Well so much for El Nino – Part Duh. After a green Christmas, we had a 30 cm snowfall on Dec 29. Yesterday we had – wait for it- a 50 cm snowfall. This broke all records for a one day snow dump in the Valley.
Of course I was prepared. This is why I get the snowblower serviced every year, right? Right. Mr. Murphy paid me a visit.
I had no sooner started on the snow clearing task last evening when something went wrong. The blower must have hit a heavy piece of ice, the shear pin on one side of the first stage auger broke, and left me with half a snowblower. I had to shovel my way out through the massive snowbank left by the town plough just to get the blower ready to do anything. Then it took more than twice as long to clear the driveway.
Fortunately I had extra shear pins so after freezing outside I went to work in the dark garage, located the broken pin and knocked it out with a hammer and punch. Then I had to install a new pin and tighten it, working around a bunch of sharp metal auger pieces. Great job for July but not February.
After this the plough came by again and dumped an even larger pile of snow in the driveway – but this time the blower was up to full strength and made short work of it early this morning.
After this I am thinking fondly about a week in the Caribbean – El Nino or not.