Well, we had our spring meeting yesterday and as we were leaving, Mother Nature was spitting snow at us.  It was a very good meeting - we had a really good turnout in spite of the cold, windy, wet weather.  For those of you interested, the minutes will be posted on the website within a day or so.  

Now there is weather to report!  This morning we awoke to nearly 4 inches of wet, heavy snow on everything.  We think it was miraculous we didn't lose our electricity - although there was a blip or two during yesterday and again this morning, but nothing serious.  I expect it was limbs on power lines or perhaps the release of snow on limbs this morning as the temperature rose causing trees to brush power lines briefly.  I was up early and got some pictures.  While I was doing that, Fred was out releasing the snow from our trees and bushes - and oh, yes, going onto the roof again to brush the snow off our satellite dish.  He went up last night at around 10 o'clock so I could see the end of my movie.  He's such a sweetheart.  He said he didn't mind and even commented how beautiful it was with all the snow on everything last night.  

This morning when I first looked out, I could hardly believe how different things looked.  It was as if all the trees were bowing to Mother Nature.  I could make out some of the pretty pink apple blossoms under the mantle of snow, and the not quite fully developed lilac blossoms were vibrant little purple splashes; but the trees looked so sad and bent  I wondered if they'd recover.  Most have by now - four or five hours later and some 10 degrees warmer.  I don't believe we had awfully low temperatures last night - I saw a low of 30.1 on one thermometer and 31.6 on another.  It may be that the heavy snow protected the apple tree blossoms/buds so no damage will be done.  It will be interesting to see how my garden looks by the end of this week when the temperatures hit 80 again!  Wild, wild weather.


I took these pictures a few minutes ago.  The trees have recovered nicely.  Now there will be a lot more water running off to add to our flooding problems in the lower areas.  I measured 3.8 in. of new snow this morning, and another 1.35 in. of precipitation (combination of rain and melted snow) from my rain gauge.  I did the reading early (7 a.m.) so I could catch the snow before it began to melt.  I noticed the Danville report was in (I believe it's Jeff Merrell's) and he was reporting about a quarter of an inch at his station at 6 a.m.  I haven't been back to look at the more recent reports.   Snow like this is not unheard of this time of the year, but certainly not what we expect when we're considering global warming.  I guess it all ties together somehow, and we humans will just need to adapt as best we can.  For now, swapping our lawn mowers for snow shovels may be in order.

We are again concerned with high water here at Joe's Pond with an unfortunate combination happening again.  The power station below the rubber dam was severely damaged by flooding last year and is undergoing repairs so isn't operating.  That means the penstock that would normally help carry excess water from Joe's Pond cannot be used and the rubber dam has to manage the overflow.  Normally that works pretty well, but without the penstock, when we have heavy rain or runoff from lots of snow like right now, the water in the pond rises quickly and the relatively narrow opening at the dam cannot always compensate.  This would not be a problem if Green Mountain Power could anticipate high water and release water to a lower level before the storms hit; however, state regulations prevent them from doing that, the theory being that lowering the water damages the wetlands.  I wonder what is more damaging, having the wetlands a little less wet or having them erode and float away due to high water.  I know I've mentioned this before, but I still  can't seem to wrap my brain around this being a sensible decision, and I have to conclude somebody isn't being very smart - or perhaps they're being just plain stuborn.  Is it reasonable to believe large clumps of wetlands floating down the pond, adding sediment to the already murky diminishing depths and diminishing the amount of wetland area is actually better than allowing the water level to be lower for a short period of time and preventing that? 

Well, I've had my bah-humbug-crotchety-old-woman moment for today.  Now I'll go get some lunch together and watch some news on TV.  That should get my blood pressure up a few notches more.