Tag: snow

Cha-cha-changes

This past weekend we had the opportunity to drive 275+ miles north and east in the state to visit one of our son’s and his family. Never have I traveled across the state and seen snow/ice everywhere. Twice we again drove through snow falling and traffic throwing salty, muddy splatter up on the windshield and rear window making visibility difficult.

Our son’s family’s apartment is across the street from the hotel where we stay and with temperatures in the teens and up to 60 mph wind gusts outdoor walking was brutal. Then on Saturday we went to a play in the city about 10 blocks from where we could get off the Metro and it was bitter and windy . Sunday was still only in the teens and windy but not quite as brutal. The snow showers we experienced on the way there had stopped and the sky cleared on Sunday. We got home to find another 4 inches had fallen here and there were some deep spots in the path that had been plowed out on Thursday night.

The plowed driveway that finally allowed us to drive to the garage and get back out.

The new snow didn’t hamper that fortunately, and yesterday we started a warm up, thaw, and clearing finally after about 3 weeks of ice, snow, and temperatures never reaching 32f. Today, we reached a high of 57 f and we were able to take our daily walk outdoors, though the rails to trails path was only plowed to about half it’s width. It was wonderful to get outside in only a light jacket and enjoy the sunshine and mild temperature.

I am still sore from my fall on the ice a week ago, but am managing daily chores and our walk as long as I don’t lift anything too heavy.

With the more temperate week ahead, the chicks purchased in early January and now fully feathered, too large for the 45 gallon stock tank they were occupying in the basement, were moved to the empty coop. A bale and a half of pine shavings were added to it as it had been cleaned out in November when the adults were gone. A 5 gallon waterer and a 15 pound feeder were placed in before we moved the teenager chicks. They haven’t had heat on them for several days other than basement heat.

Here they were at about 1 1/2-2 weeks old before they outgrew the smaller crate and were moved to the stock tank. Having them in the basement for almost 6 weeks, they have created an amazing amount of dust. After we moved them and removed the stock tank, I did do a surface dusting, but will go down tomorrow and do a more thorough cleaning and try to get the floor clean. This batch of birds will be the last ones I raise for eggs. It is getting too difficult to move 50 pound sacks of feed and hauling a 5 gallon water container to keep them fed and hydrated.

After they spend a week or two in the coop to learn that it is home, they will be allowed into the covered pen on hay for another week or two, then allowed into the covered run around the garden, hopefully to keep the bug and weed load down in the garden.

A box of supplies for the hydroponic herb garden was finally delivered today. UPS has been trying to deliver it for 2 1/2 weeks, but unable to get down our icy road. It will be nice having fresh herbs again once they germinate and get some size on them. Once spring arrives and they can go out to the half barrel on the patio, more will be sown and before next winter, the hydroponic will be started again for fall and winter use. I was too late this year getting the baskets and sponges to start it in the fall.

I know winter isn’t over, but hopefully the artic temperatures have passed and more seasonable winter temperatures will prevail. There will be more wintry precipitation I’m sure, but inches of snow topped with ice then more snow creating 30 acres of glacier hopefully is gone. For the first time in weeks, we can see some grass peeking through the snow in the back field and gravel on the driveway. This has certainly not been typical.

February 10, 2026
Winter, it is time to quit!

As we had been able to plod to the car up the hill in ice cleats and get out, we had been staying well supplied. Monday evening, we decided to go to town and see a movie. Though the lot was full of cars, we were the only two in the theater for the film we selected. Walking down from the car when we got home, using a flashlight to guide us, I apparantly lost one of the slip on cleat units on one of my boots and didn’t realize it. We were about 2/3 the way down to the house when that foot hit ice, slid out from under me and down I went hard on my back. Fortunately, nothing broken, I got up, carefully moved to an area of a drift of deeper unfrozen snow and got back to the house.

The next morning, using my remaining cleats and one of hubby’s, I walked back up to find my missing one near the car.

As we had a very early appointment on Wednesday morning in the city about 75 minutes away, we packed a backpack with overnight gear and next day clothing, trudged up to the car and drove to a hotel in the city nearer the appointment. The appointment got delayed by a couple hours and after a minor complication, ended up spending the entire day there. On our way home as night fell, it began to snow again. Not wanting to risk another walk in the dark, I drove carefully down our icy driveway to the garage. The snow accumulated another 1-2 inches on top of the ice. It is supposed to get up to about 35f (1.7c) and sunny today, so maybe last night’s snow will melt off, again leaving us just the ice.

The young man that mows, bales, and takes our hay is coming down this evening with his truck and snowplow to try to break up the ice on our driveway and clear us a path so we can again get out.

The weather prognosticators are threatening another inch or so tomorrow afternoon and night and a cold Saturday, but then a warming trend with a couple of days actually reaching the 50’s next week, so maybe it will begin to melt off.

The snow is beautiful, the ice is treacherous, especially for our 78 and 82 year old bodies. It is time for the winter to moderate back to cooler, dryer weather and let this mess clear off.

February 5, 2026
Did I go to sleep in Virginia

And wake up in Maine? The storm for which all the preparations were made ended up about 4 inches of snow and 6 inches of sleet. We never got the freezing rain, thank goodness, and our power never went out. However, the highest temperature we have had in a couple of weeks is in the upper teens and most nights in low single digits. With those temperatures, the ice wasn’t melting. Late in the week, we got the AWD SUV to the top of the driveway and out for more supplies. To get to and from the car, 2/10 mile away, we have to don ice cleats on our shoes to prevent falling on the ice.

To make life more interesting for our senior souls, on Friday, we had another storm and about 6″ of dry blowing snow dumped on the ice. This morning, we managed to trod up to the car through the drifts and get out once again. Though once at the car and the snow brushed off, the cleats removed in the vehicle, I foolishly got back out without thinking and slipped to a sitting position by the driver’s door. No injury, just embarrassment at being foolish. We have had animal care duty for the past few days and needed to go check on them, thaw water bowls, feed the indoor critters, and purchase feed for my chicks and bird feeders. We got a short mall walk in while we were out, and parked the car again at the top of the driveway, hauling 90 pounds of feed down to the house on a plastic tobaggan that we had stashed in the back. The high today is 20, last night it went down to 5 and is expected to do so again tonight. The wind is howling and blowing the dry snow into drifts. Because of the wind and the fear of losing power, the woodstove has been burning for most of a week now. It heats the basement up to about 75 degrees and some of that heat rises to the first floor bringing it up to about 70. The upstairs is the 68 that the thermostat is set on. We finally have a couple days in the near future where it is going to get above freezing, but also three days of snow or snow mixed with rain, expected in the next 6 days.

This is not typical Virginia winter and if the groundhog came out today, he would definitely see his shadow and 6 more weeks of winter (like there won’t be anyway by the calendar.)

February 1, 2026
Preparations

We are in one of the eastern states that is in the path of the winter storm marching across the south. Far enough north that we will get snow followed by freezing rain. This morning’s prediction is 8 to 12 inches of snow followed by .25+ inches of ice. This is enough to cause power outages in our rural area where most of the above ground transmission lines run through wooded areas. An ice storm a number of years ago, took our power for 6 days and without power, we are also without water and our stove is electric. At that time we had two dogs and couldn’t just leave them to go to a hotel once the roads were clear enough to get out. We live about a half mile from a paved road, all uphill. This snow and ice event is supposed to be followed by a series of days where we will see single digit to very low double digit temperatures and even some negative temperatures at night, so melt off anytime soon is remote at best.

We have a small tractor with a blade, but it won’t handle a foot of snow for plowing the driveway. Beginning about three days ago, every time we drove by the grocery store, the large parking lot was packed and since I didn’t do any canning this past summer, there was little on the pantry shelves that could be quick cooked. We generally shop on Fridays because we get 4 times gas points and braved the mobs of hoarders. It is fascinating to see the “bread and milk” buyers. If the power goes out, the milk will spoil. We picked up some produce that doesn’t require refrigeration, a few cans of soup, a couple packs of quick rice, and a couple packets of chicken. Once home, prep was done here. With a fireplace in the living room and a wood stove in the basement, we can keep the house from freezing. I filled a couple food safe 5 gallon buckets with drinking water and the downstairs bathtub for toilet flushing and dish washing. There was a load of wood in the garage and another in the basement, but I hauled 5 wheelbarrows of wood to the covered front porch, right by the door. Cleared a spot for the camping stove in the garage, located my backpacking alcohol stove that will boil water or heat soup, and the camp pots, so if necessary, we can eat. The three solar lanterns were put in the sun to charge up and the power block is also being charged up.

Since the freezer has sausages in it, we bought a couple long forks for cooking them on the fire, and a package of buns.

The hope is, since we are prepared, we won’t lose power, but if we do and can’t get out in the car, we won’t dehydrate or starve to death. Hmm, think I better go grind some coffee beans too.

Here’s hoping it was all unnecessary preparation, but rather be safe than sorry.

January 23, 2026
Out Like A Lion

At least it isn’t sticking. After 4 beautiful spring like days, today is a return to winter. It was supposed to be rain and perhaps will turn to rain before it ends, but not more snow.
Mountaingdad is on the road with Daughter, so hopefully the roads aren’t getting messy.
The roads were fine a couple of hours ago when I went out to lunch with a friend. In fact, it hadn’t started then, we watched the snow showers start while we ate. We enjoyed some social time for a hour or so, then home as today begins nearly two weeks of full time grand parenting while daughter and her husband pack up their house that they sold in Florida. I’m glad we had a couple of months of them living here before they had to be left in our care. We will do fine.

March 19, 2015
The Crystal Palace

The storm of yesterday has passed, again creating a snow covered swathe diagonally up across Virginia and to the north east. Today the sun is brilliant and the day so far is frigid. Yesterday afternoon, the chickens were huddled underneath the coop as the snow fell, they were soaked and I was worried about frostbite. Have you ever tried to herd chickens? Not an easy task, but one by one they were prodded out from under the coop to a small patch that I cleared right by their ladder and most willingly went inside. A few had to be picked up and placed inside, the pop door closed and a couple of extra scoops of whole grain feed tossed down to both entertain and warm them as I hoped they would dry before the single digit cold arrived and arrive it did. We plunged from the mid 30’s yesterday morning to 6f (-14.5c) early this morning.

The brilliant sun is causing the ice coated trees and shrubs to sparkle and glitter, the snow blindingly white. Our total on this storm was only about 6″, but it is on ice. The muddy ruts that had formed in our driveway are now frozen ruts but the next week is going to be spring like with a few periods of rain, so the ruts will return.

The chickens pen was cleared of enough snow to toss down their grain and coax them out to feed.

School has been cancelled for the second day in a row, the 14th day this school year. Only one of those days has been made up and only 4 more make up days are currently in the schedule. Their options are to extend the school day or add more days on to the end of the year. They don’t really haven’t any vacation days built in to take that haven’t already been taken. Spring break is only the Friday and Monday bracketing Easter Sunday.

The day is beautiful and the scenery is photo worthy, we didn’t lose power, but I am ready for winter to exit.

March 6, 2015
Tracks

One of the beauties of having snow is the reveal of wildlife that are either nocturnal or camouflaged enough to hide in the woods. With snow on the floor of the woods surrounding our land, we can see the deer and turkey as they move across the white background. Usually we don’t see the deer until they move out into the field, but with the grass covered, they can be seen grazing from the low branches of the smaller trees and shrubs that provide the under story growth.

After the heavy snow last week, the first tracks that I spotted other than the kids and dogs were a path leading from the woods, across the hay field, up diagonally across the upper field and disappearing into the thicket. An investigation to see if it was a deer or a coyote revealed that instead it was Jumper Jr., the young cow that belongs to our neighbor. She visits frequently to graze our field, leaving her herd and last fall, even her spring calf on the other side of the fence. She must have been disappointed to see that the grass was covered on our side of the fence as it was on her own side and she wandered back to eat the hay that had been provided at home. It amazed me that such a large animal could leave such a narrow path through the snow, but her hoof prints were clearly visible in the path.

The day after her track was found, I discovered canine prints coming from the north east woods, straight down, across the electric fence and right up to the chicken coop. Those tracks were not there the night before and our dogs are fearful of the electric fence, so it was probably a coyote or a fox looking for an easy meal. Fortunately the chooks were securely locked in their coop for the night. The tracks were somewhat degraded by the wind blown snow, so they were difficult to identify.

This morning in the light layer that fell yesterday, I found rabbit tracks and the tracks in the lower photo that I can not identify. Both sets came from the north east woods and visited the spoiled hay bales, the compost bin, and the old compost bin where the squash and pumpkins grew last summer.

The critters are out seeking food with the ground covered by the iced over snow. Perhaps I will spread some chicken scratch and birdseed on the snow surface for them.

February 25, 2015
It’s Got a Hold on Us

Late winter that is. We have Had weeks of well below normal temperatures. Last week we got a total of 19 inches of snow over two separate snow falls. School for Grandson hasn’t occurred in over a week. President’s Day in the US is typically a holiday for schools, but his school had scheduled a makeup day from a previously missed weather day and the makeup day was cancelled along with the rest of the week and Monday and today of this week. We weren’t quite sure why today was cancelled as the roads seemed to be mostly cleared, the forecast for a very cold night last night and normal cold day today. The Superintendent must have an inside track to the weatherman as we woke to more snow. The areas that had cleared on our one aberrant warm day are again lightly covered. I don’t think we will see much but even another inch or two is not welcomed. Most days are hovering just at or below freezing and nights about 10 to 15 degrees colder, but a few day ago, we thought spring had come, the thermometer said it got up to 50f (10c) a real heatwave. The snow started to melt, the driveway became a muddy mess as our farmer friend had been too over zealous in his scraping, piling huge mounds of snow 4 or more feet high in front of and beside the house. Then it got cold again and the melt became an ice slick. We haven’t had mail delivery in over a week though we have been able to get in and out all but a couple of days.

The freeze thaw freeze cycle has made chicken chores a challenge. One of the scrapes to a mound is just outside the garage door on the side of the house. The footprints from walking over have become crusty with ice under them and the walk over a slick tricky path. Trying to create a new path involves taking a step on unbroken snow and not knowing if it will hold or break through a couple of inches or knee deep. Water sloshes, feed scatters then the chooks don’t want to come out at all.

So what’s a girl to do, why order yarn to knit and spin fiber of course. I had been dallying on a spinning project of some roving that I ended up not liking very much. It was white through shades of pink to maroon then white to shades of gray to charcoal. I ended with one full bobbin, knowing if I plied it on itself, I wouldn’t have much yarn from it. In my fiber basket was a ball of maroon merino roving, so I spun a second solid single of it and used the two together to make yarn.

It isn’t really my color choice, but I ended up with almost 300 yards of DK/Light Worsted yarn. It may be sold, perhaps I will find a project for it.

Earlier this winter, I knit a yoked sweater of Brown Sheep yarn to go with my Hitchhiker scarf.

I ended up realizing that after years of knitting Raglan sleeve sweaters, that I much prefer the Yoke style. I love the pattern that I made and love the sweater, but hate the yarn. It is soft and pills terribly. Another sweater of the same style seemed in order and I had made a sweater a couple of years ago from Bovidae sport weight yarn that I had purchased at the SAFF festival and though that yarn isn’t soft, it is warm, holds up beautifully and doesn’t pill. An order was placed for more of that yarn in a color similar to the Brown Sheep and a new yoke sweater has been cast on.

Last night as I was about to do the second increase row, I realized there was an error about an inch back, so about a third of my progress was ripped out, stitches picked up and today I will progress on. My last knitting project prior to the current sweater is a gradient moebius cowl of sport weight yarn. I have decided that sport weight is my preferred knitting yarn.

Modeled by my beautiful daughter. Hmmm, do you see a color preference here?

In two days, I will abandon Mountaingdad, Daughter and the two grands for a few days at a spinning retreat in West Virginia. A couple of days of socialization and no responsibilities. A mini vacation and time to unwind and recharge.

February 24, 2015
Cave Hill Olympics Vol. 4

Last winter Olympics we had a couple of back to back snows and grandkids coming. We bought a couple of plastic toboggans in anticipation. Once our friendly farmer neighbor with the behemoth tractor with a heated cab plowed us out, we drove to town, resupplied and parked the 4 wheel drive SUV at the top of the driveway. With the toboggans in the back, we loaded the groceries onto the toboggans and before Mountaingdad could turn around, I hopped into one with the groceries and started sliding down the driveway of packed snow and ice. He quickly caught on and hopped in the other one to race me. Each time we had to go out for supplies, we dragged one of them to the top of the drive (2/10 mile) and hauled the supplies back down to the house. When the kids arrived, the fun really began and we took many photos of kids and adults, us included, sledding down the various hills on the property. The biggest kid was our son in law, the one still in Florida trying to sell their house, but he is flying in today for the weekend and some snow fun.

The day after our foot of snow this week, we dragged the sleds out and bundled everyone up for some snow play.

Once we struggled uphill to the top of the drive, sledding down hills as we went and hauling the 3 year old on one sled, we discovered that the road had been plowed by a pickup truck with a front blade and it as it is downhill from the paved road to the bottom of Cave Hill (the hill beyond our house), it made a great toboggan run. All of us, from the youngest, with an adult to the most senior of us, took turns sliding down the slick packed hill, laughing and getting snow covered.

So much fun to be “young.”

Last night after 8 p.m., the neighbor farmer and his behemoth with enough lights to light up our house, plowed us out. We had gotten an additional couple of inches of snow yesterday, it was 13f (-10.5c) with strong wind blowing snow in whiteouts.

We woke to -1f (-18.3c) with a high today of only 4f (-15.5c) and a low tonight of -14f (-25.5c) and light snow falling. We have fires in the wood stove and fireplace and will hunker down except for a trip out to pick up son-in-law by one or two of us when his plane arrives.

Tomorrow is supposed to be somewhat warmer and I expect a great deal of snowplay will occur, lots of dryer time as we dry out layers for more play. Saturday, we are expecting another 5″ of snow and ice before a thaw begins on Sunday. We will enjoy it while it lasts and hope that spring is on its way.

February 19, 2015
All closed up

Our entire region is shut down. No school, many businesses, and community services are closed today. The region doesn’t handle more than a couple of inches of snow, especially when they can’t pretreat the roads. Our 4 wheel drive SUV would probably be able to get up our gravel driveway and our gravel road but the paved road is likely an ice and snow covered downhill slick.
The sun is trying to come out, broken clouds still flurrying, the wind is howling and blowing the snow we got everywhere. The official count for our community was 9″ but going over to do chicken chores, the snow in the yard is over my barn boots and they are 11″ high.

Because the chickens have been cooped up for three days, I attempted to get them outside. Spoiled hay was spread in the run and food put outside in a pan so it wouldn’t disappear 11″ down.

Yesterday they fouled their water pan I used so I could knock the ice out of it each time I went to give them more, so today I hung a waterer inside and spread a new foot of straw in the coop. Between scratching for feed and kicking it out when the coop door is open, the foot thick layer from last week was only a couple inches deep of finely broken straw.
In spite of my efforts, they would go out the return immediately to the coop. They are still laying, we are getting 6 top 8 a day.
The grands want to go play in the snow, but with it in the teens and the wind blowing, it is a bit too cold for much time outside.
We have had our good snow, now I’m ready for spring. I can’t even imagine being in Boston this winter.

February 17, 2015