And Now for a Little Ketchup

Forgive me, that's an old, and really bad play on words.

What's our weather been like so far this winter?  Did we have a white Christmas?  (Come on now, I know you're just dying to know.)

We did get a fresh light cover of snow before Christmas which made everything look bright and white.

On Thursday, the 27th of December, a couple of days after Christmas we got our first real winter snow.  It started about 5 a.m., nearly seven hours later than had been predicted.  (At least everyone had ample time to prepare.)

It snowed all day with more forecast until noon the following day.

 The first of the heavy snow.

 
All during the snowfall, the temperature was an unbelievable 34 degrees.  (Thirty-four degrees and snowing heavily?  We've seen rain before at 32 degrees!)  The snow couldn't have been wetter . . . or more beautiful as it coated simply everything outside with about a foot of heavy, wet snow.  Tree branches (and small trees themselves) were bent down over our driveway to the extent that it was actually difficult to drive through.

At times, the snow felt almost like rain falling which is understandable at that temperature.  We went out two times during the day to plow and clear.  My down work jacket was soaked each time.  Above it's hanging in the heated workshop part of the garage to dry between shoveling periods.

The snow was heavy to the max and Papa Pea's plowing was not easy.  (Nor the shoveling!)  Great piles built up in front of the plow and made it slow going.

Above he's fine tuning the back parking area and ready to come in for a cup of coffee and rest period.  Those of you who have run a snow plow know that it saps one heckuva lot more energy than you would think it should.  It feels as if you've done half the plow's work yourself.

Then the following night when the snow stopped, the temp plummeted down to the teens and all of the terribly wet, heavy snow froze into blocks of ice.

We made the mistake of not going out once more to shovel and plow right before dark that previous night when it was still snowing.  The morning of the 28th in trying to clean off vehicles, poultry pens, trailers, paths, etc. we found all to be covered with several more inches of frozen snow with about 2" of ice underneath.  It was close to impossible to clean off.  And today, January 3rd, that 2" of ice is still prevalent with even more snow on top of it.  I'm thinking that ice may be preserved until spring!

Following all that snow, we were able to stay snug and secure at home but our daughter had to go out for work the days following and got stuck a couple of times and it couldn't be helped because she's an excellent driver.  (She takes after her dad in that respect, certainly not me.)

Papa Pea did an excellent job with the plow truck but has also been using the bucket of the tractor to move some of the big piles of snow.  (Above is the Black-Clad Snowman coming in from tractor work on the day the temp dropped.

So that's the weather update.  No significant amounts of snow after the 28th, but more is possible this coming weekend.

Next post I'll get together a little update on what I've been doing handwork-wise.