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Part One - Day One

So It Goes, And It Goes, And It Goes...

Where IS Everybody?

The weather guessers had predicted: "Light flurries... " the night before, "...followed by to some rather heavy snowfall by mid afternoon on Monday. " Understatement of the year on the news there, Jim.

By 8:30 in the morning, the white stuff was coming down in droves. However much a drove of snow is. I'm sure it means something like a LOT. Because that's what was falling from the sky by the time the sun finally came up. (?) And NO ONE was driving around by early morning, except that lone doofus in the Subaru. Let me tell you, those cars are MADE for this stuff.

I was having a blast, bombing down the empty roads, plowing through the drifts, TRYING to get the car to spin out or slide...all the while doing my best impersonation of a little kid, stuck in an older body with a driver's license. Oh, the joys of pretending to be a grown up. I never DID get the car to do anything other than go pretty straight. Amazing what All-Wheel-Drive will do for you.

Onward, to more snowfall. And certain, late-night-into-early-AM hunger and exhaustion.

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Wow

By the time I pulled back into our long driveway, the white stuff was REALLY coming down. The neighbors house was already covered. This type of day gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling in the pit of your stomach, particularly when you settle into the toasty-warm, cozy house, and look out at 'the blow', going on outside the living room window. Takes me back once more to being a kid in the howling, wintry Midwest. Only thing missing is a mug of Mom's hot cocoa with marshmallows. Finest kind.

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What IS This Business?

Pantera the Cat, heading out to check on the snow-covered Subaru. He likes to sleep on the hood, when I return from driving around on errands. The engine warmth makes him happy, not UN-like me in the heated living room. But this day, he was having none of it. He got as far as the right front tire, looked around for a moment, muttered a "this is BALONEY " and other harsh, kitty invective's, did an about face, and trotted back to the front door. And that warm living room beyond. Whoever said cats are dumb, never owned a cat during a snowstorm. And as it ends up, Pantera is a LOT smarter than the guy that fills his food bowl every day.

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I Don't Think This Stuff Is Going To Stop

By late in the day the snow was really piling up. Out back toward the South-40, the wood storage shed was covering over at an alarming rate. As were some of my tarp shelters around the place. They're made up of heavy duty metal fence post material, held together in the shape of a building or porch with really nifty, rather expensive tubing brackets. Very handy on a farmstead. Not very handy in a blinding snowstorm. The slick, spend-y tarps bulge and rip, and the poles tend to bend and break when excessive weight is applied. And this snow was beginning to qualify as excessive. Would my structures hold up to the onslaught, barreling down from the skies in huge, glob-y flakes?

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Even The BIRDS Were Having Troubles

After noticing the birds in the feeder, and the amount of snow this TINY roof had accumulated, it was beyond obvious. The big buildings would soon experience a whole RAFT of trouble in this snow. At least as far as my understanding of physics takes me. The birds watched me messing about with my buildings, and wondered out loud if I could help THEM, with THEIR building. I'm sorry, little birds, but I have bigger fish to fry. Or accumulated snowflakes to move.

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So, WHY Is This So Important?

The neighbor's light-weight tarp building, a day or two after the storm's end. Notice it's no longer in decent shape. That's a nice, antique, 1960's car under there. Somewhere. I don't think the vehicle got damaged, from the looks of things, but not an ideal way to end up either. Suffice it to say, I did not want MY buildings/structures to end up with the same, ignoble fate.

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There's Only One Thing Left To Do

~8:00 PM -- The First Night

The snow, piling up on the tarp structure between the garage and wood shed. I park the lawn tractor, rototiller and other farmer accoutermon' under this 'building'. By the time I got out back to look, there was about 6 to 8 inches of snow on the tarp roof. Panic set in, and it was time to get to work. I donned my 'snow removal' gear, pulled out the special, homemade snow-moving tools and various ladders, and as they say somewhere or another, "the rest is snowstorm history". This was promising to be a long, hard night of cold, wet work.

I had been HOPING to start snow removal the next morning, when most sane activities occur. During the daylight hours. But the snowstorm was having none of this logic-based nonsense. Starting mid evening, the stuff was coming down at about 1 to 2 inches per hour. An ALARMING rate. And promised to smash my buildings flat, before the sun came up again. There was only one thing to do. Start moving heavy snow. ASAP.
[VERY Large Sigh Here]

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A Short, Scientific Side-Note About "Our" Snow

Dear Doctor Science

Eleven Inches Of Cascade Cement

Measuring with my special, fourth grade ruler, there was 11 inches of snow at one time or another this first day. I cannot tell you exactly WHEN I took this measurement, as time began to scrunch together during the next 18 hours. What I CAN tell you, is that this was during a 'break' in the storm. Before more snow came twaddling down once again.

And I can also tell you that snow in this part of the world is called Cascade Cement. The stuff comes down to us from the Cascade mountains, and is often as heavy as a bag of Portland cement. I don't know the actual weight per square foot, but can assure you after pushing and pulling it all over the place with my special tool, appears to hover around 6 tons. This stuff is RIDICULOUSLY heavy.

Well, I guess I better get to work. There's snow to move. Even though it's headed on toward the middle of the night in this part of the world...

~ Finto (Temporario) ~

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~ Stay Tuned: for the 'End Of The Story' -- Coming Soon to a Post near you:

SnOwregon 2019 - Part 1B ~ The Pain Of Snow Removal ~

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Thanks for stopping in and viewing the first part of my Snow Storm-Snow Removal Marathon, Part IA. If you have any thoughts about winter storms, the need to move snow, the subsequent moving of TONS of snow, making your own homemade tools for moving the snow, or anything else this post reminds you of, please feel free to comment away in the spaces below. I'd love to hear from you.

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Please UPVOTE, COMMENT and FOLLOW if you enjoy my works.

And go to @ddschteinn -- There's a whole lot more...

_{Posted: 03/08/2019 @ 18:28}

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Excerpts From Late-Night Conversations With A Mechanical Cat

Fact Number 125