Digging Out

I'm not sure what the official snow totals were from the storm... but I think we got at least 2 1/2 feet of snow at the shop. I called everyone this morning who was working - I told Betsy to not worry about coming in - she drives a LONG way and was coming in to Essex Junction anyway to check on her mom, but I told her work could wait until tomorrow. Barb's husband plows and he had a long night with some transmission issues - so she was up quite a bit last night and I told her not to come either. Kalen is only 10 minutes from the shop, like me, so I arranged to meet her there around 10:30am to assess the situation (like, did we get plowed?) for a couple of hours. Not to open the shop.

I went outside to check our driveway. My husband left at 6am to get some fresh tracks at Stowe, and he must have taken his Suburban and plowed right through the huge bank at the bottom of the driveway. Apparently, he lost a mudflap, which I found when I was trying to dig out the mailbox, which is now at a 45 degree angle, and it would be dangling were it not for the 6 foot snow bankings holding it up. We still had a good foot of snow in the driveway so I thought I couldn't get through it. But just then our plow guy came with his bucket loader. I have never seen so much snow. It is just amazing. Neighbors right and left were asking this guy to do their driveways.

Finally I was ready to drive in to the shop. I got the girls all dressed and packed some Magic Treehouse Books, IPods, lunch and Hershey's Kissables and got in the car. Yep, it was dead. Totally dead. I guess that's what happens when the girls forget to turn off the dome light and it's in the single digits for days. Lesson learned (for them), I hope. Marc got home later and jumped my car and it was off to the shop, again.

On the way, Kalen called and said she'd be in soon, but she had just gotten stuck in her car and was digging her way out. I pulled into the Municipal Lot and left the girls in the warm car. I was in full ski attire, complete with goggles, and I took my snow shovel and trekked through the thigh deep snow. I got up to the driveway, and saw that we had been plowed once yesterday and that was it. As I got closer, I realized that the plow guy had come back early this morning with a bucket loader, and driven straight in the driveway, pushing all of that snow back toward the shed, just at the bend in the driveway. And then of course, since that bend is a TOUGH one, even for some cars, he couldn't fit through the bend, and so he left. Now I'm not sure if he was (or is?) planning on coming back to do something about it. I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt - since I know they've been out plowing and trying to keep order with this insane storm. I tried calling, but no answer. Not even an answering machine. Then I drove by, and there's no one there.

What to do... I called Marc and had him swing by. He had our snowblower from home in the back of his car. We needed it to make a path to the shed, so we could get out the shop's snowblower. Anyway after 3 hours of shoveling and snowblowing, Marc and Kalen and I have cleared the walks, and part of the driveway. We made good progress on that mountain of hard, heavy snow that the bucket loader created, so now if the plow guy decides to come back (PLEASE DO!) he can actually fit his plow truck through the bend and finish plowing the huge amount of the parking lot that is still covered. If he does not come back, we will be doing it in the morning. And boy are we sore, so it will be slow going.

Through all of this, we had customers. With our parking lot and walks almost completely uncleared, and a Municipal Lot with snow bankings about 15-20 feet high, and only about 10 spots to park in, people are still out shopping. So many places are closed today. Things like this don't happen that often. I'm sorry, you'll just have to come back tomorrow!

And if you do, try the Municipal Lot. Ours may still be full of snow!