Winter's coming and I got nothing but fear and loathing

And that’s a radical departure from my usual winter announcement, which typically comes late November or early December, to the effect that, by golly, looks like winter’s back… who knew? Yup, the advent of winter reliably takes me by surprise every year. But here’s why things have changed. Last winter was an unexpectedly stiff one, as in way cold and way too much snow. Turned out I was completely unprepared, and it was only the kind intervention of my neighbours John Deere and Massey Ferguson, together with their snowblowers, that got me through. Never again! So I’ve been keeping an eye out for reliable and affordable snow-clearing tech. I saw a nearly new Suzuki quad with a blade for a whisker under 10k. At least that would give me a 4-wheeler when I’m not clearing snow, but it’s not what you need when you get an overnight dump of four feet or more, which is known to happen in these parts. So I’ve been thinking maybe it makes some sense to have the old Ford 4000 diesel refurbished. It’s a 53hp unit from about 50 or 60 years ago, and I have a snowblower for it. But I haven’t had a diesel since my VW died, what, 15 years ago? I therefore know nothing about diesels and besides, between my shaky hands and fat fingers I struggle to pick up a wrench, let alone turn one. So this job gotta be farmed out, but whereto? As fate would have it, a few of the kids who went through my shop class went on to become all sorts of trades, including diesel mechanics. I happened to run into one of them at a funeral last week. He works at an iron ore mine on Baffin Island, which is somewhere nearby Santa’s place. The company flies him up and back for a three-week rotation, and when he’s home he wants to spend time with his three teen boys, not with my derelict tractor. Fortunately, he was able to provide the name of a classmate, who had just left a prominent farm equipment dealership and opened his own biz. Perfect! He’ll be looking for work! A few days later I drop by the kids place. The kid is now a middle aged man with a family. There’s a float dropping off a hydraulic Skyjack unit as I pull up. There’s two or three tractors lining either side of the drive to his shop, and there’s a massive high-hoe in the middle of all this stretching out its arms to the sky! Ya… I’m pretty sure Jeff ain’t looking for work! Anyway, I’m happy the kids are kicking ass. They seem to have survived my tutelage just fine! But winters coming…