How our world has changed in just a few hours! Last night around 11 o'clock I turned on the outside light and was horrified when I saw my group of young birches by the driveway. If you click on the picture you will see they were all bent to the ground. Fred said he didn't want to see me cry, so he went out and carefully shook the snow off each one, letting it swing back to an upright position.

This morning they were snow-laden, but not bent over. We had a total of 6 in. of snow from this storm. Fred knocked the snow off all the smaller trees this morning, and later the wind took over and is doing a good job of clearing the snow off everything. Fred had to go onto the roof and clear the snow from the sattelite dish last night, too. We were watching a movie when it began to break up and then quit. We aren't getting a sattelite signal this morning, either, but with snow blowing and shoveling, I convinced him to wait and let nature take its course - the temperature is rising, the sun is supposed to come out later today, and that should take care of the snow buildup on the receiver.

We had oatmeal this morning. Something about the first big snow storm of winter always triggers a craving for hot oatmeal. Winter is officially here!

I trudged through a lot of snow to get my CoCoRaHS (Community Collective Rain, Hail and Snow) report done this morning. It's a little more complicated to take readings when there's snow, and I had to melt everything in order to measure the water content. I took pictures, just in case any of you are interested in volunteering to do this, too. It's pretty interesting, and important information is being gathered all over the country by volunteers.

Before 9 o'clock each morning, I'm out there reading the rain gauge. This morning I started earlier, knowing I'd have to make several trips through the snow to get everything measured and melted for my 9 o'clock report. Slides

To see the maps and reports from this area and/or the rest of the country, go to www.cocorahs.org

Someone who had come from Hardwick told us this morning they had no snow there. They were amazed at how much we have here at Joe's Pond. I guess we're in a snow belt . . .