Monday, January 24, 2022

Winter Excitement in The Great White North

Friday morning was eventful. I have already posted of the temperature (-32), but then it got very interesting. This will be a little difficult and somewhat lengthy to describe and narrate, but I think some of you will find the snow removal process interesting.

When it gets dark at night, I close the blinds in my den. I really don't need to because there is nothing much to see and nobody much to see this nothing. Still, I close them while I am puttering away in the evening, but before going to bed, I open them again. Believe it or not, I do it for the cat who may want to look out during the night. I don't even know if she does this in winter, but she does in summer when it's not stupid cold and the windows are open. 

Come morning, I get up when it is still dark, so I close the blinds again until it gets light. Then, I re-open them.

Are you scratching your noggin wondering why AC is telling you this?

Well, it is this. When I opened the blinds on Friday morning, I saw a big truck going by, and then another. I deduced that they were clearing up after Monday's big snowfall. I was right, for as I craned my neck to look up the street, I could see a big tractor blowing snow into a truck The other trucks in the line would take the place of the first truck once it was full of snow. That truck would then drive off to dump the snow somewhere.

Too bad. I was too late to get photos, but it eventuated that I would get another chance. In the meantime, here is one of a truck full of snow, which I took a bit later.


When Sue arose and came in for coffee, I described what I had seen, but as we looked out, behold there was more. This time, I would be able to witness the whole process. I will try to describe it, but bear with me, for it might be difficult to follow.

During the night, they had cleared our side of the street. Now they were doing the other. At this stage, they are not plowing the street itself but removing the snowbanks at the sides. These snowbanks had pretty much reduced the streets to one lane as cars had to pull over as close as they could to the sides to let each other pass.

I will try to outline the process in numbered form to help us both keep track.

1. What I had seen early in the morning was the first pass on the other side of the street. You can see that the far sides are sheared pretty straight before this second pass. Look by the driveway off to the
left, past the snow in the middle, to see how straight the side is.


2. You can also see (both above and below) that the plow had already begun the second pass by scraping another layer into the middle of the street. 

3. This gave the little tractor space to do a bit of cleanup by the driveways.


4. By the next photo, a plow has returned and pushed the pile from the middle of the road back to the edge but not right to the edge because there is still room for the little tractor to work. (I missed that pushing segment as there was much faffing around with phones and cameras, and that plow went by very quickly.
 

5. We then saw a a colourful plume approaching, highlighted by the rising sun behind.


6. As the next two photos show, the plume was from snow being blown into a truck. In the second photo, the spray was past us, so we were no longer catching the backlight from the sun.



7. We counted eight more trucks following the blower, all waiting for their loads. How many had already left the queue to dump snow wherever, I don't know. 


8. The neighbour across the street captured the blowing part on video and posted it on FB. Here is the link: https://www.facebook.com/594672456/videos/629049024998317/ . There is probably a way to embed it, but I don't know how that works, so I have just given you the link.

Wait! Maybe I have figured out how to embed. Let's see if it works.



From FB posts, I know that this process was being carried out concurrently in at least one other location in town and maybe more for all I know. It's a very expensive task because all of those trucks and probably even blowers and plows have to be contracted for the job. Yes, this gets paid for through property taxes.

As we were watching, we saw the little yellow tractor knocking over someone's marker and also depositing a boulder right in their driveway. As it turned out, it had also done that to us during the night. Our neighbour, the snow angel, contacted us and told us not to try to deal with it. He soon came over to take care of both the boulder and the sign.

This is what passes for winter excitement in The Great White North.


24 comments:

Ed said...

I've never seen anyone haul away snow in our area but have seen it done in larger urban areas. We just live with the single lane until it melts enough and/or the plows can get back to widen things out. This of course means digging out the end of our driveway sometimes a week after a storm passes.

Patio Postcards said...

That is some process & aren't you lucky to have such service. Fun to have a series of photos of the removal process.

Saw some reports on the weekend about impassable streets in Toronto because of the ploughs having to go around cars left parked on the street overnight of the snow event & people ploughing their own driveways dumping the snow on the street ... & yet the people could not connect the snowballs of what the problem was ...

Boud said...

Around here snow isn't taken away, just dumped in ever increasing mountains on the grass in front of the house. Some years it reaches the second storey.

This year hardly any. Yet.

troutbirder said...

THI IS ALL A BIT FAMILIAR THOUGH OUR SNOWFALL HAS BEEN SOMEWHAT LESS. WHEN WE WINTER VACATIONED IN FLORIDA THE FLORIDIANS THOUHGT MINESOTANS LIVED IN IGLOOS. I POINTED OUT NORTH DAKOTA WAS FAR COLDER. DUE TO CLIMATE CHANGE WE HAD OUR FIRSTR EVER LATE DECEMBER TORNADO....

Barbara Rogers said...

A very interesting procedure! And you captured it for sharing! I've only seen that kind of clearing of big parking lots, usually civic buildings nearby. I can't imagine the cost involved! Of course here the streets usually have melted within a couple of days. Our schools close if there's still black ice left on the hills and mountains. We wouldn't want a school bus full to slide off the side of a mountain.

Marie Smith said...

We get such attention to snowy details at least once during the winter. It is a costly operation for sure.

DrumMajor said...

What an adventure! You must find the place they're dumping the snow: it's a great big pile waiting to play in! But, what did kitty do? Did she appreciate this real live Tonka Toys display? Linda in Kansas

NGS said...

My husband and I noticed that some folks across the street were trying to get their snowplowed-in cars out of parking spaces yesterday. They mostly live in an apartment building and it didn't appear that they had shovels (this blows my mind because even when we lived in an apartment, we had a collapsible shovel in our trunk, but whatever). My husband immediately started putting on his boots and coat to go help them, but I was convinced that they'd be able to get out before I got myself all geared up. I was correct, but it was fun to watch out the window for a few minutes. Winter fun when you never leave your house!

Vicki Lane said...

Interesting process but what really struck me was the beautiful colors.

MARY G said...

Lovely shots of the snow plume. I don't have a photo vantage for our plough, as it backs and fills and backs and fills to make a turnaround big enough for a full-sized school bus. But the mingled beeps and scrapes make quite a symphony of Winter in the Highlands.
I hope my daughter in Sandy Hill on a very narrow street is getting the snow removal treatment too. Yes, it costs big. But it may save a life, or at least a limb.

Celia said...

Wow, and I complained about the foot plus of snow we had, we are such amatuers. What an amazing process. Hope your kitty watched some of it.

Margaret said...

That is quite a procedure and there are SO many vehicles involved. It sounds like it's needed though if people want (need?) to get around!

Marcia said...

I was thinking as I read this how expensive it must be. That snowblower is mammoth-sized and must cost a pretty penny. Didn't realize your temps had dropped that low. -16ยบ here one morning was cold enough for us.
As to Wordle sometimes I have a lucky guess. Today not the case. I resort to word lists to help my brain and finally got the word on 5th try. Yesterday my sister had crimp on 2nd try because her first guess was crime. It is fun but glad it's only one a day.

Goldendaze-Ginnie said...

After following all you wrote and looking at your pictures I feel like a complete wimp ... our 2 inches of snow over ice was more than I could handle ! There are so many reasons I've seriously thought of moving to Canada but this has me reconsidering !!

gigi-hawaii said...

And this whole process gets repeated after the next snow storm! Egads! Better move to Hawaii! LOL.

DJan said...

That's a whole lotta snow to deal with. I enjoyed watching the video. :-)

Jenn Jilks said...

I've seen this so many times. A well-oiled machine!
I'm always surprised by how many bloggers don't have snow.
I was hoping to see your nose pressed against your window in the video.

William Kendall said...

That's how it's done in the city too.

The Furry Gnome said...

Sounds like a sensible process to me. But I don't think our little town here has the money for it.

Joanne Noragon said...

My home town once had so much snow they could no longer dump it on the tree lawns, so they put it in trucks and dumped it in one big open area in the freeways.

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

I read your description before watching the video and I will echo previous comments that it is quite the operation with so many trucks. I know you have received a lot of snow, but wonder how this operation can be carried out throughout the town, particularly before another storm. You noted the cost was covered in property taxes so now I wonder if they will be increasing more.

Red said...

We have the same snow removal process here. It goes very quickly. You have a lot of snow there.

peppylady (Dora) said...

If the snow amount to anything they will haul it and dump into River here.
Coffee is on and stay safe

Jeanie said...

This is absolutely fascinating. I have never seen anything like it and I wonder if it ever happens here or if we just don't get enough snow (even when it's a lot) to warrant it. I suspect when it comes to snow and handling it, Canada is to Michigan what Michigan is to the South -- and in the south, when you get snow you just shut down! We don't usually shut down but we don't have nearly the snow you do!