This morning it looks and feels like April out there. We actually have bare spots around our house. I really didn't believe we'd lose as much snow as this - there's water running off of the hillside in sheets under the remaining snow - everything is soggy and it's still raining. I measured 1.21 inches of new precipitation this morning. The temperature hasn't fallen much yet, but the forecast is for it to drop rapidly this afternoon. I haven't checked the forecast, but I expect if there's a sudden drop there will also be some wind involved. We've been lucky so far - no power outage.
     Our driveway is absolutely clear of ice this morning. Jamie very thoughtfully had the sand truck do ours yesterday along with his. We saw the truck go up through and Fred was thinking he'd go down and hail him to do ours, but he wasn't sure he wanted to risk navigating the icy driveway on foot - but before he would have had his boots and creepers on, the truck came, did the job and was gone!  Now when things freeze up, we will at least have a light coating of sand still on the driveway, and that will help a lot.
     In the meantime, we're happy there's no water rushing into our basement over the threshold of the doorway. Larry Rossi designed a berm to keep most of the water away from the door. What we have today is just a little seepage where the back wall meets the floor. There is probably a lot of water in the soil on the back side of our house, but a lot less than before Luke Persons dredged a ditch up in our woods! Good news all around!
     Before things get all frozen up again, I'm going out to see if the pocket where my snow measuring pole goes is uncovered. I can't tell from looking out the window, but it could be the snow has melted off that spot so I can get the pole up for the rest of the winter! I really missed it being there during all this snow we've had already.

     So here at Joe's Pond, we'll still have a White Christmas - but almost everywhere else has bare ground, and not likely to get much snow before the holiday. Santa's sleigh may have a bit of a struggle - but I understand his magic sleigh has a hidden set of wheels, so bare rooftops won't be any problem at all! Lead on, Rudolph!