December 2012 Blizzard Cleanup

It took me about 9 hours of shoveling over the last 3 days and I still have the roof to rake.  This blizzard was not as bad as the one in February 2011.  Click here if you want to compare.  Enjoy the pictures and be happy your not digging out.

I had a 3 foot drift just under the roof line that was just a little to close to the furnace inlet and outlet, so I opened up the area.

The roof needs to be raked tomorrow.  The roof vents are on the snow covered side.

2012 Winter's First Blizzard

I woke up to this at my back door at 4 AM.  I can walk out my front door without shoveling it until I walk off the porch.  We still have more snow coming with 45 mile/hr winds in the afternoon.

Taking it Easy

I have been fighting a sinus infection for the last 4 to 5 weeks which is the reason you have not hear from me for the last two weeks. I finely decided to go to the doctor a week ago from Monday. I received the needed antibiotics but it took over a week for them to kick in which is very usually, normally it take two or three days. I went straight back to work after seeing the doctor and they are in the process of fixing our laboratory air venting system. The construction workers started welding in our office area to stall new vents on our end of the building that Monday. The welding fumes just burned the back of my throat and sinus. I spent the next two day home hoping they finished welding and I get better. When I went back to work of Thursday they were still welding and by Friday evening I was in worst shape. Another weekend was shot because I have been sick so long none of my projects are done. The only thing I did get done was plant the peppers and flowers.

I spent most of my time last four weekends just watching movies or reading which may sound like a treat but I really needed to finish those other project. I was hoping to feel well enough on the past two Saturdays to visit a Restore in Prairie du Sac that is only open on Saturday 8 to 1 and on the back I was going to stop at Cedar Grove Cheese in Plain WI. Cedar Grove Cheese is the only company where I can find low fat cheddar cheese in blocks. I dislike pre-shredded cheese which is the only another way I find it in the store. The pre-shredded cheese tastes awful with all the additives to keep the cheese fresh and from sticking together into a big ball. I hope to go this weekend.

I will be planting my tomatoes this week and the basil I did not get the previous week. I give you the list of tomatoes I will plant next week. The Amaryllis is now in bloom and it looks great!


I still have a small area on the north still covered with snow but with the rain and the temperatures in the 40’s and 50’s the next few days. It will not last much longer.


Hopefully I will be able to start working on many of my unfinished projects this weekend.

Blizzard clean-up

Saturday was used to finish cleaning up from Tuesday blizzard. I start digging a path to the shed where my roof rake is kept.

While digging the path to the shed I keep arguing with myself about making a path from the driveway to the back door. My conscience won and I dug the path. Last Tuesday I decided that I just leave it snowed in until the spring melt, but the thought not be able to receive deliveries at the back door was something I did not want to do without.







After finishing digging out the path, I started to remove the three foot snow drift around the south side of the house. The gas meter and furnace exhaust vents are on that side. I removed the snow to about 4 feet away from the house. I hope when the snow melts, the water will run toward the back yard and not toward the house causing the fountain to leak.


The last job was to rake the roof. The roof's north side was fairly clean since the wind blew most the snow off. I did try to remove snow from in front of the bathroom vent and around the waste vent. The front porch roof had snow drift covering 3 to 4 feet next to the house and about 3 feet high.


The south roof had very little snow on the lower half of the roof but my three roof vents are near the ridge and were covered with snow. I was surprised at how much snow was on the upper half. Here is the snow and roof rake is used as a reference to show how high it was. After it was removed from the roof I shoveled the snow away from the fountain and then call it a day. Sunday was declared a day of rest.