At the Bolt Hole

So, I traveled the 240 miles from the Aerie to the Bolt Hole this morning without incident. For most of the ride the worst I had to contend with were wet pavement surfaces and the drivers around me. Only in the Syracuse area was there any falling snow. Which makes sense since Syracuse is one of the snowiest cities in the USA. being on the southern tip of Onondaga Lake. means they get some snow almost every day from mid-December until April and sometimes beyond.

When I arrived at the Bolt Hole I had to park out on the road. There was a foot of snow in the area that had been cleared previously and no way was I going to be able to drive right up to the door of the cabin. I slogged through the snow to put the groceries away and build a fire in the main stove to warm the place up. I also opened the drapes to let the sun shine through the glass for added warmth. (The temperature was a very sunny 20 degrees F outside, although tonight it may drop to 10.) Then it was out to the garage to fire up the snow thrower.

It took a little doing to get it going but once it started it ran like a charm. For about four hours I cleared my driveway and then went across the street to clear Mark's for him. (He doesn't plan to come up this weekend but I thought I'd clear his drive so when the warm rains come Monday there's a chance it might actually do some god instead of just packing down the snow that's there.) When I finished I gave the thrower a nice big kiss and cleaned as much of the accumulated ice off its surface as I could. If it's sunny tomorrow, I'll open the garage door and let it bask in glory.

I've about 10-12 inches of snow on the roof of the garage and will try to get up there tomorrow to clear that off before it becomes a layer of dense, heavy ice. The same for the roof of the woodshed that's attached to the cabin. If I can clear them, then there's less likelihood of the weight growing sufficiently to cause any collapse.

If I get the chance I'll take some pictures tomorrow and post them. One thing I will say, it looks like a Currier and Ives post card outside. The wind hasn't knocked the snow off the pines or even off the branches of the deciduous trees so there's a layer of white on every horizontal surface. (The only problem with posting pictures is the download time to Flickr is gargantuan when using dial-up.)