"Big Jaws" can take wide swaths of 10-foot tall snowbanks and shoot them up or down onto the mountain sides. It has a 7-foot opening and the yellow 3-foot berm cutter which knocks the highest snow down into the opening where the giant auger is as it drives past at about 4 or 5 miles per hour. The snow shoots out of that giant top chute (which the operator can rotate to either side of the street as well as raise and lower) and the streets have 2 lanes once again.
On the days when Jaws is out and about, we can hear its engine (the entire long section behind the cab is the engine) for hours before it arrives on our street, so we tense in preparation. Will the operator see our driveway before he shoots snow 30 feet up into it? They usually know, but we've had a couple guys bury our driveway with it, so we are always outside when Jaws comes by, day or night.
Thankfully Jaws generally comes out only a few times each season, most especially when over 6 feet of snow falls over a 7-day period as happened this week. There is no other way to keep up with that much snowfall except to bring out the big Jaws!
Dear Jackie, this is part of the reason I left wisconsin and ended up in California.
ReplyDeletewow! that is amazing. thank Jax ,we dont get these amounts of snow here, though it could be nice once in a winter.
ReplyDeleteWow! I hope you don't have to see much more of Big Jaws this season... Little Jaws looks so cute next to the big machine! Keep safe and warm dear Jackie, and thanks for sharing this picture!
ReplyDeleteWe haven't had much snow yet, just lots of dreary looking and very cold days... We definitely don't get as much snow as you do, but every few years or so we have a real hard winter here. Keeping our fingers crossed this won't be one of them...
We don't get nearly as much snow as you do either. But about a week ago, we were on grass and now we have a couple of feet. Our driveway is also very long but in the across. It fits about 6 cars, so it's long but not behind the car.
ReplyDeleteI wish you a drier winter than usual.
Man, that is a cool machine. I would love to see it in action.Take care of yourselves with all that snow.
ReplyDeleteWhat cool machines! And what would you do without them?!
ReplyDeleteWe'd be buried without them, Donna, buried!! :)
ReplyDeleteOh my, 6 feet in seven days? That's a REALLY white Christmas! So glad there's a BIG Jaws in your "neighborhood" or you'd be snowbound all winter. Glad that you have Little Jaws in residence, too. I can just picture you and Marc standing out there waving your arms so the Big Jaws doesn't let loose an avalanche in your driveway. Too bad you can't just plant big tall flags at the edges every time you know they're due. Sure hope that you don't get a lot of big storms this year. We've even had snow already. Early for us.
ReplyDeleteCousin Jackie, it looks like too much work living in the mountains! I'm gonna stay here, 'chilling' in the Sacramento Valley, waiting for the 'haiku moment'.
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