First Chance To Plow Snow

Our weather forecast called for a possible total of  three inches of snow on the ground by this morning.  Once again we were on the short side of the storm.  With an early doctor's appointment on the day's schedule, plowing began in the dark.  Broken cloud cover revealed stars and a bright planet in the eastern sky.  This scant snowfall was a perfect match for our small plow.  Ready for many weeks, it felt great to be out in the biting cold moving snow with the day nearly ready to reveal itself.

We have seen few signs of the many animals that usually live here.  Apparently the bobcats have diminished some of the population. These marks show that a furry rodent is alive and well.  Mice in the garden is not usually a pleasant situation, but these tracks seem to point to a garden where all is as it should be.

Our habit is to plow widely early in the season.  There must be a clear place to receive future snow.  We also need to allow delivery trucks with ample space to turn around at the top of our hill.  Our reputation for safe passage preparations made no impact on the UPS driver.  Rather than chance our hill, she threw our package on the ground along side of the driveway.  The plow blade rolled the package to the side along with a curl of snow.  After a call to customer service I discovered that UPS has no problem with my package being thrown on the ground as long as their driver was quickly underway.  I'm sorry, we will try to do better would have worked better now I think if I cannot arrange for Fed Ex to deliver future parcels, no more packages will be ordered for winter delivery.

All of the snow is pushed downhill at the top of the driveway.  This keeps our three parking spots open and clears a wide path for propane deliveries.  After several passes were made with the plow, there was sufficient snow to call out the snow blower.  The cleared area is much larger than necessary but the machines have been sitting idle for many weeks.  It felt really good to be out in the crisp clear air actually getting something done.  Had I known a photo was in the works, a high arching plume of snow would have been sent into the oncoming wind.  Both the tractor and I would have been covered with fine stinging snow but the picture would have been impressive.

Winter's Fury

Recent weather forecasts described a powerful winter storm system heading in our direction.  Most of the time we catch only the edge of these storms and that was the case once again.  Between eight and ten inches of snow cover the ground here now but we have been getting small daily snowfalls in addition to the big storm.  Road travel has been hazardous as I watched a nearby car that lost traction and crash on an ice covered bridge.  Some combination of new equipment, luck and experience kept us out of the accident.  We traveled safely but spent much of the storm time at home. Walking about after a storm brings scenes of beauty while surrounded by still air.

Snow, stones and sunlight combine to produce interesting science.  Our air temperatures have remained below freezing for several days but signs of snow melt can be seen near the stones.  Heat from sunlight is trapped and held by the dark stones causing some snow melt.  Clouds frequently block out the sunlight and the frigid air quickly refreezes the water.  Clear ice forms at the bottom and in this instance supports the snow column.

This wind formed deposit of snow has nearly reached the tipping point.  Soon the weight of the melt water icicle will pull its source snow to the ground.  Here again the only human involvement in the placement of this snow was the building of the wall a decade ago.  Wind currents pushed this snow into the cave created by poorly fitted stone work.

The picture allowed me to see for the first time the different colors of the sediments that formed this rock.  Recent reading revealed a description of seasonal impacts on the colors of layers of sediment. Light and dark layers may be the result of different seasons but here the red and grey likely reveal different chemical makeup of the sediments.

                                                                                                                                                                 

Machinery is now necessary to remove the snow from our long driveway.  When we first made this location our home, the man that plowed for us only came when the snowfall exceeded four inches. Lesser snowfalls were removed by hand.  A full day was needed to clear from the trailer to the road but not a single day of work was missed because of snowfall.  Either age or wisdom has changed our approach.  Our snow thrower will blow a high arching plume of snow but then the wind blows tiny stinging snow particles in my face.  A low throw may not look  impressive but my cheeks remain dry.

The snow continues to fall .  We will postpone a planned outing and Ed will get to spend more time today clearing the driveway.  It is as pretty as a Christmas card out there.  I hope when he gets outside with his plow that the kid in him will kick in and he will have fun.

Finally Enough Snow to Blow

Ed's new tractor and snow blower have been sitting idle in the shed since before Christmas.  By noon today we had about 4 inches of snow.  It was a nice quiet snowfall with no freezing rain, no ice and no raging wind. This is the kind of winter weather we are used to having. Finally there was just enough snow in the driveway to give the "big" machine a try.  It sure looked to me like Ed was having fun.

Now the garden has a nice snow white cover.  Business is booming at the bird feeders. Ed made tracks in the pristine white snow to fill them with seed.  If the skies clear it will get cold tonight.  It's country dark here and we have a great view of the starry sky. Whenever I read about solar flares I look for Northern lights if the skies are clear. We are really too far south, but if you don't look you will never see.  I've seen them twice and if they are visible here I don't want to miss them.

Tomorrow we should still have the snow. Monday's forecast indicates rain  and it might be gone again!