Snow and stuff

Snow Claw coming off roof

 Sometimes snow makes beautiful things and sometimes just causes big headaches. The first couple pictures were created by the snow gradually warming up and sliding forward off the steel roof of my garage. The snow extends a couple foot without breaking this morning as the below freezing temperature last night saved it from collapse. The second picture show the entire length of the slide. I expect the whole thing will fall off today as temperature rise well above the freezing mark and the weight will become too great to bear. You don't want to be standing under it when it goes as it usually comes off in one big swoosh.

Snow sliding off roof

The same snow that made this beautiful piece of snow art work gave a couple of guys a very long day. They come up to put a garage door on a barn not too far from here on Leetonia Road just the other side of the State Forest Boundary. They had started their day at 3 am, since they drove up from Lancaster area to do the work.

Things went pretty good for them until they finished and started to head home. They plugged the drive into the GPS and guess what the shortest route is....right through the State Forest. Around 2 pm they passed my house heading down the last mile of the plowed road in a 7 ton box truck. They

Truck stuck mess

rounded the corner and the snow got a bit deeper by the time they got to the first curve a 100 yards down the road they were in trouble. They came to a sliding ditch halt in front of Mick's old place.
They had spent about an hour and a half digging their truck out of the ditch when I decided to take my daily walk in that direction a walk I was surprised to see this huge truck now stuck in the middle of the road. They  planned to get it out and continue down the road.  I informed them this plan would not work as they would only get in worse snow and narrower steep and more dangerous roads, they realized they would have to turn around. .

Pine branch truck stuck mess continues
.

I continued the walk I planned for another 3/4 mile and turned around to walk home. Not to my surprise they were still struggling with one shovel. I offered to bring them back a shovel when I got home so they both could dig. It is about a half-hour walk from their truck to my house. So I loaded a shovel and drove it to the end of the plowed road and walked it to them.  Being young men they were determined they could get this truck out by themselves and had began shoveling tracks for the truck down the road.
I asked, "Are you going to shovel the entire road?"
The one guy replied, "Yes."
I looked at the fifty feet they had chipped and shoveled through in the last three hours and looked at the 1000 feet left and the clock at 4:30 PM and thought to myself, No way, it would be dark soon. I told them darkness would come soon and it would be difficult to see what they were doing. I didn't think they knew how dark it gets back here. The kind of dark you can't see your hand in front of your face dark. They continued to dig. I showed them how to use pine branches to help with the slipping under their tires. I call them back woods chains. I told them where I lived and to just drop the shovel in front of the house if they get out. Then I added it is about a half-hour walk. I told them I would come check on them by 7:30 to make sure they were okay if I didn't see them get out.

At 7:15 they were knocking at the door. I turned the light on to see two young men, wet, cold, tired, carrying a light and their water. One of them said, "You sure walked a long way, and it is really dark out there.  I just smiled in agreement, betting they were a bit more scared then they let on. We did some calling around and no one wanted to come pull them out. No one except Wayne Williams of Gaines Garage who said he was in New York and wouldn't be back until late. Since, I have kids a little older than these guys, my mothering instinct kicked in and I got them Hot chocolate and some hot chicken soup and had them sit by the fire to dry out a bit. They were so tired we both had to beg them to eat. 

We filled them in on a few local stories and around 10:30 PM, Wayne showed up with the tow truck. It wasn't until 11:45 PM and $500 later the truck was back on the road and they had another three hours of driving to get home. I am sure they woke up this afternoon stiff and sore and in a few days will probably have a great survival story from the woods of Leetonia.

Meanwhile for anyone trying to come up keep in mind the weather will be warm which means slushy snow and difficult if not impossible travel conditions. Four-wheel drive and chains are mandatory, along with a shovel and the ability to walk for help. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.