Winter Storm Leaves Plenty of Snow

The big storm predicted for yesterday is about over, and yes, we got over a foot of snow here at Joe's Pond, but for the most part, we dealt with it. We had a very brief power outage early this morning, but now things seem to have settled down and we're left with beautifully decorated trees and landscape fit for a Christmas card. This photo is my old apple tree that I had pruned a few years ago. No turkeys feasting under it this morning!

Jamie was out early this morning to plow my driveway and shovel. He minds my instructions to not do the deck - that is my measuring board for CoCoRaHS reports, and I don't send that report until 9 a.m. This morning I went out armed with a yard stick instead of my usual ruler. I measured one inch on Friday morning as the storm was just beginning, so we got a total of just about 13 inches, give or take. As I've said before, measuring snow is not a precise science. Sometimes there are drifts - high and low spots, and then I take several measurements and figure the average. This morning it was pretty straightforward. The snow was surprisingly light, and I was pleasantly surprised at that. I was dreading moving that much off my 8x10 deck. Turned out to be pretty easy, and I took it slow, doing it in sections. The steps are difficult to do from above, so I push the snow off enough to get down onto the walkway without taking a tumble, and then I can scrape the snow from the top step down pretty easily. I ended up about knee-deep in snow, but the good news was that my feet were still planted firmly on the ground, not sliding on slippery steps, balancing with a snow shovel.

I took these photos early this morning. The top left is what I saw when I looked out towards my pond - all neatly frozen over now, and full to capacity. On the right is the back lawn and woods.

The deck and my measuring tube were draped in snow, and on the right, the chickadees were already busy kicking off the snow to get to the good stuff.

Please be careful if you are out on the roads today. Right now there doesn't seem to be much wind, but if (or when!) the temperature drops, the wind will pick up and all that pretty snow on the trees is going to be flying around and causing whiteouts. There also may be icy spots in some areas. We're in winter mode, now, friends, so please be careful and ready to dodge the inevitable driver that is traveling too fast for conditions - and probably doesn't have proper tires on their car. Stay safe!