I know it's been a while, and I'm sorry for it. The delay is caused by a
few factors, including: being busy with other things; needing more
down-time; a lack of all things farm-related to post about (we didn't
even do a garden this past year); and, if we're being honest (which I
am), just generally being fed up with living here.
A very quick update before I get into the real topic of this post:
-
The chickens have gone to live with a friend. Their egg production,
while still good, was slowing. Our friend had a buff orpington roo, and
borrowed our girls to hatch some new hens. These, along with other
chicks, were taken out by a coyote attack :( So we gave her our birds,
including Foghorn, along with some feed and the nest boxes I'd built. We
might do meat birds again, and just butcher them all - we'll see.
- Jordan has
been working on a trade, and has successfully achieved his red seal
certification for fourth class power engineer. He's now focused on
getting his third class. (Power engineering is set up differently than
other trades in that other trades are first year, second year, etc while
power engineering is fourth class, third class, etc and does not go by
"year", per se, but rather the Safety Authority exams and the hours
worked.)
-
We got a puppy! His name is Baran and he is a cocker spaniel. He comes
complete with the usual cocker issues, including but not limited to:
extreme submission, including submissive urination; excited urination;
ear infections; and overwhelming cuteness. He's just finished a round of
antibiotics to knock out a possible bladder infection, which may be the
source of his 'triggerless' urination (basically running and peeing
without being scared, submissive, or excited).
 |
| A very young Baran - this is a photo from the breeder |
 |
| Baran in September, at 7 months old. |
So, on to the reason for this post: I want to document the reasons behind our snow-clearing plan this year.
In
past years, we've used the quad with the snow blade attachment to clear
our snow. This takes a lot of time, and heavy, wet snows are
particularly hard on both the quad and the blade. Additionally, we could
only push the snow so high before we had to get someone in to push the
banks back for us and give us more room to pile the snow. This first two
winters, we used a local excavating company, and the owner (one of our
far neighbours) would come by with his front-end loader with a large
blade in place of the bucket and push our banks back. Last year, we
learned that fuel costs had made this service uneconomical for him and
prohibitively expensive for us, so he recommended another much closer
neighbour who has a snow blower on the back of his tractor. This worked
wonderfully last year and was much cheaper.
This
year, after a few discussions, we decided to use this neighbour
exclusively, and limit our use of the quad. There are a few reasons that
this made more sense for us this year:
- We have both joined
the gym, which means we are spending less time at home. Adding snow
clearing on top of this would have added way too much stress, for me at
least.
- Last winter, we bought a Nissan Xterra to replace the
car, a Chrysler Sebring. The Sebring could not handle much snow - she
was notorious for slipping the fan belt off at the worst time, due to a
missing belt guard that would normally block the area from becoming
packed with snow. She also had many miles on her, and was starting to
encounter other serious problems (the starter, the suspension, etc). The
Xterra can handle much deeper snow. Four-by-four and greater ground
clearance, when combined with studded winter tires, makes it a wonderful
vehicle in the snow. You may recall that our other vehicle is a one-ton
pickup, which is also equipped with four-by-four and outfitted with
studded winters. This means that we did not have to be quite so
attentive to, or stressed about, the depth of the snow on our road.
-
We are not broke. We are not rich by any means, but we can afford the
cost of getting our neighbour to clear the road when needed.
-
We have a deal with our neighbour that he only comes by when we call
him. I believe he does most of his other clients 'unprompted' (as in, he
clears when he sees an accumulation that would be difficult for a car,
without waiting for them to call him), which works out to more frequently
than we would need our road cleared.
- By not using the quad, we are reducing the fuel and maintenance costs.
- The lock on the shop is prone to freezing, making it difficult to open. The less we have to unlock it, the better.
- And last, but certainly not least, contracting our neighbour has greatly reduced my stress level every time it starts snowing.
And
nature has given us a perfect example to illustrate why this is the
best choice for us, in my opinion. Yesterday morning, our predicted
snowfall at the airport was 2 cm. (We often get more snow and lower
winter temperatures than the airport does.) There was already some snow
on our road - about 3-4 inches worth. Jordan and I had a date planned:
take the dogs snowshoeing, go see the new Star Wars film, and go out for
dinner. As the morning turned to afternoon, it was clear that we were
getting more than the predicted amount of snow; a quick recheck of the
weather forecast indicated that we now had a snowfall warning for 15 cm.
And this snow came with wind too. The road was snowed over as we left
to snowshoe; when we returned an hour and a half later, our previous
tire tracks were now invisible under at least 6-8 inches of snow. We
left again 45 minutes later, our tracks again obscured. When we finally
returned home after 6 hours, we easily had a foot of snow in the 'low'
spots and drifts up to two feet high in two areas. These were no problem
for the Xterra. It continued to snow overnight, and Jordan had no
problems getting out in the morning in the truck. I called our
neighbour, and he came to clear our road with the tractor - and it took
him 20 minutes. 20 minutes! It would have taken me AT LEAST 3 hours; I
would have been stressed, cold, wet, and miserable; and the dogs would
have been cold and wet as well. Add to that the fuel and maintenance on
the quad, the other plans I had for today, and the fact that he cleared
not only the road, but the entire turnaround area in front of the shop
and longhouse plus Jordan's half of the driveway - and paying to get the
job done is clearly the best choice.
And if we
break it down to just money: we pay $50 for our neighbour to clear
snow. I make $27-something an hour at work; Jordan makes over $30. Fuel
for 3 hours would probably be about $15; I'll put maintenance at $15 for
3 hours as well (the winch needs some work, and the blade is getting
pretty bent up; we'd likely have to replace both by the end of the
winter if they were used heavily). It would 'cost' us over twice our
neighbour's rate to do the job ourselves.
I am very pleased with our decision.
---------------
I
think I will continue to use the blog do post about non-farm related
things. I'll definitely give an update on the house, and on the puppy
(who is now 10.5 months old) - but who knows what other topics may be
included!
