"Moose Mtn. Under Siege"

At 1st glance one might think; oh how beautiful ! And yes it is, but look more closely & think a little out of the box and one might realize just how deep that snow really is. The swing on Moose Mtn. was  hung a few years back, not for small children,  but primarily for 3 young ladies ranging from 20 to 25 years old.

                       Yeh!  Now you are getting the drift! The Moose Mt. Sign hangs from the iron hanger at approx. 6 feet high. To say that the snow has reached beyond  Big Woody's  confort zone  is an understatement !                                            

Neighbors are asking if they can use the driveway for a Luge Run in preperation for Keene Special Olympics ( presently under consideration by Mr & Mrs Woody ) ; we are thinking about holding out for special seeding in the dual seniors division for granting permission !

Big Woody has had his hands full keeping everthing  clear & open for business as usual. Although even Big Woody has his limits to his patience & sense of enough is enough! It gets harder & harder to throw that snow up & over. But the Meter reader & oil man certainly appreciate it

Now to all those who are really with it ; what do you notice about this picture ? If you guessed that this is the only clear driveway in New Hampshire & possibly New England you are absolutely correct!. Anyone who has ever lifted a shoval on  Moose Mtn.. can not only imagine how many shoval fulls of snow have been removed but they probably are rejoicing that they have made no recent trips to the Mtn.  

Yes now you are finally getting the picture. This has been one heck of a winter & Big Woody is sick & tired of it. Mr & Mrs Woody have started packing; so all the little Woodchucks need to get their stuff in order as there will be positively no more "Winters in Wonderland " as Woody is about dead!  We will be spending next winter on FLAT GROUND !!!!         :)                                                                    
                                                                            
                                                                    

"Co-Existing With The Mountain"

This story goes back approximitely 10 years or so when we were moving back from North Dighton Mass. We were house hunting & of course at this point in time Mr & Mrs Woody had 4 children who had some input into this hunt as well. Well we had searched high &  low & come up with nothing that would work for " The Woody Family " when low & behold we saw it;   " Mouse Mountain" One might say it was  similiar for Big Woody at least  as the 1st time he ever beheld the sight of Mrs Woody - Yes smittened/ stunned/awe struck      you guessed it   " Love at 1st Sight ".  Well there was one Big Problem  with Moose Mtn.-   The Driveway !
It was a disaster; barley passable & we had a 4 wheel drive surburban! The Woody Family was in a pickle, beautiful spot but would it be possible to finish the job of raising the rest of the little woodchucks on " Mouse Mt. ". We rassled with the delima for a while but nothing seemed to compare so we decided to fix the driveway; paving the last STEEP 300 yards and make it work.        "  Thus the Driveway Rules "   now Big Woody was certainley as stated before never accused of being the sharpest cranyon in the box; but he was clever enough to realize after loosing the battle with the driveway one winter to never let it happen again. How it happened was unavoidable. It was Christmas Day a couple of years after we had arrived on the Mtn. and the festivities were beginning and no sooner had the relatives started showing up & when it started to snow. Woodys rules of no driving up hill until snow has been removed; would have to be put aside or Woody would become the Worlds  #1  Scrooge  -  making guest "Walk The Hill" on Christmas   would have made the Drukes wedding drivway episode with Wanski a non event) but back to the story! Woody did his best to have a Merry Christmas but in truth kept telling each & every guest that they better get going before they got snowed in! We had nearly a foot of snow before the last car slid off the hill and yes the damage had been done!  Woody had Lost Control of The Driveway ! For a good two weeks all the little Woodchucks had to walk to & from the barn! Some decided ( homeschooling) to stay home untill the hill melted but some had no choice. Groceries were brought up by sled - Woody vowed right then & there that even if he had to stand guard that he would do everything humanly possible to not let that happen again! Thus Big Woody decided to hand shovel the paved part of driveway or use leaf blower, brooms, whatever it takes to keep it free of snow (  thus for no ice forming later ) ! 
It took a lot of sticktuitveness but Woody finally got all delivery people to either deliver to barn ( part-way up driveway - way before steep part ) or to call Woody on his cell for clearance! One of the advantages of this endeaver was Big Woody never needed to waste time goin to the gym because "The Hill" was workout enough (say nothing about the deck,walks,roofs,barn-yard,etc.)Woody never big on wasten time; shovels at a clip. Many have been amused over the years when they see Woodys attire while he is clearing snow ( see picture ) but in fact; it is Big Woody who is really amazed when at times others have come to chip in & help & while they are dressed like they are out for a  walk in the  Ant -Artic.

Well sure enough this Christmas things were going great & then the forcast      "Noreaster Coming"  sure enough Moose Mtn. got hit with 15 inches.  and 50 mile an hour wind gust!    Yep, snowed in  on the Mountain!  We were as ready as possible ; plow on truck, Kabota up on top and all shovels ready to go. It sure did look beautifull when the snow stopped but then snow-removall took on a whole new meaning for all of Woodys visitors!

 Jon,Josh,Jason,Lillie,&Heidi all took  turns, as part time shovelers. The help was greatly appreciated but Big Woody stuck to it & several days later everything was clear and Life was back to normal on Moose Mtn. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

As you can see there was some time for playing in the snow also! Dana & Jon were a little nervous that they would be changing their legal address but they did make it off the mountain & back to Virginia after much fretting & planning & replanning evacultion plans! But all in all it was a great Christmas Event on Moose Mountian !

Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year to All !!!

Luv Mr. and Mrs. Big Woody   :)