Record Snowfall (almost)

I woke up this morning to snow falling from the sky - can you believe it?? :-)

People keep telling that I've had quite a first winter in Vermont - most people say they haven't seen this much snow and low temps in years. February, after today, may end up being the snowiest February on record. I'm just glad I've experienced the harder side for my first season. If this is as bad as it gets (on average) then I can handle it. It's really not that bad.

I took this picture this morning right before I let the horses out of their stalls. They are usually very anxious to get out to the hay roll. Laney greets me with a whinny and Zazu just throws her head around in anticipation.

I didn't blanket the horses last night and I'm beginning to wonder if it really does anything for them. Certainly they can handle the cold - they are animals, after all - 2000 pound animals with lots of muscle and fat. Surely they have natural coping attributes. I'm thinking that blanketing a horse doesn't really do anything but make us humans feel better.

Rain in the forecast for tomorrow - which means more melting. Glad the sump pump is working!

Thirty-aught-six

One more snow storm under my belt - not as many inches as the weatherman predicted, but enough to be a pain in the butt down in Winooski. We live up north, about 20 miles from the Canadian border, in the middle of Lake Champlain. Our weather varies quite a bit from where I work which is 40 miles south of here. There was about 6 inches in Winooski about 1pm when we closed the office. When I got home I was anticipating the struggle to drive down the driveway, but it seemed only a few inches had fallen - either that or it had all blown away...


The boys and I start our Hunter Safety Course, combination rifle and bow, on March 7th. We are so excited! The deer that live at the back of the horse pasture better watch out next November...the freezer in the garage is empty.

Success!

The ice from the pump in the blue barrel is out - see the pile to the left of the barrel? Pick ax, sledge hammer, rubber mallet and 50 lbs of rock salt later...

And the little sump pump to the right of the barrel ended my evening with a garage floor mostly clear of standing water.

I am tired. What a day...

Oh, That White Stuff is Gonna Melt Soon!

Thursday and Friday warmed up just enough to turn my garage into wading pond...there's about a foot of water that's creating quite a bit of havoc downstairs! Jake and I tried to break up the 6" layer of ice that's blocking the float on the pump, but we gave up and poured a 50lb bag of rock salt on top of the ice. Hopefully the salt won't damage the pump as long as I get it working today. My main priority for this lovely cold windy Sunday is to get that pump working - it's the only thing that keeps the garage from flooding. And then I have to figure out how to get the water out of the garage. There is a small portable pump on the shelf - I'll have to figure out how it works. It can't be too difficult. These are the times I wish I had someone to call for help with these man-chores. But then I end up figuring things out, sometimes on my own and sometimes with a quick call to my brother, and I end up with this huge sense of accomplishment. I've also gone down 2 pants sizes with all of this physical work I do with the horses!

Life is good.

Thank God for Rain!

Rain next week...you know what that means...above freezing temperatures!

Notice the snow in the video blowing around like sand in a hot desert...

More Snow

The weather people predicted 5-8" of snow for last night - which it may well have been just that - except I live in North Hero in the middle of Lake Champlain and when the wind blows (as it usually does) we either end up with no snow or we get the drifts. This time, we got the drift. There's at least 18" of new snow around the property, up to 2 feet in some places. The trail that Jake and I dug out from the porch to the barn is completely filled in (see my video from yesterday). Actually, the front porch is buried. The horses are standing in snow this morning that passes their knees. Me and the boys will be digging out today!

Brian will be by sometime, I'm sure. He's so cool. I don't have to call him - he just makes his rounds after each snow and plows as needed. We'll be staying home today until he comes by - we're officially snowed-in.

There's snow in the forecast for the next seven days straight. But I'm not complaining. Vermont has a reputation for having cold, snowy winters and it's living up to it's rep. I knew what I was getting into when I decided to move here. Like the locals say: summer in Vermont totally makes up for the winters!

Saturday 6:30am