Hi Alg,
We've been on this place for only 10 years, but just about have the snow fence figured out. In a normal winter, 4 foot snow fence about 33 feet south of the drive works great. This year that started to fill up and 40 feet seemed about perfect.
If you look at the first picture, the orange fence on the left is 40 feet from the driveway and there is almost no snow in the driveway at that point (the bank is as low as where I blew the snow out, about halfway up the picture from the bottom lines up with this fence).
The second picture is a spot where the fence is 33 feet off of the drive. That is what I thought was perfect until this year. It didn't work too badly in this case, but the next picture shows a place where it's also 33 feet off the drive, and there it drifted into the drive. I think the taller spruce tree and this being so close to the house and the goof in the fourth picture is to blame.
Yes, the fourth picture. This fence is too close. It is about 25 feet from the drive (21 feet from where I cut the bank). My son put this one up and I noticed it was in the wrong spot but decided to leave it (lazy, I know, but on a normal year it would have been OK). It should have been back another 8 feet, he just lined up on the wrong post of the decorative yard fence. This and my goof at the bottom of the drive caused me to get the tractor out a couple of times when I wouldn't have needed to otherwise (but, it does make an awesome sled jump).
The next picture shows my goof. There is a gap in the Lilac bushes at the other end of the drive. It's normally not too bad, but I will fence all of the gaps next year. I left gaps to get the tractor through, meaning to fence them every year, but after the last few years got lazy here. Notice how the panels around the oak sapling act as snow fence and cause a drift right in the driveway. Not good. The cut here is actually 6 feet south of the drive, in the shallow ditch, trying to stop it from drifting in every day.
Our weather mainly comes from the NW, but I try to wait for it to stop and for the wind to shift from the south and then blow the snow on out the north side of the driveway.
The rest are probably special cases, since there is a 2 story house just to the left of the picture. I think wind bouncing off the house cause some of this. The row of "red twig" dogwoods is 40 feet from the snow cliff they cause. That dog is stepping over tree branches that you can duck under on a riding mower, but the snow is ankle deep closer to the house (and also for about 10 feet from the shrubs until the pile starts). Without the shrubs, this actually looks like an ocean wave and gets closer to the house every time it storms. With the shrubs it stays put.
Hope this helps,
Bob
We've been on this place for only 10 years, but just about have the snow fence figured out. In a normal winter, 4 foot snow fence about 33 feet south of the drive works great. This year that started to fill up and 40 feet seemed about perfect.
If you look at the first picture, the orange fence on the left is 40 feet from the driveway and there is almost no snow in the driveway at that point (the bank is as low as where I blew the snow out, about halfway up the picture from the bottom lines up with this fence).
The second picture is a spot where the fence is 33 feet off of the drive. That is what I thought was perfect until this year. It didn't work too badly in this case, but the next picture shows a place where it's also 33 feet off the drive, and there it drifted into the drive. I think the taller spruce tree and this being so close to the house and the goof in the fourth picture is to blame.
Yes, the fourth picture. This fence is too close. It is about 25 feet from the drive (21 feet from where I cut the bank). My son put this one up and I noticed it was in the wrong spot but decided to leave it (lazy, I know, but on a normal year it would have been OK). It should have been back another 8 feet, he just lined up on the wrong post of the decorative yard fence. This and my goof at the bottom of the drive caused me to get the tractor out a couple of times when I wouldn't have needed to otherwise (but, it does make an awesome sled jump).
The next picture shows my goof. There is a gap in the Lilac bushes at the other end of the drive. It's normally not too bad, but I will fence all of the gaps next year. I left gaps to get the tractor through, meaning to fence them every year, but after the last few years got lazy here. Notice how the panels around the oak sapling act as snow fence and cause a drift right in the driveway. Not good. The cut here is actually 6 feet south of the drive, in the shallow ditch, trying to stop it from drifting in every day.
Our weather mainly comes from the NW, but I try to wait for it to stop and for the wind to shift from the south and then blow the snow on out the north side of the driveway.
The rest are probably special cases, since there is a 2 story house just to the left of the picture. I think wind bouncing off the house cause some of this. The row of "red twig" dogwoods is 40 feet from the snow cliff they cause. That dog is stepping over tree branches that you can duck under on a riding mower, but the snow is ankle deep closer to the house (and also for about 10 feet from the shrubs until the pile starts). Without the shrubs, this actually looks like an ocean wave and gets closer to the house every time it storms. With the shrubs it stays put.
Hope this helps,
Bob
