We bought a camp!

[MadPlumbarian]

Looks like a great time. We awlmost had a white Christmas, but a rain storm blew through a couple days before and washed it all out. We've gotten a bit more since then, but not enough to get a good cover.

Ditto, last night we got another dusting, that and it’s only 21°f but with a windchill of 10° 
JR

[Grant Lamontagne]

We don't really have snow here at home, but it's currently snowing at the camp so we will have more snow when we go back.

Def

[RobertMcc]

We don't really have snow here at home, but it's currently snowing at the camp so we will have more snow when we go back.

Def

Only a dusting.  Nothing serious.

[MadPlumbarian]

It snowed some yesterday, as you can see Rosy had a little fun running, and someone lost control of their car right out back, last night it dusted again so I kicked the buildup off the kids wheel wells, cause you know how that stuff can ruin the car, even though it looks like I’m taking a leak on his tire,, lol
JR

[Farmer X]

That's pretty much what it looks like in my little chunk of Macomb County...

[MadPlumbarian]

That's pretty much what it looks like in my little chunk of Macomb County...

It’s still coming down off and on, I think we’re suppose to get more tomorrow, I just want a break,,
JR

[AzteCypher]

Y'all can send a bit of that my way down here in central Texas.  Not too much though cuz then the whole state shuts down.   

[ThundahBeagle]

Y'all can send a bit of that my way down here in central Texas.  Not too much though cuz then the whole state shuts down.   

Yeah?  Ok.  Couple weeks ago. Maybe a week before Christmas or so, late day at work, normally takes an hour 20 minutes to get home.  But we had snow, forecast for 8 inches.  Part of the route home was unplowed.  Took me until 8:30pm to get home.

I was secure in the knowledge that I had tested the old Craftsman 5hp snowblower 3 weeks prior...until I wound up on my a r s e with the pull handle and snapped rope in my hand.

Realized I could also not use the riding mower with plow, as the drive belt came off with the deck last fall and I needed a new coupler anyway.

So *sigh* I grabbed the shovel and did 150 feet of driveway, two trucks wide, 10 inches of wet and heavy.  Took me from 9pm until 2am.  And my alarm blasts at 4:30 am to get up for the day.

Needless to say, I grabbed another used craftsman snowblower (NINE hp!) And finished the details the next day.  Once I fix the first one I'll feel better about life.  After all, 2 are 1 and 1 are none, right?!?  I feel another "collection of..." coming on, but these snowblowers are considerably more expensive...

Anyway, you sure you want some?  Its STILL here. And over Christmas and New Years it was cold enough to p!ss and lean on it.

[ThundahBeagle]

By the way, Def, the camp looks great covered in snow.  Here's hoping you get some heat and water figured out soon, because that just looks like a great retreat

[Grant Lamontagne]

By the way, Def, the camp looks great covered in snow.  Here's hoping you get some heat and water figured out soon, because that just looks like a great retreat

We will do our best to get much more sorted out this year.  We may be doing less work over the winter but we are still planning and getting things ready to go for the spring. 

While I doubt it will ever be 100% functional in the winter, it is a plan to get it to a point where we can be comfortable enough for at least a day trip in all but the worst weather.

In order to get it completely winterized we'd have to put a foundation under it and I don't think that's realistic, cost wise for us and our needs.

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

We didn't make it to the camp in January, although we did try- the weather and roads turned very bad when we attempted to get there a couple of weeks ago.  If I'd had the Jeep I may have made it, but my little Maverick still has it's summer tires on and I felt it wasn't worth getting killed for.   

We did however make it today, and my little trucklet really proved itself.  I knew the snow would be a lot deeper than the last time we were there, so I pulled off the tonneau cover and loaded up my snowblower because I knew I wouldn't be able to shovel enough to get the truck off the road in a reasonable amount of time.

And, as bad as having my truck get creamed at the side of the road in the middle of nowhere would be, we were bringing my teeny little dog, and I'd hate to have my truck creamed at the side of the road in the middle of nowhere with my teeny dog in it.

So, the snowblower was a necessity.

My little trucklet has a payload capacity of 1500 pounds, and my snowblower is maybe 150-200 pounds, so it shouldn't bother the Maverick in the least- even so I was pleased to see that the truck actually had no issues whatsoever with the snowblower in the back, catching all kinds of wind.

When we arrived, the snow was deeper than I expected, almost up to the hood of my trucklet at the roadside, and well over a foot over the top of my blower.   

That made things a bit more difficult but I still managed to carve out a spot large enough for the Maverick in fairly short order.

To get an idea of how deep the snow in most places was, below is a photo of the roof of the cabin- that's probably close to 18 inches.  In many places on the ground, the snow was much deeper than that.

You can also see that the boat, resting on what's left of the deck is quite well and truly buried, and the new firepit is sheltered underneath it, so there wasn't much opportunity to have a small fire.

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

After clearing a chunk of the driveway and a walkway down to the front of the cabin I set up the ramps to load the snowblower back into the trucklet, Megan slipped into her snowshoes and started clearing a path to the door of the cabin. 

Once the heavy lifting was done, it seemed like a good idea to let the teeny dog out for a bit of a run  He doesn't much care for cold weather (he's from Texas) but he still had a bit of fun running around until he wiped out a couple of times and ended up back in the trucklet with the heater on, while Megan and I continued to do our thing.

Just an aside here, my little dog can't go for a walk around the neighborhood this time of year because his teeny paws get cold and he stands up on his hind legs, partly to get his front feets out of the snow, and partly because he knows it makes it easier for me to pick him up and carry him.  He is not the manliest dog that ever walked the Earth.   

Still, he had some fun and the hybrid uses next to no fuel to leave running for him, so that's what I did.

Then i donned my snowshoes and we went for a walk around the property. 

And then we went for a walk on the lake.

Ordinarily I am pretty paranoid about walking on frozen lakes (just about everyone in Canada knows someone who went under the ice- some have survived to tell the story, many have not) but ours is pretty shallow, and there hasn't been a day above freezing since Christmas, so it's a pretty safe bet.  Even if I did go through the ice where we were walking, I'd have probably only gotten wet up to my knees.  Unpleasant at -5C, but hardly life threatening, especially when your car is only a few hundred feet away and is already warm for the sake of the teeny dog napping inside of it!

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

I hadn't realized that I posted the pic of Dasher twice- sorry about that. 

I mean, not really as he's extremely adorable.  You are welcome.   

Eventually we went back to the cabin to look inside.  Naturally we took off our snowshoes first and the trucklet was absolutely owning winter with the snowblower in the back and the snowshoes leaned up against it, sitting in a spot carved out of the snow for it.  It looks very heroic.   

Anyways, we had a great time, and we really are enjoying our little home away from home.  Unfortunately as it is unheated it's not something that we can stay in for any length of time this time of year, so once we confirmed everything inside was in order, we started the long drive home- but not before stopping at the corner store/gas station/gun shop not far from us and grabbed a big ass bag of beef jerky.   

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

Here's a few more pics.  Megan got a couple of shots of me blowing snow and you can see that not only was it deeper than the blower, but it's so deep the blower could barely blow the snow over the snow!   

There's also a shot of poor Dash wiping out in the snow. He has tiny Chihuahua feet that just poke into the snow, so he kind of faceplants often in the snow.  Poor little bugger.

Lastly, Megan got a shot of me out on the lake.

Def

[LoopCutter]

That appears to be a “TIM THE TOOLMAN TAYLOR SNOWBLOWER”,   I have a tad smaller version, but good enough to do several nice neighbors driveways when we dumped on.  Like today 8” wet stuff.

[LoopCutter]

PS:   Beautiful pictures. Your snow appears so WHITE!

[Grant Lamontagne]

Given the type and amount of snow we have here in the city this is the smallest snowblower I'd consider.  Up in the mountains at my camp, there is usually more snow than the city.

Also, in the city I'm about 500 feet from the ocean and the salt in the air melts the snow and it refreezes each night making it very dense.

Here you need an absolute bare minimum of 11-12 HP, and any less than that will clog with slush and ice.  As it is, I stalled my blower a few times today before I realized my second stage inpellor was frozen.   

The best advice when buying a blower here is to get the biggest one you can, then spend the next ten winters wishing you'd bought a bigger one

Def

[LoopCutter]

LOL

 

[kottskrapa]

Looks amazing! We have got our fair share of snow here in Sweden too but what struck me are the fact that you don't have winter tyres?

Here they are mandatory, but the plowing are horrible and they don't use as much salt as they used to

[Grant Lamontagne]

They aren't mandatory here but they are a good idea. I usually do have them, I just haven't gotten around to getting them yet.   

I was going to int he fall, but then found out I was going to be laid off at Christmas so I figured I'd get it done then rather than take time off work to get them.

Then things got busy around the holidays, then we went away, then I got sick.....

You know how it goes.

Def

[kottskrapa]

Ahh ok, sorry about getting laid off and hope you found something new

The older I get the faster time seem to get away from me

[SteveC]

Nice pictures !   

[Farmer X]

 

[pfrsantos]

Ahh ok, sorry about getting laid off and hope you found something new

The older I get the faster time seem to get away from me

+1 Good luck, hope you find a better job!

 

Enjoyed the pics, the camp looks great in white. One thing that I noticed: quite a heavy coat of snow/ice on the roof. Is it strong enough to stand the weight?

[Grant Lamontagne]

That roof is braced and cross braced and now that the walls are attached to the floor  the way they are supposed to I am sure this can withstand that and a heck of a lot more.

That amount of snow is typical for that area, and this camp has been standing for probably 50 ish years, so it's obviously got no issues with it.

In the winter of 2005 we got hit with a massive snowstorm, with probably two meters of snow fall in about 12 hours, and the camp survived that.  And, in 2015 we had a massive snowstorm every week from the middle of January to the middle of March that probably dumped a meter of snow each time, and the camp survived that as well.

It looks like a lot of snow, but it's quite normal here.   

Def

[Vidar]

They aren't mandatory here but they are a good idea. I usually do have them, I just haven't gotten around to getting them yet.   

No winter tires? I would be scared driving there in winter for sure! Not just due to my own vehicle sailing along, but also from knowing that cars and trucks you meet on the road might be just sailing along too.

For winter tires I've tried both studless and studded. Even though the studless was fine on snow and carved ice I swapped them during their first season for studded tires. The difference when you hit that fresh smooth ice, possibly with water on top, was the difference of retaining some control and having none.  (Both utterly outclass all year tires, and summer tires are just smurf. Both all year and summer tires are illegal to use in winter conditions here).

[ThundahBeagle]

Winter tires are not required here either but wow they sure do make a difference even though roads eventually get plowed well

[Grant Lamontagne]

I never worried too much about snow tires before.  The tires on my Jeep were Mud and Snow rated so they did snow without an issue.

The roads were clear as we went to the camp again today.  There was a snow storm the day after we went last week, which meant we had to dig out the driveway again to get in.  I decided to risk it and not bring the snowblower this time because I didn't want to have to remove the tonneau cover from the truck again.

When we got to the camp I realized the error of that thought and I had to dig through waist high snow again to get the truck in the driveway.   

With a fair bit of effort I was able to get it done, but not without some carnage- I broke one of our two shovels, and the new one at that.

The area we cleared last time was still visible, but had been mostly filled in, both by fresh snow and a fair bit of blown snow.  In the woods the snow was well over a meter deep- that's over a yard for those that don't do metric.

As you can see, there is even more snow built up on the roof from last time, and with more snow in the forecast for tomorrow, soon there will be even more!   

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

A quick look up in the attic showed there were no concerns inside, and you can see the cross braces that keep the weight from being a concern on the roof.  In addition to the main triangle of the roof pitch, there are V shaped braces on either side that provide more strength in this roof than it's ever likely to need, even in the worst snowstorms.

In the darkness I noticed something that I'd never noticed before, and my first thought was that either a large coyote or small bear was hibernating in my attic!   

That was just an initial overreaction though- there was no way for a large animal to get up there, so it was pretty unlikely.  When I shined the light on it I realized it's probably just an old sheet of insulation- there's random bits of insulation thrown around in the attic, and I never noticed this one before.

That's a little more likely than a wild animal getting in without causing any damage, opening the hatch to the attic, climbing up the ladder screwed to the wall, closing the hatch behind them and then taking a nap in the corner!

Needless to say, after doing some measuring inside and popping new batteries into the security camera it was time to get out the snow shoes and enjoy ourselves a bit.  Even little Dasher got out for a short period, although the snow ended up being too deep and too cold for him so he opted to get back in the warm trucklet after relieving himself.

All in all, another good day at the camp!

Def

[Vidar]

I never worried too much about snow tires before.  The tires on my Jeep were Mud and Snow rated so they did snow without an issue.

For me the main worry has always been fresh smooth ice and its nasty sibling wet smooth ice. Well, and slush, which tends to steer you where you don't want to go. Some over here say that is just a factor 2-3% percent of the time, which might be true or just another made-up-statistic™, but I want to remain on the road all the time. I believe our road conditions must be different.

Those roof braces seems very familiar to many here, and they certainly take snow. What often kills roof is not the even loading of lots of snow on top, but rather what happens when all the snow on one side suddenly avalanches off while all the snow on the other side remains. That causes some unsymmetrical forces that tests a roof and building.