It has been a while since my last post. We have since moved in and have been working at getting getting settled and things set up in the new home. One of these days I will have time to go through the house and do some interior photographs. For now, I have a few photographs of our first winter.
We were able to move into the house on October 30. There was still quite a bit of finish work and cleaning to be done, but it was amazing how perfect everything was laid out. Each window has a unique view. I feel blessed waking up every day in this home.
So far we have been blessed with snow. We've had more snow now than the entire winter last year.
Here are photographs of the house after the first snow.
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I knew the driveway was going to be a challenge in the winter. Everyone had advice about how to deal with the snow and maintaining a passable driveway. Some people were very pessimistic asking, "What are you going to do in the winter?" Other people did not think the driveway was going to be a big deal. Some suggested building a garage at the bottom of the hill and getting snow mobiles or a snow cat to get to the house. Other people said I would have to chain all four tires on my plow truck. For reference, the driveway is 7/10 of mile long and has three hairpin turns. It is steep and gains a bit over 500 feet. I knew that I would need to get a snow plow for my truck. Hiring someone to plow that long of a driveway would be expensive, probably over a $100 per plow. We have had four big snows so far this fall, and winter just got here. With each big snow I have plowed several times to keep up with the snowfall. This is so different from the hot dry summer fraught with dust storms, drought and fire danger.
Initially the plowing went easily. I had set up the truck with a V-plow that allows me to configure the blade to plow to the left or right, in a V configuration or scoop with a controller as I plow. This plow was more costly than a straight blade. I am sure glad I went with this set up now. I am getting better with my technique and am now very comfortable running the plow. I put studded snow tires on the truck and have a set chains just in case. For the first couple of plows the studded snow tires were fine. The last storm had snow conditions that had me sliding backwards down the driveway after my first pass with the plow. I had to put the chains on and that solved the problem for the time being.
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I also knew there could be an issue with snow storage. Where do you pile the snow that you have plowed? I designated each hairpin turn as a location to pile snow and snow berms would accumulate on the roadside. My snow storage locations are at capacity and the berms that developed on the roadside are so tall that as I ran the plow the snow would have no where to go, it would hit the berm and fall back on to the driveway.
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We spent the afternoon with snow shovels knocking down the berms and manually pushing snow down the hillside so that there would be a place for snow to go on future plowings. It was a good workout!
Scientists keep saying El Nino is going to make for dry warm winter. I am not seeing it. Cold snowy winters and hot dry summers are what I have seen and what I love. We have had a chance to snowshoe hike on trails around the property and ski at Mission Ridge a couple of times on some of the best snow they have had in the last few years.