It's all about the Snow

For the last couple of weeks it has been all about the snow.  It just kept coming and coming, and building up and building up.  Bill did almost all of the shoveling - I did the deck a couple of times and our lovely neighbors blew out the big overnight snowfalls twice.  But it just kept piling up, becoming harder and harder to even know if it was safe to pull out of the driveway.  Hard to make safe turns at intersections throughout town, harder to drive into downtown on the few mornings that I actually had to go into work.  There were only three mornings last week, and three more this week before I retire!  Will be nice.  Mostly.

So, it was a bit of a relief last Friday when the temps were predicted to rise into the 40's.  Then they downgraded the prediction, but it was still supposed to be above freezing for most of the day and even overnight, for the first time in a long time.  Actuals did rise to 41, and then above that on Saturday.  You could almost watch the snowpiles recede.  We pushed off the latest 4 or 5 inches from the evergreens, and raked the edges of the roof.  Bill spent an hour or so chipping away at the ice dams that had formed in the valley on the north side of the house.  It was good. 

I wish that I had taken photos of the snow at its height.  And I wish also that I had stepped ou t into the fog that blanketed the yard during the melt to capture the recession at one or two points.  But I didn't. 

This morning there was a new cover of 4 or 5 inches, making things fresh and clean again.  But we had a place to put it.  The Northeast garage roof was overhung with a snow slide of significance, which Bill wisely pulled down this morning. 

I do hope that we don't have another extended period of daily snow accumulations.  But that could be perceived as a selfish hope.  The staff at Bubolz Nature Preserve (and those of us on the Board who are worried about the financial survival of the organization) are no doubt happy about the snow this year.  We take in a major portion of our annual income during ski season if it's good, and it hasn't been good very often lately.  And I know that the snowmobilers haven't had many good years lately and they are very important to the development of the trails that I love so much on foot and on my bike in the summer. 

Change is a Comin'

It is 42 degrees out right now, and rain is falling.  The snow, which had covered everything and was weighing down the evergreens already, has receded significantly.  I did go out today to get it off of things that were being badly bent by the weight.  Just wanted to make sure that it was gone before the massive drop in temperatures that is predicted for tonight.  The prediction is for a low of single digits tonight, and a high of single digits tomorrow.  That will surely freeze in place everything the way it is tonight, and many things will be stuck to the ground or whatever surface they are touching.  I've been trying to make sure that nothing is caught in a bad position, which could well last for the rest of the winter.  Or we could hope for a January thaw.

Photo at left is  one Bill took with his faster speed camera the on Friday evening before the warm front came in.  The snow was blanketing everything, and it was COLD.  On Saturday, later in the day, it warmed up, and things started melting.  Tonight it is wet, and raining. 

The snow has probably been reduced by half, and what is left will turn into a hard, dense layer at the bottom of the pile that will last for the rest of the winter.  I spent a bit of the afternoon today walking the path to the compost pile so that it would be level and not a bunch of holes that would be tripping us up for the rest of the winter.  We have had so much light, fluffy snow so far, and the temps had been so cold.  Now everything is compacted, and plants are exposed a bit more, and I hope I've been able to get the heavy weight off of the plants that could be damaged by it.  Time will tell. 

Lots of Changes, Not Much Writing

Haven't written much lately about the yard. Been spending most of my time finishing up at work, preparing for retirement. And the yard has been slowly becoming buried under inch after inch of snow. Amazing how much we've had so far, and tonight is likely to produce another 7 to 10 inches. Another big snow winter is likely ahead.

On Sunday morning I noticed that there was an apparent freeway for either mice or other small rodents to run between the garden and the edge of the house. Likely there is food in one place and shelter in the other. No mystery which is which. And the snow is certainly building up on the evergreen garden once again. Seems like only yesterday that I was documenting this the last time. Winters seem to come more quickly each year. Where did summer go?