Coping with Snow

[pedalbuilder***]

I gotta say, from the perspective of a former desert rat (raised in Tucson, AZ), the snow/cold of Pennsylvania has been pretty hard to deal with. The way I figured out to stand it is not to hole up, but rather to get outside and enjoy it! Seriously - like the guy said earlier about skiing, but if that's not an option get out and do something - anything - in the cold weather and it will pass more quickly for you.

Or - like I plan to do - move to Miami!!

[piebaldpython***]

We had a couple of inches this morning. By 7 PM, it started again and the streets were clearr, nothing to speak of on them. By midnite, 5 hrs later, we were blasted with over a foot of snow (officially, 16.5") on the ground. OMG! I can't believe this storm dumped that much in such a short period of time.

Oh well, off to bed and by this time tomorrow nite, my back will be killing me.

[deeaa*]

Here's my driveway:



The problem is, there is no place to put any more snow except haul it all the way to the end of the drive and hoist it over the snowbank.

Here's another pic from the same place other direction - that buried fence is as tall as I am, and behind that is a six feet wide bank of snow accumulated. I try my best to keep the driveways clean but it's getting hard and its so early still - I fear the biggest snowfalls are still to come.



Here's the corner from the main driveway...all the neighbors yards are just as full of snow and the driveway itself has almost become a one-lane street now as there are huge snowbanks on either side.

[Ch0jin]

Wow, that's incredible! And here I was complaining that it was pushin 40c around here the last couple of days. At least I don't have to dig my way out of my house every morning.

I bet your heating bills are low with 3ft thick walls though! When I was in Siberia I was amazed at the thickness of the wood used in home construction. I snapped this to show my father (an ex-builder).




Using pine of that size in Australia would be insane expensive, but in that part of Russia there are massive silver pine forests so I guess it's the material of choice in rural areas. (Shot in the lakeside village of Listvyanka)

[deeaa*]

Yes full log built houses are made here as well, but not just with the log except for summer houses, usually there's a foot of insulation to boot. My summer house is built of solid logs a foot thick but you can't really stay there in winter as it has no other insulation than wood and only twin plated windows too. Wood is what we have plenty of here indeed, I myself probably own a thousand pines and spruces, birches and such...impossible to count of course. How many trees are there in a couple of hectares of woods? I've no idea.

My house was made in 53' and it's been renovated, and it's built of wood - not solids - but there's nearly dozen layers of wood and insulation; from inside it goes like : gypsum sheet, moisture seal (aluminum sheet), wood plank layer, 4 inch wood bars every two feet with the gap in between filled with sawdust, another layer of wood planks, a ventilation gap, a third layer of thicker planks (about an inch thick, then another 4x4 support stucture now layered with 4 inches of glass fibre insulation, then a thick kind of woollen type but hard windbreaker layer, then a wood wall with an air gap, then the outer wall.

For electricity, including heating, my bill is about $3200 per annum, but I also use wood to burn for which I spend ~300 more per year. Somewhere around 25.000 KW/h I believe off the top of my head for electricity, and the biggest bulk of it is of course heating...so I'd say three grand a year is a good estimate for heating costs.

[kidsmoke*]

Diggin' the Peugeot, too. Use to be lots of those around back in the day. Haven't been imported to the US for, I don't know....25 years??

Still, all that snow gives you a reason to head outdoors, Chicago gets very little, comparatively, so there's nothing to do for 5 months....

I'm guessing you have a pretty good machine to help with your efforts.

[deeaa*]

Peugeots are quite popular here; they aren't hugely expensive and come in a big variety of roomy sizes for the price. Moreover they are very good drivers and don't rust at all thanks to being galvanized. Very sensible trusty cars, if not exuding class or germanic ruggedness. Divide opinions, I guess.

Being French many people complain they've got lots of small nuisances and electrical issues; I myself don't think they have any more than others, but thanks to some people sneering at any other than German-made etc cars, or some who will only buy a Toyota...anyway Peugeots are quite reasonably priced used. Not as cheap as the other 'Baguettes' like Citroen and Renault, but still pretty affordable.

As for the daughter thing - good thing I haven't any :-) but I myself did use them ladders from my room countless summer nights in my early teens to slip out when I was supposed to be sleeping...(I've lived in this house since I was seven years old or so)

[syo***]

Here's the corner from the main driveway...all the neighbors yards are just as full of snow and the driveway itself has almost become a one-lane street now as there are huge snowbanks on either side.

Say, Dee...
Is that ladder leading to the second floor there in case you can't get out the front door? At first I conceived of this question as a joke and then it seemed to me that might be it's purpose after all (considering all that snow).