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XC-Skiing Through the Woods
XC-Skiing Through the Woods

I’m not one to fight gravity and work my skis uphill. I may soon join the legions of cross country skiers, but at first I will seek out flat terrain as my conditioning is not that great and the Wisconsin Snow Bunny must first master the flats before seeking out downhill thrills. However, I am talking about the action in my driveway.

I have a driveway that is nearly 100′ long and perhaps 16′ wide (at its waist), it isn’t straight but has some shaping to it, but the apron is plenty wide (with 8′ beyond the west end of the garage) and the garage is about 2-½ cars wide. The driveway goes straight north from our garage to the road. Every good huffing snowstorm we get deposits a nice drift about 20′ from the door. The previous two winters nothing too serious hit us, but last weekend the drift was about 3-½ — 4′ high. The drift then tapers to nothingness so at about 15′ past the start it is practically bare driveway (often times it is). My snowblower’s scoop is about 2′ max high, so it was a lot of work busting that drift even with nine horsies helping out. I had the drift off of the driveway and was chipping away at the 1″-2″ of packed snow so that my concrete apron was open and portions of the asphalt were too. Then I woke up this morning.

Last night’s and today’s snowfall deposited an even 3″ or so on our driveway. The Ariens came out again and made real short work of rough-clearing our driveway. That is all a snowblower does, it only roughs out the surface on which it is worked. I then got our shovel out and started on the final clearing. It was easy the concrete was all light and loose, just push it along. I then started to seriously attack the asphalt and that 1″-2″ of packed snow was not so easy, but still easy. It was hard, but it would break easily and in pieces, so it was just a matter of getting the shovel under it and pushing it through and then making repeated passes. I have roughly half of our asphalt cleared. Come on now, I had more fun to attend to and that was bringing in firewood and I want to extend this fun.

I always aim to clear the entire driveway and get it exposed. The asphalt will soak up the sun and start melting and evaporating the water on its own. However, my main concern is to keep snow and ice off of the driveway so it is not a slipping hazard for visitors and the other concern is the lowspot. If we get a rapid melt that low spot will become a lake and it is not too deep so then thaw-freeze cycles become a concern in the spring time.

That is one way the winter makes me earn my turns.

Good Stuff!

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