Roof Rake

My roof rake arrived this weekend! Never thought I would be so happy to see a rake. Plus, Sunday was sunny and above 33 degrees, for probably the first time in 6 weeks. 

Sunday we finally were able to play a bit in the snow, while Emmy took her nap.

We even tried some backyard sledding. 

Into the BackYard

I hadn't been in the backyard in a long time, until this weekend when Neptune hit and we sprung a leak in Emmy's room. So in the middle of a New England blizzard I hauled our ladder through waist  deep snow, set-it up, and chipped out our ice damns. Good times, good times. 

Anyhow here are some pictures from the next day. 

It took a couple days, but finally we did get dug out from Neptune. 

Winter Storm Neptune

F$#k  - send help.

Operation Ice Dam Removal

Thursday night I came home from work to learn that we were taking on water. So over the past few days (and nights) have spent 5 or 6 hours on a ladder removing snow and ice from the roof/gutters.

As I write, Neptune is dropping another 8 to 12 inches.

Winter Storm Marcus

For the third Monday in a row we have had a major snow storm. I can't quite keep it straight anymore but we have received somewhere between 65 (~5.5 feet) and 80 (~6.5 feet) inches of snow in the past few weeks, breaking all sorts of records for snow fall. 

Today they called in the National Guard to help with the clean-up and snow removal efforts. Maybe they will come to our house. 

My running hypothesis, I have watched the movie Frozen so many times that somehow it has come true and we are all pawns at the mercy of Elsa. 

Anyhow, as a reminder, here is our baseline on Monday Jan. 26th. That is an orange plow marker in the foreground. 

And here we are this morning - following Juno, Linus, and Marcus. If you look carefully, you can just barely see the tip of the orange plow marker sticking out of the snow. 

Snow removal efforts  have been successful, but we have no where else to put it.  Lots of pics here, so bear with me. 

The garage pile, hope we don't need anything out of the garage. 

I have tried to include the shovel as a reference. It is 50 inches (4 feet) tall. 

The lamp post pile

The pile in front of our kitchen window. The fence and rose bush are all but buried. 

The front door pile. 

The pile on the East side of our drive 

The Arial View 

Olaf our snow man on Sunday Jan. 25th, such a happy time. 

Today, he is nowhere to be seen. We will find him in the spring, like they occasionally find those neanderthals in the swiss alps that are 100,000 years old. 

Ice Damns to worry about: 

And today, there are stories of roofs collapsing and I have seen our neighbors behind us and next to us (the Russians) shoveling their roof. This evening I spent an hour doing what I can above the garage, to barley make a dent. Easily 3 feet up there, with a drift that is probably closer to 4 to 4.5 feet. 

The forecast says there are two more systems on the way, one Thursday night and the other Saturday night.  As of a few hours the models were showing they are going to blow further out to sea, which means less snow for us. Keep your fingers crossed.