my car doesn't have all-wheel drive OR snow tires!

The plan now is to just keep on top of the driveway-- and never drive on the snow, unless there are warmer temperatures in the immediate forecast! It just packs it down and turns it to solid ice. Which then, in turn, is VERY difficult to remove! Lesson learned! We are going to be pros by the time this winter is over. And also, I think we are going to be getting a lot of exercise. Not necessarily a bad thing!