Snow Shoveling and Shoeing

Yesterday was warmer than today.  The high was 18F (-7.8C), today it was 17F.  Snow removal was in order yesterday.  It was only about 3 inches, but we have the teeny tiny snow blower, so we need to keep up with it.  Here is Jim, doing the front walk.  Notice the cloud of dry snow being thrown off to the left.  He also had to do snow/ice removal from the hedge on the right.

I decided that I needed to participate in removal as well and did the back deck.  It was good, there was a lot more snow accumulation back there than we thought.  My technique is to get a shovel full and then push it out the gate.

There was some scooping and lifting over the railing, but not a lot.  Hopefully it will not snow too much before the warm up because I have blocked my path of snow egress by piling it just outside that far gate. 

Later, the landscapers' truck with the snow plow attachment came and did the streets.  The guy driving does this a lot.  He headed up the hill rapidly, and then backed down the street just as fast.  Here he is entering our cul de sac.  The plow part moves up and down and side to side.  He was sculpting the pile of snow that's in the middle of the street.  The trash truck will need to be able to get around that.

Today we got a wild hair to go snow shoeing.  It was 17F.  It actually was not too bad.  I had on an ear bra and a polar fleece/acrylic watch cap, long underwear top under light weight fleece pullover, my lycra capri pants (from the gym days) under jeans, a scarf, a shelled fleece jacket, wool socks, insulated boots, and gaiters.  The parts that were perishing were my finger tips.  They are a problem, they were very painful.  Towards the end I was losing my grip on the poles.  I was wearing my Carhartt gloves with glove liners, but those puppies were COLD.  We also ended up putting on surgical masks to keep the chins warm.  We have to do something better for the hands.  Today was cut short due to the fingers.  Here is Jim putting on his snow shoes.  That's the only picture I took outside because I didn't want to take my gloves off.

Later we saw this very attractive contrail in the setting sun.

It's 5:25 Pacific time and it's 10F.  We're moving back to the downstairs shower because it's warmer than the upstairs shower.  Upstairs has a window in the shower stall for some inexplicable reason, and it transfers too much cold air in.  Downstairs has no windows and two! count them two! heating vents.  It's like a sauna in there.

That's it!  That's all I've got.