7pm, snow stopped. Truck started without shenanigans. Got in one push (out of like 200) and the winch that lifts the plow broke. Fucked with it in the howling cold wind and gave up when I realized the gear drive was trashed, so I bolted on my spare winch. That winch failed too...I pulled the freewheel control to spool out a little bit of line and when I put it back it never engaged. Now I have two winches with good motors but no ability to actually pull line.
Ended up out there until 11:30pm with the snowblower half-assing it and taking twice as long. Still stiff and achy this morning...way too much shit to do with a snowblower, and my ancient Ariens is a beast that requires serious manhandling.
Still gotta go out and finish up some details. Temperature dropped a lot, back down to single digits, and wind is howling with 50mph gusts. WHERE THE FUCK IS THAT GLOBAL WARMING WHEN I NEED IT?
Gonna bring winches indoors and work on them in the heat. If I can't fix one then I guess it's time to buy a new one. My spare was almost new, only plowed with it once and used it once or twice for moving fallen trees.
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