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Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Snowmageddon Rages On! Tales from the Snow Belt.

Have you ever wondered to yourself "What have I gotten myself in to?"  Then you'll be well acquainted with how we're feeling currently.  Another Nor'easter stormed through over Tuesday evening & with the warmer temperatures (no snickering!) the snow was classic sculpting snow.  Heavy (with a bit of an icy crust) and drifting up to the three foot mark in places - 25cm of snow they said.  S'truth!  (That means places that had already been cleared of snow, some of our piles are seven feet high or so.)

We called in reinforcements (aka Cory) when we couldn't get the Green Monster out from the out building, but through some obscene (and dare I say sadistic) miracle, later in the day the GM cooperated and the troops were called back to the barracks.  Half way through clearing the driveway (not quite to the end of course) the darn thing needed a fill up so Ron went in to warm up (I had returned home by that time) and I went to get the gas canister.  (Yes, we actually have one of those.)  Fast forward 15 minutes (max)!  Ron goes to fire up the GM and the throttle lever snaps (yes, the BRAND NEW one.)  Desperate to get the machine back to the out building, Ron used a screw driver to up the throttle to get the thing to start and it finally turned over (thank any deity that was involved!), but would it move?  No, we couldn't get the engine to engage the drive tranny.  (Yes...I'm THAT down with the John Deers lingo!) 

After a few minutes of futile pushing and cajoling, Ron managed to get the brake to snap out properly and we had forward motion.  Now, keep in mind that the wind is blowing in 47km an hour gusts and by the time we had the GM turned around a lot of what had been cleared had filled in partially from the drifting snow.

Well, it worked out in the end.  The GM is successfully back in it's home (well most of it...there are some plastic parts from the throttle lever scattered over the property) Ron's taking a hot shower to warm up...he was out for over 3 hours (note temperature above) and dinner is cooking.  The cavalry will be called back in tomorrow to clear the drive with an industrial sized blower (hopefully) and all will be well.  There isn't much snow in the forecast (at least not the last time I looked) so cross your fingers that the worst of it is over.

I hear the cherry blossoms are peeking out in Vancouver...it will be a while before we see anything like that, but if I can just get down the drive without needing snow shoes or a shovel, I'll be grateful.

2 comments:

  1. Do you think the throttle lever is breaking because of the temperature ?

    I wonder if Ron could fabricate something out of aluminum or even wood.

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  2. That's exactly what we thought, but John Deere swears that it isn't the case...that only leaves design flaw, by my way of thinking, but the whole thing worked splendedly today - having been replaced yet again (thank heaven's)so we'll see how it holds out. We're over half way through winter, so maybe that will be that.

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