Last trip down the drive.

With heavy snow and possible rain predicted for Hope, I felt it was the last chance to get the canopy down before we had structural failure.  Didn't get to head north until 2 PM, so time was tight (or daylight anyway).
The subd roads were well-plowed, the only new tracks on the Alley were snowmachine.  The first thing I noticed was a big spruce down on the side of the Alley, off our northeast corner near the drainage culvert.
It's green and big.

  I noticed that Willie must have pushed the berm away from our drive, so I headed on down the hill with 4WD Subaru confidence.  The little car began drifting a bit on the way down, so I knew I was in trouble.  Got it turned around and tried the hill right away.  Not even close, way high-centered, nearly got stuck trying to back down.  Parked it and got busy getting the snow off the canopy; it was right at it's load limit.  Loaded every tool and rope and lawn chair and baby swing into the car, took the roof tarp off and folded it over the big trash can and a plastic tote in the middle of the standing canopy frame.  Noticed two more spruce tipped over; one just south of the canopy, one on the trail to the outhouse.  Luckily it won't hit the building.

That was a big, unusual wind storm we just had, but it's getting real hard to trust any of those tall spruce on the property.  It was dark before I got the hill shoveled off, then the car just barely made it out.  It was snowing heavy all the way back.

Link to Matt's online photo album

This should work:

Whiskers Holler https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/110741625355731730721/albums/5636086760282301105

Lots of snow

Sue and I took the truck to Hope with the plan to bring back some firewood. Surprisingly, it snowed all the way there, and there was a snow berm at the top of the driveway. Looked like about 10 inches of snow on the ground, more coming down, and it was warming up. We knew the canopy tent would need clearing; couldn't just turn and go home. While I began shoveling a spot to at least get the truck off the road, Sue went down to bump the inside of the canopy with the broom. She had to work pretty hard to get it to clear. I started working my way down the drive making a slot one shovel wide along the left side. At the bottom of the steep part, I went back up and made another slot for the other wheel. Before too damn long I was around the corner and to the parking spot. Made a slot for the truck to tuck in against the canopy, and then drove it down. We were committed at that point. With the newspaper, birchbark, and kindling we brought, we soon had a nice little fire going right on top of where the F-1 had been dumped. Sue tended the fire while I finally cleared enough to get that lame little fake 4WD turned around, and then we had lunch of weiners and pretzels and ginger beer. It was lightly drizzling so we had chairs under the end of the canopy; pretty cozy. I knew that the only way the Ranger would get back up the hill was with some weight in it. Thought about just loading some birch, but we always need dry wood at home, so I checked out the standing dead spruce behind the parking pit and decided to drop it. Waded back there with the saw and soon had the tree jammed up in the timber. Managed to get a number of lengths cut off it, and left the top still standing amidst the birch. By the time I had carried the chunks to the truck through the snow, I was whipped and it was nearly dark. We cleaned up, crossed our fingers, and I drove out in compound low without a hitch. Not the time to get stuck.

Will have to keep an eye on the Hope weather and try to track how much snow is falling. That canopy can only handle so much loading. May have to call Willie (227-4378) and have him plow the driveway if we can't stay on top of it (or just wait out the winter?).

Belugas in November

Cathy mentioned to Sue that Tom and Dylan were in Hope, and had time to come over and check out the view from the bluff at the cul-de-sac. When they got there, they found a pod of beluga whales right off shore, and got to watch them for awhile.

Hope to hear more about that. What would belugas be feeding on at this time of year?