Saturday, February 6, 2010

These Could Be April Pictures

At this time of the year, we usually have our maximum amount of winter snow on the ground.

This is a random shot taken to the right of our driveway going through the woods.

Another picture taken off to the left.

We don't even have total ground cover, for heaven's sake! A whole lot of bare ground lying out there exposed to the elements. (One of them not being snow!)

The right side of the above picture shows a small storage structure in our back work area. On a normal snow year, you would see a narrow walking path kept shoveled so we can gain entry into the storage building.

This illustrates how very little snow on the ground makes it much harder this winter to keep the house consistently and uniformly warm. You're looking at the very back, north-facing part of the house, and usually we would have a wide, heavy bank of snow up against the house to about the level of the bottom of the right hand window. Snow really does insulate! (As an old saying goes, snow is the poor man's insulation and the poor man's fertilizer.)

The level of snow we have on the ground right now is comparable to what we normally see when most of the winter's snow is rapidly melting in April. So is this February 6th or April 6th?

One thing for sure . . . there's no way of changing the whims of Mother Nature.

7 comments:

Jenyfer Matthews said...

I think you are one of the only people I can think of who has been complaining about a lack of snow this winter!

Erin said...

unbelievable! I saw the weather maps this morning and it looks like you may be getting some today?

Mama Pea said...

Hey, Jen - I know. 99% of the blogs I read are full of pictures of record snowfalls. And that includes southern parts of our country that should never be getting that kind of snow.

Hi, Erin - We're getting light snow coming down right now. The deck and deck railing flat surface are covered but no measurable amount yet. Once again, they're forecasting 6-10" but they've been doing that all winter and so far, it hasn't come to pass.

RuthieJ said...

I'm really surprised you have so little snow this year. We've had snow on the ground since the beginning of December and it seems like winter has lasted forever this year!

Mama Pea said...

Hi, Ruthie - Yep, it's been a weird winter for us. But it's been snowing lightly all day today . . . for a grand accumulation of about . . . one inch! We're supposed to get more yet so we'll just wait and see. Gonna be a dry spring if we don't get a bunch more in the next month.

MaineCelt said...

Not much snow here in Maine either. It's all landing south of us. I have to confess, though, that some of my irritation about our lack of snow is balanced by my amusement at how all those Virginians are FREAKED OUT about it.

Mama Pea said...

Hi, MaineCelt - Well, that's just it. The heavy snow has fallen this year in parts of the country that just aren't supposed to get snow! And the thing is they don't even have the equipment to handle it . . . let alone know how to drive on/in it, etc. Mother Nature is definitely messing with us.