Didn't See That Coming..

 Have you ever encountered one of those situations where you said "I didn't see that coming". Today was one of those situations..

Never saw it coming. Yesterday we received 9" of fresh snow so I went to clear it with the tractor/snow thrower. Ended up stuck in the middle of the driveway.

It has been super windy the past several weeks and the snow drifts into the driveway. The drifts are not a problem but the ash from the wildfire blowing soot and ash off the burned trees are the problem. The ash covers the snow and the sun then turns the drifts into hard packed snow and ice. As I discovered it is 6-8" thick and even with the gripper chains the weight of the tractor bogs down and the rear wheels dig a trench that I can't get out of.

Had to pull the tractor out with the Jeep. I tried to chop up the ice/hard packed snow but the steel shovel just bounces off of it. We had to use the walk behind snow thrower to do the driveway. Looks like we will have to do the drive the rest of the winter with the walk behind as the tractor just won't do the