The snowfall this year in Castlegar has been a bit…much. I’ve given my lawn tractor’s snowblower a good workout.
But memory is a fickle thing: our brains edit and generate content to create a story. So I decided to post a few comparison photos of our new Kootenay winter life.
January 2021 vs January 2022
I made a mistake this year with the deck. Last year’s snow load never exceeded about a foot, so I decided to save time and not bother clearing it. This year, we had two feet in about seven days, and what you see above is after chipping away the top foot or so. The snow piled on the posts was nearly two feet high, and the solar lights came off when I removed the snow pack on top of them. If I’d been keeping it clear it wouldn’t be so bad.
Things I learned
First and foremost- having a reasonably powerful lawn tractor with a good snowblower is a big help. Last year I struggled to keep up with a walk-behind snowblower: with the amount of snow this year, it would have likely wiped me out.
Secondly, having appropriate waterproof and warm clothes. Snowblowers kick up a lot of powdery snow onto the operator. On a windy day it can be blinding. This means the operator is covered in white stuff pretty fast, and the next thing you know you are soaking wet and freezing cold. I ended up with snow overalls, an insulated trapper’s hat, snow goggles, and -50 winter boots. I already had waterproof winter gloves and a not-very water resistant puffer jacket. I have a better waterproof winter jacket on order.
Third and finally, keep up with the snowfall even if it means clearing more than once per day. As an example, letting several feet of snow accumulate on our east deck was not my plan- I just let it get ahead of me. I didn’t want to clear the deck- I thought it would be like last year, maybe a foot or so, but that was a mistaken assumption.
I can only see the photos by right clicking and opening them in a new tab. And I can only click on the 2021 versions of your comparison photos.
Hi, Chris: Thanks for letting me know you can’t see the pictures properly.
The images above are supposed to present in a ‘gallery’ view when you click on them- it uses JavaScript. I’m not sure which browser you are using, etc. It works for me in Safari, Firefox, and Chrome o macOS. I’ll check this page out from my work browser and see if it looks different.
Also, apologies for the delay in this post being approved. You post under a lot of different names (Chris, Chris Rassmussen, Chrs), and each needs to be separately approved the first time it posts.