therapy

you might think that with nothing to do around the house because of 4 feet of snow covering anything, that i would have had time to write at least something in january. you would be wrong.
Shall i extol upon the thrills to be had perching yourself on a roof with a hose trying to melt channels in the ice dams so that your roof will stop leaking? or shoveling for 2 hours a day just to try and clear a spot for the dogs to go to the bathroom?

no, i won't. although, the shoveling did get easier and easier, not because of less and less snow, but i think i actually worked out some muscles ;)

still, there was a lot of snow. a lot of shoveling, a lot of getting stuck in my OWN DRIVEWAY!!!
Yes, both melany and i got stuck in the driveway. that involved a marathon 5+ hours of shoveling. not even 4wd could save us that time. i had to go buy chains after that, so i could get up and down the driveway. That's how deep the snow got. once i got the chains though, it was pretty easy to do. the chains gave me enough grip to be able to drive up and down the driveway, and squash the snow down. Yes, i spent 45 minutes going back and forth slowly, carefully overlapping my tire treads to get the maximum squashing effect.
a useless use of my time? no. it made the driveway much easier to deal with without chains.

visitors to the house however, those without 4WD, were pretty much screwed. especially when it warmed up a bit, making the 1 foot thick hardpack, 1 foot of slush. Not slushy enough to melt away, just enough to stop any 2WD car from getting up the driveway at all.

so, snow shoveling aside, let me recap the damage. the shed caved in completely. it's toast. the roof came down on top of the brand new john deere riding mower (no damage to mower)
the old aviary, which we started using as a protected garden (hordes of mule deer around the house) is toast. it has to come down completely. the 3 inch pipes that support it? they bent. a LOT. I will take pictures of teh damage.
There was no real damage to the roof, although, i am still going to reshingle the half over the kitchen, because of previous leaks that are probably worse now.
all the rain gutters that i wanted to replace, were damaged from the persistent ice in them. some of them actually fell off. All the more impetus to replace them.

so that's what's been happening.
cheers.