Thanks to my Mexico vacation, my short bout with covid, and my longer bout with the followup pneumonia, I did not clear snow from mid December until a week ago. Still week from the latter, it was brutal. The tractor could not move unless you were at least skimming the top of the snow. My tractor is an old 1948 Oliver 88 with a decent allied bucket, and does stellar work with the exception that it does not have power steering. Spent a few hours so that I could navigate again, and even got the snowblower going, which I rarely use as I have a tractor, and a snowblower is like using an artist brush on a barn. But it lets the wife participate.
So finally caught up so I could make it to the shop, see patches of black earth, get firewood form the woodpiles out back, and we get a blizzard last night. Roads are closed, as of now we don't go to work until noon, but that will change yet, And I have yet to see what the 80 km gusts have done to all my plowing. We will be back to -35 at night this week, with highs in the negative teens.
This province is not for the week or the sick. But next week we are in single digits. I'll be able to get back out and clear snow.
I know the ban on wood stoves will make it out here eventually. I guess that is when I will make a separate shop with no artifact storage, and self insure the shop. I have the wood furnace in the shop, but note they are no longer available, the woodstove downstairs that greatly reduces our electric bill, and a fireplace n the living room which likely loses heat but the wife says we will never not have the fireplace.
In two more months, it could start melting.
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