Breaking A Trail

 We decided to make the trip to the cottage and see how it fared over the winter. We drove out in our 4x4 Jeep hauling a trailer with two snowmobiles. We made it as far as the entrance to the road up to the cottage and found it had not been plowed all winter and the snow was rather deep. 

We drove in early in the morning while the roads were all still frozen and had not turned to mud by the rapidly melting snow.

 We decided to make the 1/2 mile trek to the cottage using snow shoes so we didn't sink thru the snow. Found out later it was thigh deep in most places. Also turns out that is much too deep for the snowmobiles we brought.

This is as close as we could get and find a place to park

Our first effort with snow shoes. They are sized by the weight of the user. Mine are on the left

The snow shoes spread your weight over a larger area and keep you from sinking in deep snow. Right here Julie is over about 24 inches of snow

We left the tractor under a tarp and hooked to a snow blower. Once uncovered we started it and started blowing the snow that encased the tractor and eventually cleared the drive and the road to the cottage

Many hours of snow blowing and plowing made travel possible.

The deck was pretty deep with snow and took a while to clear.

Eventually we got it clear enough to walk around and see the driveway

Before and after

The birds paid great attention to our arrival as they know they get fed. The crow came to the window  and '"cawwed" at us until we put out the food. They are there pretty much all day long chowing down.