My buddy Mark lives a good deal closer than my 240 miles and has been making several "drive-bys" to check on my place and to shovel the snow off his roof across the street. (The snow on my place doesn't have to be shoveled because, being in the open a little more than his, the snow either gets blown off or melts enough to slide off the metal roofs.)
Mark was up there this weekend and sent me several dozen pictures of the snow around our cabins and of the area that has been cleared by...well, someone. He's wasn't sure who had done the work since the fellow who did it last year wasn't working in the area this year. But Mark reports that he has found our mystery snow person and spoken to them and they have been satisfied with a cord or so of firewood. Call it a barter economy at work.
The pictures Mark sent were taken in the evening using one of his Stealth Cams. He wanted to test them out since they had been sitting in the cabin for a couple of weeks. He pulled them from the woods when the deer finally came to their senses and headed for places that weren't as snow covered. The time stamp is accurate but the temperature sensor is messed up. At the time it was about 30 degrees. The photos aren't of the best quality. The flash is only supposed to work out to 45 feet or so.
Here's a shot of the front door to the Bolt Hole. The pile of snow is from the roof and drifting. There's usually a three (3) step set of stairs to get UP to the door. It looks like it might be two steps DOWN to get into the cabin. That's about normal at this time of year.
The mystery snow person cleared not only a driveway to the front door but a huge area to the garage and the barn. (Probably because the barn is where some of the firewood is stored!)
There's a small stack of seasoned birch to the right of the barn. It's over there on the other side of the snow mountain. Another 8 face cords or so of mixed cherry, red maple and birch are stacked inside the barn. I built the barn to keep the snow off the roof of the travel trailer. The garage is out of the frame to the left.
There have been several freezes and thaws in the last three months, although itstarted snowing back in November and hasn't really stopped. Each (brief) period of thaw or stray rain/ice shower has built a compact layer on top of fluffy snow. The result is a series of strata that look like rock layers in the Grand Canyon.
The snow at the edge of the cut, where you can see the layering, is about 36" deep. The snow in the "mountain" beyond is probably over 5 feet deep.
I haven't included any photos from Mark's yard. His cabin is very low slung and the rain gutter and eaves on the western side--the side closest to the parking area--are just about seven feet above ground. His roof has also got a very shallow pitch to it and that requires he shovel the snow off on a frequent basis. Between the shoveling of snow off the roof and the moving of snow from the parking area, the piles of snow in the front of his cabin are...well, let's just say that he now has to throw the snow UP to get it off the roof. And the eastern side, while not plowed or blown is somewhat worse in that the eave is only 4 to 5 feet off the ground. If he rigged a T-bar to the peak of his roof, he could get up their with ease. And then ski down. As it is he does not need a ladder to get on to the roof. But if we have any more snow he may need one to get over the mounds in front of his cabin.
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