How Does Your Garden Grow?

Last weekend's storm brought almost 4 inches of snow with a crusty layer of ice. 

Icy rails

The roads were a mess and I was dreading clearing the icy slush left by the backwash of the plow as it went by.

I cleared the front steps

and flipped the switch so the ice would all melt. I wish clearing the driveway was just as easy.

Even if the poor, little Boat Anchor wasn't encased in ice, this snow would have been too wet and heavy for it to push.

Taking a break, the cardinal posed for me to take a picture

This slop was really heavy and hard to move. On my second pass, I had managed to clear the lower quarter of the driveway and was just working on the ice pile at the entrance. Several trucks with plows attached zoomed by me. I would watch as they roared up the street and was wishing one of them would stop just to clear the slop at the end of the driveway. A few times as I saw a plow approach, I would lean tired and forlornly on my shovel trying to look like the poor, old lady I am. Nothing. 

I had cleared enough room to get one car out of the driveway, but still had to clear in front of the mailbox. The post office leaves nasty notes with diagrams that they want a 30 foot clearance.  They'd be lucky to get the area directly in front cleared.

All this time, it was raining, well freezing raining lightly and then it started to pour. I was about to go in when a car pulled up. I thought the people inside would be asking directions on how to get to Old Sturbridge Village, a living museum attraction depicting life in the 1840s. The woman rolled down the passenger window and said, "I know this is going to sound creepy, but you don't have to worry, if you need help my partner will gladly shovel for you."

I debated telling them I was okay when I was clearly not.  Then I thought of that joke where a man "refuses several rescue attempts in the face of approaching floodwaters, each time telling the would-be rescuers that God will save him. After turning down the last, he drowns in the flood. After his death, the man meets God and asks why he did not intervene. God responds that he sent all the would-be rescuers to the man's aid on the expectation he would accept the help, highlighting the axiom that God acts through humans and other earthly entities." [ed: copied from Wikipedia]

"Yes, thank you, I could use your help. You're my heroes today." The man made short work of the area around the driveway.

Himself had called the man who usually plows out Seniors around town, but either he was sick or he was home taking care of sick children. He said he would send over his Eldest to help shovel when he got off working at his grocery store job.

The Young Man was another godsend. He cleared the rest of the driveway. He offered to come back later in the evening, but by then it would be too hard to see. So he said he would come by in the morning.

With all the ice, salt and sand were at a premium and none to be found. The Town lets residents go to the highway department barn to fill their own buckets with the salt/sand mixture the town uses on the roads. I had asked the Young Man if he could get some sand from the town.

The kitties didn't mind the weather

The car tires were welded to the driveway. The Young Man helped spread the sand and we tried to moves the cars, but no luck. He also had to get to work and offered to come back after he was done with his shift. I gave him some empty buckets and asked if he could get more sand.

The Eldest and I used a bag of salt used with the water filtration system to surround the tires hoping the deep layer of salt would free the tires from the ice. The Eldest had to miss her shift at the hospital two days in a row.

She called the automobile club, but they said they didn't do that type of extraction.

I called the regular number of the fire department and talked to a female firefighter to ask if they had any other suggestions that we could try. Sand, salt. Not working. She asked if we had tried hot water. Yup, didn't help. She suggested calling the towing company.

I tried them, too, but like the auto club, they didn't want the liability of damaging the car.

Himself called his Youngest Brother who came. By then some of the salt must have worked. He had some difficulty, but he was able to move both cars so the Eldest was able to get to work.

Besides snow, sleet, and freezing rain, the winds were fierce. Tons of branches from the neighbor's arbor vitae were blown across the backyard like seaweed at low tide.

The Back Tundra

With another weekend approaching, a red sky at night. With the promise of nice weather, temperatures are supposed to warm up too so all this crap can melt.

How does your garden grow?