A very cold wave of air slid south, colliding with warmer moist air sliding west, and the result was snow. Not a lot of snow, only six inches, but it isn’t going away anytime in the near future.
One and a half wheelbarrows of firewood, stacked next to the sun room door. This will be mostly gone by morning.
Filling the wood rack was Dan’s main project for today, keeping the house warm. Early this morning it was -2F with a stiff wind. That is enough to take your breath away! It warmed up to +7F, and now that the sun is getting lower in the sky, the temperature is dropping like a rock. It is already down to +3F. Forecast is -20F overnight, and it seems highly likely we will see that in the morning.
Shoveling sidewalks is so much easier than shoveling a path over uneven ground. And it makes moving the firewood around much easier!
We knew we were going to love having sidewalks when it got snowy this winter, and we are not disappointed. Not having to worry about tipping the wheelbarrow over when the front wheel get stuck in a hole in the ground is a luxury we both really appreciate.
Wading through snow to get to the bird feeders isn't that big a deal. A one shovel wide path is all we'll need to make when it gets deeper.
The low angle of the sun casts dark blue shadows around every tuft of grass hidden below the first snowfall. Our outside birds are very happy with their seeds and suet. Our yard is a popular place all winter long. A couple of days ago the Pygmy Owl was hanging around on top of one of the tall pine trees, calling and talking to him/herself. They sound like a small horn, tooting. The small birds in our yard were having a fit about that.
Broom in hand, Dan walks down the hill from the house, to brush snow off the solar panels.
The mountain still shades our house but by mid morning the sun has moved far enough around to reach the solar panels.
A light swish with the bloom, and the light fluffy snow covering the panels cascades down.
It took two swishes with the broom to clean the solar panels off completely. It is a mini-avalanche. I'm not quite tall enough to be able to reach to the top of the largest solar panel array.
Just two swishes it all it takes to clean the smaller solar panel array. No snow will fall tonight, it's going to be crystal clear skies.
After the panels were cleared of their light snow cover, they began producing power, enough to fill the batteries and power the washer and dryer. Clean clothes, courtesy of the sun. The sun is down now behind the mountains, at 3:35 PM. And we still have a month to go until the shortest day of the year.
A pitchy piece of firewood is so pretty to watch in the stove, not to mention the fact it puts out a tremendous amount of heat.
I love watching the fire burning in the stove when I’m working. And our little furry cat child loves it too.
He was rolling around on the floor, upside down and looking extremely silly, until I told him I was going to take his picture. At which point he struck a royal cat pose and pretended there was something interesting to watch in front of the stairs. Perhaps a bug?
No. No. Dan’s first job was to get me up and running correctly on Debian! Those solar panels could wait! Ha.