Now I know why plowing snow is hazardous duty

We had our second... no, our third winter storm of the season yesterday.  I would guess that we had about 12 inches at our house by the time it was over.  It's a little hard to see in the picture to the right, but there's a snow plow attached to the front of my truck.   I am hoping to earn a few extra dollars plowing snow this season, thanks to my good friend Scott who basically gifted me with the plow blade.  Anyway, yesterday was my second time to plow "professionally" and it didn't take long for me to realize how potentially hazardous plowing can be. Hidden curbs and telephone poles aside, it would be frighteningly easy to do serious damage to my truck or to someone else's property.  Case in point:  I plow a few driveways just to help out a few friends who haven't been blessed to own their own snow plow.  My friend Tom lives at the top of a very long (200 yards?), very steep (vertical), concrete (very slippery) driveway.  During the last storm I made a valiant but unsuccessful attempt to plow going uphill.... until Big Brian (my neighbor) suggested using gravity by plowing downhill, not up.  Why didn't they teach me that at Auburn?  So, armed with this new, high-tech knowledge I drove to the top of Tom's driveway and plowed going back down.  Wow, so this really works!  Only one problem: as I reached the crest of Mount Everest on my third trip up I realized that by clearing the snow I'd very effectively created a bobsled track - but I wasn't driving a bobsled.  As the truck started sliding backwards I quickly realized that I had two choices: slide off the downward slope and over the edge, or slide into the wooden retaining wall on the other side.  I chose the wall - but my momentum carried me over the wall and smack into a couple of pine trees.  In the process I dislodged a huge (I'm not exaggerating this time) boulder that was now wedged firmly under the truck.  I spent the next 90 minutes on my butt or on my knees in the snow, digging under the boulder in hopes that it would settle low enough for me to drive over.  Didn't work.  Long story, but we finally managed to get the truck out by attaching three tow ropes to the rock and pulling it out from underneath the truck with Tom's Four Runner.  I guess I'm now in the snow plowing, wall rebuilding business.

First Art Show


This Saturday I will have my own booth at the 34th annual Conifer Holiday Boutique along with some 80 other artisans.  I'm a bit nervous, this being the first time I will be selling my own work on a large scale (they expect around 5000 visitors to attend the one-day event).  I plan to display prints of my paintings and my wildlife photography, as well as a few of the wooden signs that I've created over the past few months.  I have to build my own shelves/ walls to display my work in a 10x10 foot area, so most of my evenings and days off for the past two weeks have been spent in the garage hammering and sawing.  I'll only find out tomorrow evening (when I set up my booth) if what I've built is appropriate for the venue or not.  We'll see.  More to come!