The Polaris Ranger got the new spark plug it was whining about and now it’s not complaining about that particular issue. Since the forecast is for additional snowfall and our driveway was just about to the point of no return, Dan fired up the machine and took off up the driveway, pushing snow as he went.
Hi ho, hi ho... Off to work he goes...
While he was starting up for the first pass, I got my sorrel boots on, my heavy wool coat, and a hat and gloves. I wanted to go for a ride now that it is fixed.
Looking very serious and concentrating on not running off the road
This machine is a 6-wheel drive and has a heavy duty winch on the front which holds up the snow plow blade attachment. Ingenious, really.
Pushing snow down the driveway. Up... down... up... down
Piling up the down-the-driveway batch of snow next to the garage
This pile of snow is now well over five feet tall, and it will be some time before it all completely melts.
At this point I joined in the festivities as a passenger, admiring the techniques involved in moving massive amounts of snow. Shoveling the driveway by hand would be feasible if we were both about 30 years younger. Using the Polaris is much better, and driving in and out of the driveway using one of our vehicles is going to be less exciting now that Dan has done this work. We always try to go for less exciting.
Life doesn’t always cooperate with this goal. While we were at the end of the driveway, closest to the county road, the cable from the winch broke. If it isn’t one thing, it is another. This the main problem with machinery – it tends to break when it is least convenient. Dan left the snow plow blade down and finished the driveway. And now we’ll just have to make another trip to town for the clamp he needs to re-attach the wire cable to the hook at the end which is attached to the snow plow blade.
Meanwhile, inside the house, laundry is being done courtesy of the sun. The batteries are all full and ‘floating’ and the solar panels are producing more than sufficient power to run both the washing machine and dryer at the same time. We will get all the laundry done well before the sun is done providing power. Very cool. We get such a kick out of producing our own power.
Tough kitten
Mishkin goes into full Halloween Cat posture when he wants to play. Me coming back upstairs from the basement where the washing machine and dryer live is an exciting event in his little world. I’m shorter than him and get progressively taller, and he really thinks that’s cool. So I got the camera and tried to capture this posturing. Of course, he immediately would sleek down and sit there looking dignified, trying to spoil photographic evidence of his silly behavior. He did let me capture this one picture as he was slimming down and the ridge of hair on his back smoothed down. We know he’s trying to be tough but mainly he just looks ridiculous.
There are definitely clouds on the western horizon, and it looks like snow is in our immediate future. We’ll have to go see about a new machinery part on Monday. Oh well, such is life in the middle of nowhere. 🙂