Sometime during the night, the winter storm arrived and not with snow as predicted, or if it did snow, it was minimal. I got up at first light to hear the sleet hitting the metal roof. The dogs were not amused, they ran out and right back as quickly as they could relieve themselves.
As the day dawned lighter, I could see the layer of ice on everything. The deciduous trees glistening like they were lit up, the evergreens sagging under the weight of the ice. Icicles hung from the eaves, the rails, the bird feeders.
The resident deer family coming close to the house in search of grass or green that wasn’t frozen.
The sleet stopped around 10 this morning and there is a lull in the storm until late afternoon, but when I got up, the power was flickering so I started fires in the wood stove in the basement and the fireplace in the living room in case it failed. So far it has stayed on, but the temperature isn’t rising enough to melt off the morning ice before the afternoon and overnight ice is due.
A couple of years ago, daughter brought home a little slip of a pine tree from Arbor Day at work and I planted it in the yard near the larger pines and marked it so it wouldn’t get mowed down. By last summer, it was as tall as I am but thin with all the needles at the top. When I looked out this morning, it was bent to the ground and I feared it would break so I went out to stake it. The first stake wasn’t long enough to protect it.
I went to the garden and dug one of the 7 foot long fake bamboo poles out of the ice and got it imbedded beside the pine and tied the pine to the pole with some tie loops that are stretchy tshirt material. I hope I have saved it from this storm.
The walk to the mailbox was slippery so no vehicle will be moved today, but the walk allowed an afternoon photo of one of the larger pines weighted down by the ice.
I expect if we get more ice added to the coat that is there, we will see broken branches. The creek is roaring, but I didn’t want to risk the slope to look down on it to see how full it is.
I would rather have snow, but actually, I’m ready for warmer weather and some sunshine.