I’m still fried. All the miles wore me out. I thought I’d kick back and dedicate myself to recovery (notwithstanding my “bad dairy” stupidity). Unfortunately, new and exciting shit happened to liven my existence.
Spring breakup / mud season had mostly wrapped up in my absence. After a few day’s rest I thought I might get my motorcycle out again. Everything was puppies and rainbows. Then it snowed. And it wasn’t a happy light fluffy dusting either!
Given that the driveway is softer than a politician’s resolve, I wasn’t sure I wanted to drag a snow bucket across it. But I had the tractor out to haul firewood anyway. I plowed a little bit. I took great care not to gouge the shit out of my already quite trashed driveway.*
It’s a good thing I did! I thought the storm was over but woke up the next day to a lot more; an absolute shitload of snow. Wet sloppy nasty dense shit. Deeper than my best boots! The areas I’d cleared were deeply covered. The areas I hadn’t were just plain buried.
My tractor is solid but sometimes the math just isn’t in your favor. It was like plowing wet cement with your tires on a base of peanut butter. (I worked hard trying to think of an analogy and still can’t quite describe it. I guess you had to be there.)
With a six foot bucket, pushing two feet of snow, I could go about ten or fifteen feet before the wheels broke loose. (Often even less.) That’s something like 120 – 180 cubic feet of material… max. In normal conditions that’s nothing. I can usually push a lot more snow and shove it much further. In this temperature and with this water content every bite at the apple became a bucket full of nope.
Slow and steady wins the race. The tractor and I were at it for hours. Incrementally, shaving off a foot or two of navigable space at a time. I was extra careful because these conditions are a stress on any equipment.
I’d planned for this. I chose a tractor & snow bucket instead of a truck & plow specifically for the worst conditions. Tractors are built to handle loads, especially dynamic loads. (Like the stress of a plow digging into earth as the tractor moves forward.) Modern trucks are awesome but I think anything that can do highway speeds is sub-optimal for shoving great masses just in front of the steering geometry. I wonder how any truck can survive plowing on a day like this? (Obviously it works; most local “hired” plowing is done with pickups. The drivers make bank but also kill expensive trucks. I’m not sure about their “profit to nuked tie rod ends” ratio. Anyone fortunate enough to own a skid steer uses that instead of their truck. Farmers have it made. They have big tractors which can move big tonnage. My mid-weight tractor & bucket isn’t a common solution, but it seems to work well.) I’ll bet a few pickups with freshly blown transmissions wound up scattered around the area today.
It’s an unusual situation. Normally, it’s not freaking April! Even when it does snow in April it’s usually not two feet. It’s just a bad hand. We’re prepared for January snow, not April. In January the snow isn’t so dense and the base is rock solid and frozen. You may freeze your ass off but there’s traction and reasonable density. This was… special.
Oh well, I’m alive and so is my tractor. I cleared enough snow that I won’t completely lose the race should it snow more. Plus the cleared areas should be a little less “floody” when this shit melts (it is April after all).
I think of all those news shows that blast scenes of everyone panic buying bread and milk and eggs when it snows in Virginia. It seems so silly from my situation. I’m relieved to have “access” but flouncing off to the store to buy fixings for French toast is at best unwise and at worst completely impossible. I plowed access to the county road (and my mailbox, which understandably hasn’t received mail in several days). When the driveway is mush I’ll often just walk that distance on foot. But the truck could manage it. This means, if I really needed to, I could drive for town. But the county road is more theoretically passible than demonstrably so. I’m a good driver with a beastly machine. In 4×4 low range my truck can handle it. A normal SUV (which lacks low range) is probably OK if one were a careful driver. Anything smaller would risk winding up either high centered or ditched.
Did I mention it’s April? In a week, all this will probably be gone. Another reason to just hang tight and let events play out. But… no motorcycle for a while.
A.C.
*I have an untamed dirt driveway that’s getting worse. Normally people buy truckloads of dirt periodically for such a driveway. They’ll often hire someone to grade it too. I’m cheap so I don’t do either. I’ve been trying to maintain it with a rear blade on my tractor. That works until it doesn’t. In 2025 things went too far and I just couldn’t smooth it out. I messed with the blade and made it worse! It’s rutted and patchy… really sucks. I think the solution is a thing called a “land plane”. It’s a leveling implement that costs a little over $1000. That’s a lot but probably less than a couple cycles of dirt delivery and professional grade jobs? Theoretically my tractor could pull it. I sure would like to have a more civilized driveway. I’ve been putting off the expense for decades but it is what it is. I might have to buy one this summer. Or, I can just continue with my current approach; denial.