2:30 – There’s a hint of sunlight – the snow has lightened – time to clear out the trench I dug this morning between my house and Joan’s. 

I get the front step cleared and decide to head toward the parking lot, somewhere on the other side of some deep drifts. 



I dig straight out from the house – a single shovel width, then I have to make a right turn, into the drift! I keep digging, each foot forward is six shovelsfull – a little off the top, dig a bit deeper until I finally reach the pavement.

I’m about 2/3 of the way to the parking lot (that’s filled with drifted snow), when Vern comes by on the way to his backyard (can’t get his back door open) to shovel a path for Sophie, his golden lab. 



I persuade him it’s futile, he should help me finish my trench, then I’ll help him dig out his front door so Sophie can get out into the parking lot. 

We get my trench dug, then start on Vern’s – Donna comes out to join the shovelling gang. 



We dig our way from their front doors, past my car (that’s what’s peeking out of the snow on the left) .



This is me, in my snowsuit, in my trench – you can see the snow has drifted well above Donna’s and my heads! God knows where the snow plow will put the snow! There is simply nowhere for it to go. And I don’t expect we’ll get dug out tomorrow – probably not for a couple of days. And the weatherman’s calling for more snow on Saturday.

I was able to push my storm door (which opens out) wide enough to squeeze through. Dressed in my one-piece ski suit (which I bought at Frenchy’s for $6 several years ago), shovel in hand, I began moving snow off the stoop, then the step, then the pavement. That’s as much as I did – a narrow path to my neighbour Joan’s to clear away the snow from  her front door, too. Although we’d not get far, I felt we should be able to get out the front door!

It took me 15 minutes to shovel this small path – you can see how deep the drifts are. Later today (should we be lucky enough that the snowfall stops) I will have to shovel my way around the drifts to get to my car which is nearly buried now so I can clean it off. I don’t imagine we’ll see a snow plough around here anytime soon.

In the meantime I will work at keeping that small path from filling in with blown snow.