 |
| the long and winding driveway |
One thing we bought before our first winter in Fairbanks was a snow blower. Our driveway was just a curving dirt path cut through the trees with a couple of spots where vehicles could turn around or park. It was tricky for the water guy, who had to back in with his large truck and make it around a tight curve. He sometimes had to try more than once to make it. So being able to clear the driveway was important. We got the snow blower and were ready—or so we thought.
Winter was what we expected. It would snow and Bill would blow. Things went along, month after month. And then, late the first winter, we had a snowstorm. Snow started falling fast and kept on falling. The driveway quickly became impassable. Bill went to start the snow blower and it would not fire up. Uh-oh. He tried and tried. It had fuel, so that wasn’t the issue. We had no idea what the issue was and there was no way to bring it somewhere to find out because the driveway was buried in snow. We had no snow shovels, but we did have garden shovels, so we both put on our winter gear, grabbed shovels, and started digging. Digging, digging, digging, hour after hour, digging while the snow kept falling fast. Six hours later, well after dark, we had a path cleared. We went inside, aching in muscles we did not know we had. We went to bed and when we woke up, you could hardly tell we’d shovelled at all, let alone for 6 hours! We both knew we wouldn’t be going to the university that day and we were a bit glum as we picked up the shovels and went back out there for more. We did another 6 hours that day and thought we were done. Not quite yet.
We needed to have water delivered. The guy came and tried to make it around the curve. He tried again. He failed again. He couldn’t make it. He left. Someone called and said to let them know when we’d cleared the driveway some more. We got the shovels and went out yet again. The next time, he made it.
And the snow blower? It just needed a tune-up.
These moose are at the end of our driveway.
