LAMPMAN - Danielle Fleury can’t believe all of the snow that has been at her family’s Lampman area acreage this winter.
Fleury said there are snowdrifts that are up to 14 or 15 feet in height in some areas. She has managed to keep a sense of humour amid the situation, as she managed a laugh a few times during her interview with the Mercury.
“Our watershed that we use to water our horses out of, it (the snow around it) is probably about 14 or 15 feet, and the winds, the way that it blows, it blows it in and blocks the door every time the wind blows,” she said. “We’ve been digging and digging and digging it out.
“And just all over the yard, there are eight or nine-foot banks on the level surface where the wind doesn’t get to, and everywhere else that the wind gets to, it just piles and blows, and they get really tall.”
While she hasn’t been to other people’s yards, it seems like the snowdrifts are worse at her family’s property than others.
“We have no idea why we’re getting so much this year, and why it’s blowing in so bad,” she said.
There have been other years with lots of snow, including March 2017, when they received a massive dump early that month. But the drifts weren’t because of the wind; they were just caused by an inordinate amount of snow.
Even in 2011, when the snowfall resulted in flooding for them and many others in the Lampman area, they didn’t have this much of the white stuff.
“We seemed to be able to dig out and keep up,” said Fleury.
Their house has never flooded, because it is well-built and elevated.
After the storms, her husband has had to wake up in the early hours of the morning so he can dig out the property. They need to keep the yard clean so that the school bus can access their yard.
“The bus has actually been stuck once in our yard this year, too,” said Fleury.
The Fleury family has been clearing snow from basement windows so that they’re safe if there’s a fire in the basement, and they have to clear snow because the dryer fan has been plugged periodically.
And they have to dig out the well house for the horses.
One of the few upshots is they have a really good tobogganing hill this year. Kids have been able to dig some snow forts.
And she admits they needed the moisture, although this is more than they expected.
“The dugout was getting really, really low in the fall last year. So we definitely need it. And I know the ground is going to soak a lot of it up, but I do think we’re going to end up with some potential flooding in the pasture, which is OK. We’ll just have to find somewhere else for the animals to be.”
The storms that the southeast region received, with the powerful winds, made the situation worse. Every time there’s wind, they get to dig out, and it takes anywhere from two to five hours.
The temperatures have warmed up in the past few days, and the snow melt has begun. But she believes it will be mid-June before all of the snow is gone, thanks to the massive snowdrifts.
