75ZT Community

Well, here we are at the end of our seventh snowbound day.

The gritter truck has been within 100 yards of our house but it may as well be 100 miles as far as getting the car out goes. I think that we ought to get a week's rebate on the council tax let alone the car road tax.

Luckily a neighbour with a 4X4 took me shopping earlier so we are well supplied.

To make life complete, we have a burst pipe in our downstairs cloakroom, even though there is a radiator in there which is on all the time. Oh well, it has been -19C for two or three nights!

I did manage to dislodge the 7 feet long icicles from our eaves today, hopefully before they have dislodged the guttering.

My 91 year old father is feeling a bit sorry for himself as he cannot get to us for tomorrow but his next door neighbour has invited him to their house for the day.

At least I can walk up to the village club for a drink in the morning, I hope that they haven't run out of beer because they've had no deliveries, like that which happened last time.

Sounds good to me, apart from the -19ºC..... Enjoy.

hope your ok ' sounds a bit hard for you . i am up durham at the mo which has had much snow but not as bad as you have had it . i do hope you're soon are able to get out as nomal .

I did take a walk to the village club yesterday, it was packed, not a surprise. Plenty of beer in stock still as they had several guest beers in addition to the normal.

I took a couple of piccies on my phone, the first is a shot from the club showing the fog in the Severn Valley above which, in the far distance, you can just make out the outline of the Malvern hills just above the top of the trees in the middle distance.



This one shows the condition of the least steep hill in and out of our village. I think we are here for a few days yet. Still no sign of the gritter. There were a lot of grumbles from the residents of the upper part of the village as the lower part has had the gritter and snowplough through at least twice now.



Plenty of fresh milk is available as the farm at the bottom of that hill is having to throw it away because the tanker can't get through. Of course it is unpasteurised so the farmer cannot sell it to the public.

Councils now only have to attempt to keep M and A roads open.
Class B and C are if they can but no legal responsibility for those now.
Also pavements are not covered at all now for gritting under the rules!

The rock-salt they use is also completely ineffective under -8c.
Here in Wales they mix molasses to the salt to make it stick to the roads and not disappear straight away.

JohnDotCom wrote:
The rock-salt they use is also completely ineffective under -8c.
Here in Wales they mix molasses to the salt to make it stick to the roads and not disappear straight away.

Same here, makes a real mess of the car, hate to think what the underside looks like right now. major job for the pressure washer once the temperature goes above 0ºC for a few days

Should be warmer with rain Wednesday and Thursday.......mind you then we will have floods most probably!

My 75 is sweet enough without mollases!!!...........hic...hic...hic...niced Port this is!!!

Some lovely pictures there Bernard

Conditions here are about average including the roads which look a right mess at the moment where the salt and grit have mixed into slush and then re-froze, thawed and froze again in to dense car-breaking boulders and wheel-denting ruts Main roads are clear (mostly) though, just lots of salt-spray all over the car that needs washing off.

Getting a bit of a thaw now, it's raining (well drizzle really).

We've been lucky I guess as it's not caused significant disruption.

I hope you escape soon Bernard.

Duncan wrote:Getting a bit of a thaw now, it's raining (well drizzle really).

We've been lucky I guess as it's not caused significant disruption.

I hope you escape soon Bernard.

On our second day of the thaw now but I have just seen a car get stuck on our hill because only the centre of the road is clear. We hope to be out and about by tomorrow. That will be 11 days and I think the longest we have been unable to get a car out.

Mind you, twenty years ago, I would have dug the car out by now.