Anybody want some snow?

I don't blame you.  A lot of people around here end up moving down south when they retire.  My Aunt and Uncle did.  

We used to have a neighbor that would plow out both my folks' and my driveways with their tractor, but he's been working away a lot, so he's not around these days to do it.  It was sort of a "thank you" for my folks letting the neighbors use a piece of land for their horses during the summer months.  Gotta love country neighbors.  :)   

And worse, my folks' snowblower hasn't worked in about four years, and they keep forgetting to get it repaired until it's too late, though neither my stepfather, nor myself, are in any physical condition to blow out our driveways.  His shoulders and my back.  I could probably do a path, but that's about it.  Still, a path would be nice.

When I was a kid my grandfather had this old lawn/garden tractor that had a couple of attachments.  One was a front reel mower, and the other a front snowblower.  He had another riding mower for the lawn, as the reel mower was old and didn't cut very well, but the snowblower attachment worked perfectly.  The greatest thing was that he had this canvas cover with a framework that he could attach to the tractor.  It had plastic "windows" and a working door to get in and out.  So, in the winter you'd be inside this makeshift cab while snowblowing.  It wasn't heated or anything, and it wasn't sealed around the bottom edges, but it kept the wind out, for the most part.  It was pretty darn neat.  I so wish I had something like that now.  Heck, if I had a small tractor with a heated cab I would love going out and plowing or snowblowing the driveways.  It would be fun.  :)

And now nearly all of the snow has melted, plus it's been raining, and my folks have no hot water because their basement is flooded and the water has gotten high enough to submerge the burner in their water heater.  SMH.  

They've always had issues with water in their basement during heavy rains and snow melts, and the water heater is up on a small stand because of it.  This flooding is terrible, though.  More than a foot and a half deep.  Over the tops of our barn boots.  Ugh.  

Unfortunately, it's a very old farmhouse, and the basement floor, though concrete, is uneven.  It does have a drain near one corner, but it's the corner that's the highest, of course.  LOL.  They REALLY need a sump pump, or at least a utility pump that sits on the floor that they can plug in when they need to.  My basement has a pedestal type sump pump, and it's been working overtime over the last couple of days.