Earlier this week we had temperatures hovering at or near +40 F, and the snow melted off of the rocks on the surrounding hillsides, and slid (finally) off the metal roofing. It was very exciting to our parrots who always claim the sky is falling when that happens. It was exciting to us as well since it felt so much like spring was coming, even surrounded by a basically white landscape.
Then we woke up to find a heavy wet snow had fallen overnight.
The sun isn't up, and from the looks of things we won't see it anyway.
Snowflakes, lots of them, weighing down the branches.
This was ok, we thought. A heavy wet snowfall is a spring-like weather event. We’ve seen it before, many times. No big deal. It stayed overcast all day but the temperatures were pretty moderate. And then the temperature started falling like a rock.
The next morning we woke up to +10 F and a lot of snowflakes filled the air.
Thick air
Bird feeders are a godsend for our feathery friends in this kind of weather.
The last suet tree is going to be empty when this batch is gone.
Our plan was to go to town on Wednesday afternoon, after I was done working, and collect the suet we had ordered from the local hardware store. At this point it was hard to gauge how much snow had fallen, and it looked like it was going to continue the rest of the day. Our woodpecker friends will be coming to the house and banging on it to get our attention, and peeking into the windows wondering what is taking us so long to get outside and take care of important business.
No solar gain today!!
Thick fluffy snow covered the solar panels, sticking to the heavy wet snow that had fallen the day before. It’s a good thing the sky was so dark, otherwise we would have felt bad about not clearing off the solar panels.
Wednesday morning the snow had stopped, and we decided to see if we could get in and out of our driveway, which had not been improved by this weather. We were successful, the suet tree is back in business and the woodpeckers will be leaving the house alone. See? Humans *CAN* be trained if properly motivated.
We were right about the driveway, we barely made it out to the main road which had not been plowed either. And driving back in was even worse.
Thursday morning it had cleared up overnight and the temperatures settled at +3 F, which is definitely not very spring-like. The change gave us the opportunity to clear paths, and take care of some other outside chores.
Narrower, and narrower....
We started out with wide shoveled paths, and as the winter has progressed they get progressively narrower. It is almost wide enough for the wheelbarrow loaded with split firewood, now. Any progress made with snow melting the first part of the week was erased entirely by the fluffy six inches of snowfall.
Friday morning the skies had cleared and the temperatures had climbed to +10 F.
White Mountain casting a shadow on the landscape.
Any sign of rocks on the surrounding hillsides had been erased entirely. Early morning sunrise is so pretty here, especially on freshly fallen snow. The sky changes color and it reflects off the hillsides, subtle pastels shades of blues and pinks which our camera is unable to capture. A better lense or camera might work, but people will just have to come and see it for themselves.
All tracks have been erased, and trees hold snow on thei branches again.
Even though the temperatures are mid-winter cold again, and Mother Nature had fun reminding the inhabitants of this part of the world that She is in control, the birds don’t seem to mind. Pairs are hanging out together, and flocks are chasing each other in and around the snow-covered woods, singing and carrying on.
Dan cleaned off the solar panels and they are humming.
With skies this clear, our solar panels will have filled up the batteries by 1 PM, and we can do fun things like run the washing machine and dryer, and vacuum cleaner, without any drain on the batteries at all. The panels produce more than sufficient power to run all those appliances at the same time. I don’t think we’ll ever get tired of the magic of producing our own electricity.
This morning, it being Saturday, it is warmer yet, +15 F, and we are snug inside.
My favorite thing to watch in cold weather is flames dancing.
Turning my chair around so I can watch the fire in the wood stove is one benefit of having a comfy chair that swivels. We both love the heat that is generated by a wood stove. Mishkin loves to watch the flames dancing too. He puts his nose close to the stove and stares in fascination.
The skies are high overcast, but yesterday Dan plowed the driveway and we can drive in and out with much more certainty that we won’t get stuck halfway. It’s the little things in life!