Relative Something

We’ve made it to the month of March, always a milestone in our northern winters. The other day I noticed that the hour of our sunset has reached 6:00 p.m. That’s a big difference from that shortest day of sunlight in December, when darkness descends way too early in the afternoon. Winter’s days are numbered now, but we know too well from our experience just a year ago, storms with significant amounts of snow can still happen as late as May around here.

With March historically bringing storms carrying large snowfall totals, we try not to get overly excited by the warm sunlight and daytime melting that is about to occur. However, I think this year it will be especially welcome. There have been precious few days above freezing the last few months, which is great for winter sports, but it has me a little anxious about what the melt will be like for us come spring.

Last year the wetness took forever to end. I can’t find any reason to believe it will be any better this year. I had hoped to strategically pile the plowed snow to minimize melt water running where we don’t want it to go, but the amount of snow that has accumulated forced the necessity of piling it anywhere and everywhere.

For now, we still need to keep clearing our way to the wood shed and to Delilah’s kennel. I finally got the path to the wood shed shoveled on Saturday, over a week after the last big storm buried everything here under the rain and then 12 inches of snow.

In March, you never really know if the effort to clear such routes is still necessary, but if you don’t do it, and another large amount of snow falls, it ends up being a real hassle. Better safe, than sorry, I believe.

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