Posts Tagged ‘snow’
Not Funny
…edited shortly after 7:00 a.m. to add additional image from this morning. ( jwh)
Curious, yes, but not funny. Before sunset last night –not that I was able to see that happen– I took a picture of the progress of our umpteenth springtime winter storm event of the year, just getting underway, on the 1st day of May. The joke’s on us, but who’s laughing now?
Here we go again… It’s beautiful, and terrorizing, all at the same time.
And this was how it looked in the pre-dawn light this morning…
Day’s Difference
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Here are the images I took on Tuesday morning, after the overnight dump of almost a foot of snow. It is hard to get an exact measure of the total amount, because, it is so heavy and wet, it compacts on itself as it accumulates.
When I left for work on Tuesday, the road beyond our driveway had only been plowed one-lane wide. That made it really nerve-wracking to climb the hills, not knowing what might be approaching from the other side. Luckily, there was no other traffic at that hour.
By the time Cyndie left, the plow had made another pass, and she discovered that it blew our mailbox off its post, again. With how heavy the water-logged snow was, it didn’t surprise me one bit to hear.
Next winter, I may need to strap that mailbox down, or I may be repairing it after every heavy snowfall. The plastic platform on top of the post, which is where a mounting screw is supposed to find purchase, is showing signs of wear, after the two dramatic failures this year.
When I got home from work yesterday, I re-mounted the mailbox, and then pumped up the tires on the new trailer, putting it to work moving firewood. I hauled the last of the split wood that the sellers had left stowed under the eve of the barn, moving it up to the wood rack we bought for the deck.
I took a picture of the trailer in action, which shows how quickly the snow disappears in the late-April sun. What a difference a day makes.
The water run-off was really flowing! I spotted something very interesting while inspecting how well it was running off the plowed field to the north of our property, and into our ditch, where a culvert runs under the driveway.
Just to the left of where the water was flowing in a concisely defined stream, there was a small pool that appeared to be bubbling up from the ground. I figured it was an optical illusion, and that it was just more of the flow through the grassy area.
I hopped from the edge of the driveway, through the flowing water, to get across the ditch, for a closer inspection. I moved all the grass away, to verify there was no above-ground stream feeding this flow. Sure enough, this water was bubbling up from below grade. I stuck my boot down into it, but didn’t really feel anything noteworthy.
That served to cloud up the water with the silty soil. Most revealing was how quickly that cloudiness was replaced by the very clear water that was flowing up from below. This was a classic example of what I had read about, where the spring appears when the ground in the area is saturated with water. I will keep an eye on it, checking to see how quickly after things dry up around here, the water ceases to flow from that spot.
I’m guessing it won’t be running for very long. And, if I discover that I am wrong about that, I’d be delighted.
Couple Images
Due to circumstances related more to our day-jobs than the weather, we stayed overnight in the Twin Cities last night. That gave us a chance to join Cyndie’s parents (who have returned from wintering in Florida), and also, her brother, and his wife and daughter, for dinner. It was a treat to see them, and worked well to save me the commute, but it does put a wrinkle in my usual routine.
I had hoped to post a picture of the amazing snow-scape from yesterday morning, showing the results of our overnight storm that dumped almost a foot of cement-like snow. I didn’t have time to process one, so I will resort to sharing a couple of recent images from my files.
A few days ago, I posted a picture of me napping with Mozyr, and described how differently his sister behaves, when it comes to close personal attention. I think it was the day after I wrote that, when Pequenita showed up on my chest, and my camera was within reach. While keeping one hand on her neck, giving her a soothing scratch, I snapped this shot with my other hand. Here, you have visual evidence of what I was attempting to describe.
It is interesting that this behavior can sometimes become burdensome, and aggravate us, but after a night of being away from her, and seeing this image again, I am noticing pangs of missing her little intrusions on my personal space. She is obviously creating a bond.
The next image is a fascinating collection of shapes that evolved in the snow that was melting on our lawn, …before the latest winter storm buried it again.
It is a little like looking at the amazing variety of possibilities that materialize in the clouds when sky watching. How many different things do you see?
Life Saved
I don’t know why, but the last couple of days have been really hard on some of the birds Cyndie feeds. We have been hearing multiple impacts on our doors and windows. Three have died instantly. One looked to be particularly shocked, but still alive. We checked on it, off and on, for a couple of hours. Finally, Cyndie could stand it no longer, and decided to bring him in out of the cold.
The cats seemed happy with that idea. I think they were interested, but didn’t seem overly fixated. Cyndie parked the box in the second bedroom, and shut the door. She had consulted online instructions for rescuing a stunned bird, and planned to see if it was ready to go in the morning.
At first light, she set the box outside and opened the lid. Success! The bird was well enough to fly away. That was pretty rewarding.
I decided to try to get some work done outside, before the predicted rain set in. I chose to work on moving rocks beside the barn. It is still really wet out there. The ground is completely saturated. When I pull up a rock, water runs in to fill the hole left behind.
We are going to try to move only one tree, and then dig out an opening, and move some dirt around the back to provide a path for the tractor. It is very obvious that we will need to make provisions for drainage, on both sides of the path.
This snowy spring is providing us with a very good demonstration of how and where drainage occurs here. Notice how much of the snow had melted by yesterday afternoon?
I ended up moving the pile of landscape rock up the hill to the area where the black container is in the image, to get it completely out of the way. I didn’t want to put it too far away, though, because we are going to need to put it back on the slope where we cut into the hill.
Halfway through that task, it started sprinkling. I ended up racing the weather. As I continued to get closer to finishing, the rain kept growing more intense. I didn’t want to quit, so I worked through it. I was pretty soggy by the time I was done.
If you look closely at the image, beside the eagle statue by the door, you can see the corner of the ice/snow pile that extends along the back side of the barn. We still can’t get the rocks loose in that spot, because they remain frozen in place.
Having a driving path behind the barn is going to be tricky, because of how the snow slides off the roof. It is worse now than it will be in the future, because that pile is from the full winters’ worth of snow that accumulated. 
Next year, I plan to plow that as it falls, so it won’t build up to the same degree.
By the end of the day, the rain had turned to snow, and we began with the next heavy accumulation, just as predicted.
Snow, again?! Yes.
Happy April, 2013, the year of perpetual winter storms.
Snow Again?!
We are three weeks into April, and still, this morning, it is snowing. I called our fence contractor yesterday, to check on his status, since it was predicted to be a clear and sunny Saturday. He has enlisted a crew to build our hay shed, and they were going to work weekends. I wasn’t surprised there wasn’t anyone here, since we had just come out of a blast of a winter storm on Thursday and Friday, which kept both Cyndie and me home from work on Friday.
He confirmed that it was just too wet to do anything down there now. He knew what he was talking about. Cyndie and I wanted to continue on a project to move the eagle statue, and the rock landscaping beneath it, in preparation of digging out a berm next to the barn. We need to create a path to drive the tractor around the back side of the barn, now that the front side is being fenced off with paddocks.
It was both too wet, and too frozen, if that makes any sense. Snow from above was melting, and running down around the area we were tromping, and the further we progressed in moving rocks, the more rocks we came to that were still frozen in place.
We changed plans. Next on the wish list was creating a labyrinth. We had a general idea where we wanted the labyrinth to be located, and had reviewed a variety of layouts. Next step was to physically measure the area, and see if we the idea in our heads would fit the reality of the place we want it to be.
Last fall, when the fence guys were ripping out the old barbed wire fencing that existed when we bought the place, they also cleared out a lot of brush, and turned up a few boulders. We asked them to move the rocks back to the area where we were thinking the labyrinth might be created.
The spot where they put them ended up being about 12 inches off of the center point we calculated yesterday. We used some of the metal fence posts they had pulled out, to create a circumference, placing a final one at the center point. Cyndie ran a fluorescent pink string around the circle. We plotted and measured, and are feeling very confident that our joint vision is viable. The project is a go.
That is, it will be a go, if it ever stops snowing, and dries out enough to navigate our property without fear of stepping into a bottomless sink-hole of muddy soup.
Hurried Tidbits
I’m short of time, and seem to have just bits and pieces of news and thoughts, so I’ll take a shot at just tossing them out for today…
• Worked a 12-hour shift at the day-job yesterday, and thus had a chance to drive home after the daily rush-hour traffic jams. There was noticeably less traffic than I commonly face in the mid-afternoon time slot I usually target. That’s not a bad option.
• Minor, but exciting, progress on fencing yesterday. The area is too wet to work in, except up near the barn, so that is where they confined their efforts. They installed fences that create a channel out of the door, which will lead to gates at the entrance of the two paddocks.
• I got a call while I was at work, from the fence contractor checking if it was okay to put all their equipment in the barn, as more precipitation is predicted for the next few days. Rain and/or snow. There is a possibility for heavy rain. Due to that, and the snow that has yet to melt, our region has been put under a flood watch.
• After a brief period where our two cats seemed to be getting over their unexplained spat with each other, they resumed the hostile animosity a couple of days ago, and have us rather confused. Also, the wee one, female, Pequenita, seems like she doesn’t feel well. She doesn’t always keep her food down, and seems to have less of her usual energy. It may or may not be related to their relationship troubles. A check up with a vet is in the plans.
• My thumb pain continues to debilitate most of my actions. I bought a brace, which has helped to protect from exacerbating the problem, and I am eagerly awaiting an appointment to have a specialist look at it on Thursday morning.
• Thursday’s weather could make the driving to the appointment a little challenging. I’m going to do everything possible to get there. I sure hope the specialist has a similar level of determination.
• In light of the recent terror bombings in Boston, I want to echo something that I read, credited to actor, Patton Oswalt: (paraphrasing) “There are more good people than bad. We outnumber you, and we always will.” For every tragedy that bad people unleash, a much greater number of good people respond, giving care, soothing others, spreading love.
Those are my bits for today. Stay warm and dry, and do something good. Spread some love.
Futile Search
I came up empty this morning. Not for lack of trying. I trudged our woods and beyond, into the neighbor’s section of forest adjacent to us. I found no obvious evidence that revealed what all the coyotes were howling about last night.
Just about the time we were turning in for the night, the racket of coyotes in a tizzy, which we are now familiar with, after our initial exposure last October, filled the darkness from down the hill below our house. I cracked the window to better hear the chorus, and Pequenita leaped to the window sill to join me, her interest piqued.
Grabbing the spotlight that we now keep handy in our bedroom, I scanned the distance. It didn’t do much. Since the land drops away so quickly, the only view I get is of the open space near the house, across the top of the hill. I am including a daytime shot of the area we are able to see from the bedroom window.
From the sound of things, and from the fact the howling continued on and off for some time, we expected the coyotes had captured a meal.
My search this morning was for tracks that might lead to the remains of their prize. Last fall I hadn’t put two and two together to realize that what we had heard might mean there would be a carcass. It was mere coincidence that I was exploring our woods, days later, bushwhacking off trail, and came upon the fresh skeleton of the 8-point buck.
That was before there was any snow cover, and the scene hardly stood out at all. This time, I figured such a kill would be much easier to spot, since there is still so much snow on the ground. What I discovered was that the woods still obscure the sight-lines quite a bit, and it wasn’t easy to positively identify which tracks were fresh from the night before.
The coyote tracks I did find seemed meandering, certainly not racing after prey. I was also looking for evidence of more than one set of paws, because we definitely heard more than one animal yipping. There are plenty of tracks from rabbits, squirrels, deer, and one very definite and obvious trail of a single turkey. None of them looked to be on the run. Eventually I did come upon a pair of coyote tracks, side by side.
Maybe there wasn’t a chase. It could have been a surprise attack from a stealthy hunter. Whatever it was, I didn’t find the results. They were heard and not seen.
There remains the outside chance that it wasn’t a new kill at all. During my trek, I wandered past the spot of that kill from last fall. Enough snow has receded to expose the old carcass, and the legs and hooves that were left as undesirable last fall, had been pulled up and freshly gnawed.
It is quite possible that the reason my search was futile is because there was no fresh kill. Maybe they were just excited to have found the remains of that old kill. But, I’ll be keeping an eye out for a new carcass, because I’m not quite convinced.
Seasonal Dyslexia
Yesterday’s unwelcome weather event did not turn out to be one of the ominous “top-10 historic April snowfalls” that was being touted as highly likely, but it still scared me away from trying to negotiate Thursday’s traffic. I didn’t go in to the day-job. Both Cyndie and I stayed safely off the roads and tucked in our home, protected from the elements.
Thus far, we have experienced heavy rain, then sleet, then sloppy wet snow, then falling temperatures, and then wind-blown snow, out of this winter storm. It is still going strong, continuing to ply its wrath over us this morning.
Winter storms that occur in the springtime can be rather exasperating, especially when they cause postponement of an already delayed fence installation project. Doesn’t do much to accommodate our brush-pile burning project, either.
We have an important meeting in the cities this afternoon, with our tax accountant, so must bite the bullet and get behind the wheel, regardless the conditions complicating the morning rush “hour.”
The things we do for love.
We are head-over-heels in love with this place we now call home. It easily makes our driving hassles worth the trouble. Even when it is covered with snow in the middle of April, it is a wonder to behold.
Uncertain Outcome
And then there is the plot twist where something is expected to happen, but nothing happens.
Now what? Carry on as usual? That feels like such an injustice to all the energy that was put into anticipating the future that didn’t quite materialize as planned. I resort to making a list.
the periodic ticking of the hot fireplace
pecking of a bird breaking open seeds outside on the ledge of one of our log wall ends
clacking of keys on her laptop keyboard
gusting wind against the house and through the pine tree branches
radio songs from 1983
furnace fan cycling on and off
crunching dry food that a cat is munching
iPhone text message received alarm
distant whine, felt more than heard, rising from the base of the neck to between two ears
What’s happenin’? The unexpected non-event, that’s what.
Extend hibernation for a little longer. The explosion of spring will not be denied, but it can be delayed.
We’ll be patient. What choice do we have?
Snow Fun
We have company this weekend. Cyndie’s niece and nephews stayed overnight. Yesterday was a beautiful day for outdoor fun. There is still a lot of snow around here for fun and games, but it was warm enough to be completely comfortable in the spring sun. I started the morning by digging a path to the fire pit, so we could have an outdoor fire. We created sled runs on our back hill, one with banks and turns, and one straight shot down the hill. A snowman materialized, an activity that was followed by snowball battles, snow angels, and much running and exploring. The kids were particularly interested in one of our brush piles that never successfully burned last fall.
Soaking wet, rosy-cheeked kids came indoors for treats and respite beside the fireplace. I got a chance to watch a little of the college basketball tournament games before it was time to head back out to cook burgers over the fire. That gave kids another opportunity to see how the sled runs were setting up in the cooling evening temps.
The runs had gotten a bit too fast for the size of our banks. I think that is the funnest part for the kids.
Relative Something 