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. 

Snow Day

We spent most of yesterday, and probably will spend a couple of more hours this afternoon, cleaning up after last week's snow and ice storm. The roof of our house and those of many of the neighbors have become dangerously heavy with snow, and if we don't clear off at least some areas we will have terrible ice dams. So Bill spent a couple of hours tied to the chimney shoveling the roof. And I spent much of that time chipping away at the inch or so if ice on the driveway and front walk. Then we both had to dig away the piles sent down from above, compacted and heavy as they were it wasn't easy.

Also went out and took a few pictures. There is certainly beauty to be found still, but it is really getting tired. Looking foward to Phoenix next week, and hope that by the time we get back there will be significantly less snow in the yard.

There are many fewer birds at the feeders lately. We fear that we've lost quite a few to the extreme weather. But a pair of sparrows is all over the neighbor's little birdhouse lately, and it is noticably brighter day by day. While we were chipping away the ice dam over the front porch we heard and then saw the first robin of the year. Spring is almost certainly on the way.