I have the best brother.

He’s just so awesome.

I had emailed him to keep him up to date with how things went yesterday, with the new baby snow blower. As we were emailing back and forth, he told me that he had found the carburetor needed for the old snow blower – which I think I will call The Beast from now on, because a Beast is what it is! When he was working on it himself, a while back, he had taken pictures, including one of the carburetor. Using that, he was able to find the right kind online. No surprise to me, considering he managed to find the last heat bands in the world for the old hot water tank after we moved here. Not only did he find the carburetor, but he was able to get it, including shipping, for only $83 Canadian. He had already ordered it, and it is expected to arrive in early March, so he wanted to come over and pick up The Beast and take it home. That way, it’ll already be there when the new carburetor arrived, and he could replace it himself.

He is so awesome.

So we worked out roughly when they’d come over, and I was even able to persuade them to stop for a longer visit, too.

Pretty excited about that. 🙂

So this morning, I went out to do my rounds a bit early, so I would have time to drive into town and pick some things up before they got here.

One of the first things I noticed was Slick, sitting on the dresser at the window, and NOT running off right away. Both Ferdinand and Nicky the Nose slunk out the door, but he didn’t leave until my moving around finally got to be a bit too much for him. Even then, he didn’t head out right away, thought that was more because Ferdinand and Nicky the Nose were right in the doorway, waiting on me to finish with the food and water, so they could come in!

In the end, Nicky the Nose took off before I was able to get my glove off to take a picture. They still did not go far, while I took care of the food and water outside, the got the deer and bird feed out. All three of them are slowly getting more used to us.

When I got back from putting the feed out, I found this.

Butterscotch is not normally willing to share the heat pad, but Doom Guy was insistent!

Interestingly, Butterscotch seems to be friendlier to Doom Guy than Beep Beep; his own mother.

I was able to finish my errands in town well before my brother and his wife showed up. Also, they brought their own snow blower, to clear our driveway more! Their truck is big enough to fit both, it turns out. I had commented that we had not been able to get the driveway as wide as I wanted, yet, but would be working on it over time. Well, he just saved us all that work!

This is what our driveway looked like, 4 days ago.

Though we were able to use Spewie, the new snow blower, since this photo was taken, we were not able to clean more than maybe a couple of inches wider than in the above photo. The cleared part is maybe about a foot wider than our van.

This is what hit looks like now

What a thing of beauty! He went wide enough, that he was off the gravel and onto the grass!

I haven’t got pictures yet, but he cleared the end of the driveway almost to the culverts – in fact, I had to warn him to stop, so he wouldn’t slide into the ditch. I have poles marking the ends of the culvert, but I could only put them in where there was soil enough to push through; it’s mostly rock around the culvert itself. I mowed and weed trimmed around there often enough, I knew where the ground was starting to slope, hidden under the snow; something he would not have been able to see.

Not only did he clear the driveway nice and wide, but he ended up clearing a turning radius by the garage, more space in front of the fence that a vehicle can park in, and even cleared into the yard! We now have room enough to drive up to the house, plus the space we need to back up and turn.

It was so amazing to see. His snow blower cut through the drifts – including the packed plow ridges – like nothing. And no wonder; the blades on his snow blower have teeth!

It was also amazing how quickly it all got done, using a machine that wasn’t stalling repeatedly. 😀

Oh, what a beautiful sight it was!

After he was done, the three of us worked on loading The Beast into his truck first – ramps are a beautiful thing! – then helped him drive their snow blower in. He then stayed to strap things down while my SIL went inside, expecting him to join us, soon after.

He didn’t come in.

We checked out the window, and I couldn’t see him.

We waited a bit longer.

Hmm… Where is he? Nowhere near the truck. Not in the truck, either.

Finally, my SIL went out to check. Turns out, he was at the gate posts. (I really look forward to when we can clear more of the spruce grove, so we can see the end of the driveway from the house again!) He took off the top bent and damaged hinge pins, replaced them with some new J-pins he’d found, and was trying to take the bottom ones off. It wasn’t working, though, so he had to leave them for now.

By the time he came in, he was more than ready for some hot tea to warm up! It isn’t that cold out there right now (relatively speaking), but that doesn’t mean much when you’re kneeling in snow!

We got good visit in, before they had to go. We were so happy to see them, and just amazed that they took the time and effort to drag their own snow blower out here, and clear our snow for us! It’s a 1 1/2 hour drive for them – one way! – to come out here, too.

I have the best brother. ❤

The Re-Farmer