As I often do, I checked the cameras at the house in Wisconsin and found the deck was covered in obviously deep snow.

From inside the four-season porch, I could see the snow had piled up against the sliding glass door to what looked to be knee high or higher, about half way from floor to handle. There seemed to be a bit of a deeper drift in the middle of the deck, perhaps with the edges against the house sculpted lower by wind whirling against the walls. I couldn't tell how deep the snow was on the perpendicular wall on the deck, which also has a sliding glass door. From the doorbell camera and a couple other outdoor cameras, it was clear there was a lot of drifting on the sidewalk and driveway, but it kind of has a fish-eye drop in depth the further one gets from the cameras. Not really that distorted view, but kind of.

I decided to trek to the Wisconsin house to try to tackle the snow before it got warm enough on Wednesday to melt, possibly leaking through the not-watertight door seals into the house. The news reports were boasting how well the roads were being cleared, with just a few "some roads cleared" in the area near the end of the trip. I figured the worst of it would be the last mile dirt road, or the county road leading up to it. If that were the case, I could hunker down nearby and try later. I grabbed a couple cans of soup and a little bag of oatmeal and cacao. I threw a couple changes of clothes and a blanket in a bag. I packed some basic electronics, too. I hoped to be able to run, clear, and return, but realized it was late enough in the day that I'd probably choose to spend the night. I loaded the little single-stage snowblower and some fuel cans in the back of the Jeep and took off.

Google warned that my usual route had obstacles, so I followed it through the downtown areas of Minneapolis and St Paul, taking the long way through the city. The roads were fine. Once I made it past the main city loop, the roads were still clear, but there weren't as many vehicles as I would normally expect on a weekday afternoon. Probably more sane people stayed home.

I made it all the way to the driveway without difficulty. I stopped for a soda at the regular last-stop gas station, not having stopped for lunch as I thought I might, and grabbed some chips to snack on, too; the champion software developer's classic lunch. The roads were clear, with just a few spots having dustings of snow shooting across, and the occasional little drift to slow through or go around. There was a Tesla stuck in a drift just before the house, but the people there waved at me and gestured for me to continue. There was already a beefier pickup truck there to help, and I couldn't remember if I had tow straps in my storage bin if it would have been helpful to try to pull the car free (and it turns out I don't...they must be in the garage at home, and I don't know if there are any in the garage here).

The dirt road had been plowed all the way through, putting a berm of snow at the end of the driveway that looked pretty deep. I tossed the Jeep in low four-wheel drive, and crawled over the berm without a problem. I trudged forward in deeper snow until the Jeep stopped. The wheels spun a little, but the Jeep wouldn't move forward. I reversed right out of the snow. Once I reversed enough I could see the imprint of the underside of the Jeep where it was sledding atop the snow drift across the driveway. I was still about 100 feet from the garage. I gave it some gas to try to blast through, holding my breath I wouldn't beach the Jeep on the snow like a big, sad whale. It got stuck again, and backed out fine again. Clearly the drift was too much for the Jeep to climb over.

I got out and inspected. From the lower vantage point I could see that I hadn't even hit the deepest part of the drift, so there was no way I was going to push through or snowshoe over, even with my deep-groove rugged tires.

I put on my hat and grabbed my gloves and carefully deep-stepped to the garage. I opened the door and stepped out of the wind. I had realized on the drive down that I'd forgotten to bring the keys to the house, so I opened the lock box and grabbed that key. I took a snow shovel and scooped the snow away from the garage door and made a path to the house. I cleared the little drifts between the steps and front door, and let myself in.

It was warmer inside, and not as windy. I checked the thermostat and it read 52°F, which is a bit lower than the 60°F it was set to. I bumped it up to 70°F and flipped on the fireplace. I opened the four-season porch and turned its thermostat from 60°F to 70°F also. I turned on the ceiling fans in all the main floor rooms to get the air flowing, and went back outside.

It took about 20 minutes to shovel a path a little wider than the shovel back to where the Jeep tire tracks ended. Except right by the garage, the snow was deeper than knee-high, and in some places pushed waist high. The Jeep tire track ended up about 6 inches in the air, with the Jeep sledding on the top of the thigh-high berm. Just a bit more than the Jeep's normal clearance. I grabbed my groceries, clothes, and electronics and lugged them through the deep steps and down the shoveled path into the house, where I took a break.

It's cold and windy, with an air temperature around 20°F, according to the weather app on the phone, and a wind chill closer to a few degrees below zero. I took off my boots and jacket and ventured into the house again. The house had warmed to about 62°F, and the fireplace had created a nice warm oasis nearby. I warmed by the fire for a while, and caught my breath. I mused the story with some people in chat, and shared some photos I'd taken of my struggle for sympathy and kudos.

I decided that I wasn't going to dig the rest of the way to the Jeep, maybe another 20 feet, or another 20 feet after that around the Jeep, to unload the snowblower. Instead I thought I'd back out of the driveway, turn the Jeep around, and back in until I got close to the sticking point. I did that. It was trickier to back over the plow berm at the end of the driveway than to drive over it. Both ways, out and then back in again. It took a few tries before I could get over the berm and into the Jeep tracks to finish reversing into the drive. I stopped when I reached my footprints. I got out and found that there was plenty of space beneath the Jeep, so it wasn't resting on the snow. I grabbed the trusty shovel and took another 20 minutes or so to clear the area behind the Jeep and connect it to the path to the garage. I unloaded the snowblower and guided it to the garage. I went back and grabbed the fuel and extension cord needed to start the snowblower. I dropped all that in the garage and went inside to warm up again.

I was getting a little hungry, so I chomped on some chips and soda while I warmed up. The house had only crept up to about 67°F, but it was still comfortable, more in front of the fireplace. I shared my progress with my kudos peeps, and then set out to clear the deck.

I lifted the snowblower onto the deck and wheeled it over to where the big drift ended. I tossed in a bottle of fuel, plugged it in, and fired it up. I gave a quick pass on the shallow end of the drift and thought "that was too easy." Of course, that part still fit in the intake of the snowblower. As I passed the deeper part of the drift, I could see the challenge ahead as the pile was deeper than the snowblower chute. I ran another pass along the wall, where the wind had left it a little shallower, but not quite as shallow. It was a little tougher the closer I got to the corner, but I was able to clear an easy path along the wall.

I worked out that I could peel off a row of deep snow, essentially laying it on the deck next to the pile, and the snowblower would make short work of that. I took to making an L-shaped cut with the shovel, along the deck opposite the porch, and along the wall. I then turned the chute to blow the snow over the edge of the deck. It worked pretty well. I kept chugging, and about 30 minutes later, I had the deck cleared. I made a few last passes with the shovel, and called it done. No more snow piled against the house or doors!

I returned to the garage with the snow blower, and considered taking on the drift covering the garage apron and driveway to the Jeep. The deck I cleared is about a 20x15-foot area, and "only" took about 30 minutes. I was cold now, again, and had only about another hour of good sunlight, and I was getting genuinely hungry. No lunch and a bit of chips and soda didn't compare to that bit of work.

I put the snowblower in the garage and shut the door, committing to decide later whether to try to clear the driveway in the morning. I settled in for a nice hot bowl of soup. I made passes to all the mouse traps, emptying and resetting the one that caught an evil mouse, and flushed all the toilets (they evaporate and stain otherwise). Everything else seems fine, if cold. I made the bed and unpacked the electronics, and then settled in and watched a weird little zombie movie. I chatted with my online peeps, getting many kudos and commiserations.

The house is still hovering around 65°F, but the temperature outside has dropped to nearly zero, on its way to a few degrees below, and with a whipping wind. No new drifts have formed on the deck, but the bits of snow that are there are peeled away and shoved around by the wind.

I'm going to turn in, hopefully warming up under the blanket, and figure the rest out in the morning.