December 27...Still Shoveling

We spent most of yesterday, Wednesday, the 26, inside. Tom took these photos through the dining room window.

Yes, in the background there are snowflakes.

By four o'clock, the snow was coming down in light flurries so I cleaned the driveway off with the snowblower.  The prediction was for five to ten inches of snow before morning.  There was already at least five inches on the ground.

Thank you, Bob and Eric, for installing the operator shield  in 2011.  After installation, the snowblower sat in the garage all winter. We never had enough snow in the winter of 2011-2012  to use it.

But yesterday, I had the shield's protection and was very happy I did. In the past, I would come in from snowblowing covered with snow. Not this year.

This morning when I went out to do some shoveling,  I was happy to see I wouldn't have to use the snowblower on the driveway today. By the end of the afternoon, most of the driveway was completely clear.  The sun finished the cleaning I started yesterday.

Today my project was shoveling  the snow off the ramp and porch. Before I did that,  I stuck a ruler into the snow.

This spot had 5.5 inches of snow cover. We always have lots of drifting so there were places that had more and others that had less.

  Before shoveling...

After shoveling...

I'll shovel the rest another day. The snow is heavy, the perfect snow for making snowmen and snow forts. 

According to The Dayton Daily News, the area has now had as much snow (9.2 inches) as it had all of last winter.  Usually, we have snow January and February so I expect I will have more opportunity to snowblow.