Snow sculptures

 We had light, fluffy sparkly, snow last night.  There's art in the woods.

More snow

 The 3" we got over the weekend dwindled to 1.5" but is now back to 4" with big winds expectyed t4omorrow. It's 24degrees now.  I guess that warm spell we had in December was the January thaw.

Over the weekend I was practicing tree pose while taking off my jeans as I've been doing for weeks.  Chakras must have been out of alignment because I crashed into the bed frame and thought I'd died.  I hit really hard, maybe hard enough to crack a rib, There's no bruise but I can't raise my right arm higher than waist, can't lift heavy objects, can't bend down to pick up off the floor or open cat feeders.  No twisting either.  Sharp pains remind me to quit it.  I slept well after a tylenol PM but I don't think the day drugs are doing much.  House cleaning usually takes an hour; today it was more like 4.  Getting old I guess.  

First big cold and snow of the year

 It's 27 and snowing.  We had about 3 inches when Paul went out this morning.  He plowed but it's still coming down at 2:00pm.  Storm got as far as the stones steps before she gave up on the morning walk. She did make it all the way around the house on the afternoon hike. Sylvester doesn't even try.  He's content to watch the birds from his hot pad in thebsewing room.  We have a bell collar on him because he is so quiet.  I was at the machine this morning when I felt a paw on my shoulder.  I turned around to have him climb onto my lap. I hadn't heard him come in or jump up on the table.

Last night I tripped as I was wriggling out of my jeans.  I went down hard enough on the bed frame to knock the wind out.  It hurt enough that there should be a dinner plate sized bruise, but there is nothing showing.  It hurts to lift, cough, and hiccough. 

January is fabric diet month.  I'll be finishing binding quilts for Comfort Covers and using bits and pieces and pre-cuts.  I have enough supplies that I shouldn't need to buy anything for at least this month.

Stella

Now we are naming winter storms; what is the meteorological world coming too?
We were visiting Shannon for the run-up to Stella but had Amtrak tickets to leave the night she was to hit.  We decided to delay one night, figuring it's better to be stuck with Shawn and Lilly than a train full of our "best friends."  Amtrak has a hard time staying on time in the best conditions. We had visions of days' delay and overflowing toilets. (People on that train were bussed from Pittsburgh to their destinations.)
The next train, ours, was on time to Cumberland (MD), our car was in a covered lot, and the snow was already melting.
Two hours north we turned into our driveway. The snow was much heavier in Julian than anywhere we'd been.  Paul floored the Subaru and we got 2/3 up the driveway, passed the shed to the snow fence, only to stop in drifts. We walked the rest of the way.  The dogs were thrilled.  We had bought boots in St. Charles for just this possibility.
Oh, it's good to have a personal weatherman on staff.

FOY:Snow

November 25 2014. 1000 Scattered clouds, calm, 40F

November 26 2014. 0900 Overcast with light snow falling (began 0815), calm, 32F

November 27 2014. 0900 Overcast with light snow grains falling, calm, 30F 3 inches of new snow

Brittanys are built for this weather. They would all stay on the hunt all day if we would. When they burrow into a snow-folded goldenrod patch, if it weren't for their waggy tails, we would lose them in plain sight.  They are just the right colors to blend perfectly with the snow and dead plants.  Even at 20 yards on our dawn walks, all we can see are spots of dark on the snow, or spots of white on an open trail.  Ghosts cross the path at 30 yards.  And that is why off-leash dogs wear lights and bells on their collars.  Of course, Buddy's bell gets clogged with snow about 10 yards into a run. 

Thanksgiving snow

Breadandmilk bought. Check. (Well, not really, but enough essentials to carry us through)
Snow plow installed.  Check.
Bring it on.

Our memorable storms have occurred just after Thanksgiving.
1974--Jennifer was 7 months old.  We drove from Ann Arbor to Mount Prospect.  Paul was watching a storm coming our way.  He woke up very early Sunday morning to several inches in the ground. We were in the car and headed east in record time.  Interstate 90 was closing behind us, but we kept rolling. 
We got off the Interstate to retrieve Ben and Jeff from the kennel but got stuck on a rural road.  Snow was at least a foot deep by this time.  A snowmobile pulled us back to safety.
The final hill between Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti was covered with stalled cars, like ants on a picnic blanket.  Paul jumped out of our car and told me to keep going NO MATTER WHAT.  He started pushing cars out of my way.  I kept going.  Another man jumped out of his car to help.  We barely had time to drive through the open lane before people would gun their engines, spin tires, and the open trail would close back up.  Slow and steady.
This 5-hour Sunday drive took at least double that. The back sliding doors of the apartment were completely snowed over.
2005--Leslie's last Thanksgiving in Nebraska.  Paul said "If you're going, you'd better go now."
So I lit out for Julian with a snow storm a couple of days behind me.  I spent a night with Shannon but didn't waste any time on the road.  I arrived in PA just in time to call Kubota to buy a snowplow and have it installed. 
2007--Paul's turn.  He left Nebraska, RONed at Shannon's, and arrived in Julian in time to plow a meager 3".

More snow

What a great winter for snowshoes and 4-wheel drive!  6 more inches overnight which blew into 4' deep drifts late morning. Our great, packed doggy-trails have disappeared.  We are up to our thighs in drifts. Again.

Winds were gusting up to 30 mph out of the North, so all the parts of the drive that go East-West had some drifting, but the area around the shed gets the wind coming across our meadow so it picks up a lot of snow.  The snow fence we put in this fall has a drift the entire length of the fence and at some places the drift is over 3.5 feet tall and extends a good 12 feet from the fence towards the driveway, so at least that snow captured by the snow fence does not get to the driveway.  Took almost 3 hours to plow out the driveway because of the drifts and some of the areas that I plowed going down the drive were drifted over when I came plowing back up the drive.  Any conditions worse than those today would require the tractor to manage the volume of snow.

We have our own Olympic sports here in Julian:  who has the biggest hanging snowballs, who can tunnel himself totally under, who who can snowplow the longest ditch, who can leap the highest/longest to find a vole under 18" of snow, and a new one, tap dancing.  After an hour practicing for the above named sports, Gambol came in to the cement floor clicking like a tap dancer.  He had 4 pads packed with snow/ice. 
Buddy definitely wins with snowball contest. And, he caught a vole yesterday.  He may be ahead on the medal list.

Groundhogs must not talk to bluebirds and robins

Somebody didn't tell the bluebirds and robins that we have 18" snow on the ground and we'll have single digits tonight.  We watched as a couple of them snagged holly and mountain ash berries.  There's lots of singing on the morning walk, too.

Virgin meadow

Three days after 8"snow with 1" crust, still no one has walked across the meadow. Not deer and not dogs.  The dogs stay on our trails.

Robin

Swiping the red, semi-dehydrated holly berries in light snow. The first robin of the year and the first bird we've seen on the berries.
Just enough snow to freshen the yellow spots, less than 3".

Gambol has discovered my chair but only when he thinks he's sneaking.  If the other dogs come in or if people move around, he hops down fast.  Usually he lounges in the bedroom.  He reminds me of Pierce's foray to the bottom of my bed. Is his age catching up?

1st big snow

6" of beautiful power with a 1/8" ice crust to keep it from blowing around. It was deep enough for snowshoes and cold enough for my rabbit bomber hat.

One normal walk and 2 dogs were pooped; the 3rd wanted more.

Annual Thanksgiving storm

It just wouldn't be Thanksgiving without weather to liven things a bit.  Tuesday night we had rain, which turned to ice, and some snow.  About 11 pm the lights flickered and died, but the generator went on, and that was that...for 14 hours.  We moved the modem to the living room, put a pot of water on the fire.  We were hardly inconvenienced.  I stayed home even though the roads were reportedly just wet.
Thursday morning the alarm system warned us that something was amiss around 3 am, but we shut it off and went back to sleep.  It went off again at a more reasonable time: the battery was dead.  This time we couldn't shut it off so, after conferencing with Vigilent Security, Paul took the thing apart.  That killed it.

Thursday, Thanksgiving, dawned clear and 19 degrees.  With the sun shining the forest looked like a Swarovsky crystal showroom and sounded like windchimes in motion .  Each twig was coated in 1/8" ice.  We had a lot of rainbowed saplings.  The paths were almost impassible.
Friday the security system managed to stay off (with no battery) and the electricity on.  The iPad and Kindle recharged, just in case.  Lake effect snow showers and blindingly bright sun continued.  It warmed to just above freezing so some of the ice melted and the saplings were somewhat relieved.  The ice fell into mashed potato snow.

1st snow

We woke up to about 2 inches of new snow and it has been snowing lightly all morning without any more appreciable accumulation.  More is coming since the entire storm system extends all the way down to Florida and it is all moving up the East Coast.  This afternoon we may see a switch to freezing rain before it returns to snow, so maybe 2 more inches today, and another 2 more inches on Wednesday--good thing I put the snow plow on our ATV yesterday.

snow fence

On Saturday we installed about 100 feet of snow fencing.  I used a spike to start the pilot holes and then hammered the wooden stakes into the holes. Leslie followed with the fencing, threading it down over the stakes.  We then put a zip tie at the top of the stake to hold the fencing to the stake. The snow fence is working wonderfully today.

First snow

First measurable snowfall of the season.  Air temperatures that dropped down to 27 degrees overnight helped the snow "stick."  The ground was still fairly warm so there were a lot of spots where the snow melted, but I think a snow depth of 0.5 to 1.0 inches could be supported, depending on where you measured.  During the day we got up to 37 degrees, so most of the snow that was exposed to sunlight has melted away, but in the shadows the snow remains.

Snow, sleet, and gloom of night...

We got just about everything yesterday, weather-wise except the gloom of night:  ice pellets (square particles of ice only 1/16 of an inch but sometimes clumped together to almost 1/2 in size), freezing rain, snow flakes, and snow grains.  The snow was fairly wet and after several hours of precipitation yesterday morning we had close to 3 inches accumulation.  During the afternoon, the temperature rose into the 40s and we got some rain, so by the end of the day, the snow cover amounted to just a little over 1 inch.  The driveway is slippery, mainly because of the slush that covers the crushed rocks.  Instead of plowing, I just drove the ATV up and down the driveway to mix up the snow and slush and give the surface a little bit of texture.

Weather: wind, snow squalls, rain

Just before we went out at 0845 we had a pretty heavy snow squall; it was all snow grains, no flakes, all flying horizontally.  I spent about 20 minutes emptying 12 water buckets from roof drip after last night's heavy rain while they were still liquid, and then we walked down to the fire pit.  A couple of branches (3 in diameter) were across the path down beyond where the 3 paths join up.  I was able to move them by hand off the path.  It was so windy and cold that we walked back up to the house, a shorter outing this time.  The firewood tarps were flapping in the wind, so I piled more logs on top of them.  The Christmas tree with the eggs was knocked over, so I stood it back up—it still has a bucket full of ice as its base, so it should stay upright.  Man, it is cold out there: 32 deg, wind at 29 mph.

Deer in the meadow

The deer have been scraping through the snow cover to find green shoots of clover.  Where they found the clover, the deers browsed it down to the raw dirt.  If they uncovered just plain grass, they left that alone.  When we first saw the scrapes, shortly after almost 12 inches of snow accumulation from two back-to-back storms between Christmas and New Year's, we thought that the piled up snow was where the deer had bedded down during the snowfall.  Later we could see that the deer had pawed up particles of mud as they scraped the snow away.  In almost every case, the deer had scraped down and found some clover under the snow--they must have a pretty good sense of smell.

The dogs love running in the snow, even soft mashed potato snow. No critter is safe from these hunters.

Buddy

Gambol

First (sledding) snow of the season

6-8" over night. light powder. mid 20s all day. no wind. no sun.

Opa lining up Jonathan and Shawn for a downhill run in their new rabbit bomber hats.

Elise can manage the sled down hill all by herself, yelling Yeeee-Haaaa, at the top of her voice all the way down.  ("Mommy says I'm not allowed to yell.")

Shawn liked using walking sticks and goggles in the deep snow.