29 November, 2010
Yes, it’s a lovely view of the steading in winter but it’s also proof that we can have too much of a good thing. We went to Huntly to do our grocery shopping today and when we came home I nipped into the feed store to get some grit to do the hardstanding. As I walked through the door, the roof timbers shifted and groaned. Whoa! Too much snow had built up on the roof, so we had to do something fast.
On the plus side, few tools are needed to clear a pitched roof clear of snow: a very long rope, a heavy shackle (or other weight) tied to one end of the rope, and a couple of pairs of stout gloves. On the minus side, roping a roof clear of snow definitely counts as hard work.
I stood on the uphill side of the building, coiled several bights of rope in my left hand, hung another couple in my right with the shackle hanging down and, with a couple of swings for momentum, hurled the rope over the rope. It sounds easy, but there’s a definite knack to it—best learned by throwing lines from boat to boat, ship to ship, and boat or ship to shore. In this case, the shackle landed just where I wanted it, slightly below the guttering, and without hitting the roof or gutter.
I started with the “easy” part of the job. The rope has to be kept clear of the snow on one side of the roof but be slid beneath it on the other. If the roof is slid beneath the snow on both sides, there’s far too much friction and a hard job becomes exhausting. But even the easy part is quite strenuous as the rope has to be sawed back and forth, while at the same time being walked along the length of the building. (And it’s even harder when the person on other end falls over and shouts “pull harder”, so you pull them up out of the snow!)
The Other Half started close to the wall, keeping her half of the rope just off the roof and deep under the snow. She’d saw a chunk of snow loose, shake the rope to free the chunk and, hopefully, jump clear before it slid off the roof. Actually, there was a good reason for starting like this—and not just to give me an easy start. The OH’s side of the steading was level, covered with bitumen and largely shovelled clear of snow. She still need to put in a lot of effort, but didn’t have to worry about her footing and had a better chance of escaping the sliding snow.
On my side of the building, I had a small clear space around the door but that was it. To the left of the door, I had to squeeze into the snow-filled space between the building and the retaining wall. To the right, I had to negotiate the space between the building and the bank. Both spaces were deep with snow, leaving me few chances to dodge the sliding snow. It made a strenuous job that much more challenging.
After an hour’s work, Nature decided to intervene and dump a fresh load of snow upon us. We persevered and a further hour later we had a roof that was largely clear of snow and no longer groaning. We went in for mug of hot chocolate before coming back out to dig away all the snow that come off the roof—five to six feet of it and all compacted by the impact with the ground. I’m still not sure whether I prefer roping snow off a roof or shovelling it off…
Photography by the Wee ‘Un.
I feel lucky with our weather here. It feels bitter cold when I get up to milk (cow and sheep) and the weather is 45-50f and some residual frost on the ground.
Do you plant mangels for fodder for your animals?
Do you have an knowledge of folks that do – what was their experience?
Type “mangel” into the search box on the right, click return and you’ll get a listing of all the posts I’ve done about mangels.
At least doing that this way you won’t fall from the roof, just fall on your bum if you trip or if the snow falls on you.
The sun came out yesterday and warmed our roof up enough to send slabs of snow sliding down of their own accord. Made me poop myself the first time, I thought the roof was caving in! We haven’t had as much snow as you guys, but it’s still deeper than I can remember – and I’ve been in the city 20 years,
Here’y'go, Stoney – stupid question of the day. Why does that roof need to have the snow off it, but house rooves don’t really suffer from the weight of snow? Most house rooves are pitched and don’t collapse. There were quite a few farm buildings around here last year that collapsed with the snow, but they were flat rooves.
Even a pitched roof can collapse if the snow load is sufficient. The actual point of collapse depends on the snow load, the type of roof construction, the pitch and more.
Our outbuildings are more at risk because they have fewer roof timbers than a house roof and can’t take as much weight. The buildings also lack a heat source at the moment as we have no livestock in them.
But the outbuildings do have metal roofs, which are more slippery and shed snow more easily than concrete tiles.
The main thing is not to do what most people do and ignore the building until things actually go wrong.
The opposite to your problem Stoney….. mine is trying to get a dry enough day or two to slash the very long grass and weeds that have resulted from the torrential rain of the past week or so, here in rural NSW.
The ground is soft, very wet and slippery which makes it interesting (?).
Growth is up to 1 metre or so high, to the extent that I cannot see the dingos at times. Although their long tails can be sign as to there whereabout….. chuckle!
By the way the slashing is done with a ride-on mower or good whipper-snipper, not by hand.
Great photies again.
Just got back from Ullapool & it’s freezing hard – this morning it was -12 in the sunshine going over there.
We have not as much snow but again it’s really iced up – like last year, but earlier.
Loads of trees hanging horizontally over the road going up the Cook past a woodland that is falling down – was done as a tax loss by someone who hasn’t been here in decades.
Hope things ease really soon.
lol, google roof snow rope brings up your blog first