As I wrenched my lower back trying to clean up after the over an inch of sleet left by a storm earlier this week, it again seems like a good idea. Don't know about you, Syonyk, but am at the point where I can't wait to see the back of Winter.
*shrug* We've mostly given up. My wife takes the truck places now, at 12mpg of diesel. The car can't get out of the driveway, and the truck struggles (it won't leave without 4WD locked in). If the tractor runs, I'll run it, but my plans this weekend involve trying to get stuff wide enough for my inlaws to get back in with their motorhome. I figure that's another 5 gallons of gas (70% through the engine, 30% through the various places it leaks), and... well, most of Friday or Saturday. Unless it tosses a rod.
A good two stage snow blower would help with the narrow spots, but they're not to be found anywhere around here at this point.
If we get another 6" or foot of snow, we're simply not leaving until it melts. The tractor has either developed a nasty exhaust leak or a serious rod knock (hoping it's the first, because that's $10 of gaskets vs an engine rebuild), and I'm pretty well out of other options. I can go borrow a neighbor's tractor, but it has a bucket on the front and a box blade on the back, neither of which are great. The bucket is fine for moving my piles, but isn't useful against much new accumulation, and the box blade is great for leveling dirt and awful for removing snow.
Next winter, my plan includes a 240V generator that can run the stove, a hundred or so gallons of propane, a camp stove filling attachment, and about three months of food onsite. Just in case it's worse than this winter.