This is the gate between our back yard (or what passes for a "back yard") and the dog cottages next to our house. We valiantly kept it open all winter long by constant digging and chipping (note crow bar and shovel) but finally have given up. It is now half-buried in snow and ice. We had fierce winds all weekend, with snow piling up in packed drifts and filling every scrap of open space … as in the two-foot deep hole we had carefully dug around this gate for the past three months. Even when we had the hole open and the gate usable, it only stayed that way because we chipped out the ice that formed at the base every few days whenever the sun would come out and melt a little snow … which would turn into ice at night.
Our main road to the highway (about two miles away) is now closed again because of drifts, leaving the back road (known only to those of us who live out here) for access to the highway. Yesterday the county snowplow truck even got stuck trying to open the road right next to the ranch, about 50 yards from our gate, so another neighbor and I went out with shovels and tractors to see if we could help the driver dig out.
But we're done digging this gate out. The next time it swings shut will be sometime in late March or early April!

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