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Post by nana on Dec 17, 2020 9:37:37 GMT -5
The view out of my kitchen window this morning: Those lumps are a table and chairs on my deck. I can barely see my yard!
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Post by pooka on Dec 17, 2020 11:05:47 GMT -5
LORDLY. We've had few days bellow freezing yet this year. We were supposed get a dusting of snow yesterday morning, but I didn't see it. By the time I looked out, the ground was just a little wet. A few days ago, we were up in the 60s. Next week is suppose to start out with three days in the low 50s.
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Post by mach12 on Dec 17, 2020 11:35:49 GMT -5
Wow. I just sent a note to a friend who lives not far from you asking how they're doing. We're in our RV on the coast with gale force winds and rain blowing sideways all day yesterday but it cleared up a couple of hours ago and the suns out. And no need for a snow blower. That's beautiful but having lived where we got snow like that I sure see a lot of sore backs. The chiropractors are probably all planning some long days.
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Post by nana on Dec 17, 2020 17:28:28 GMT -5
After I took that picture we got probably another 6 inches! My neighbor measured it at approximately 38 inches all told. She stuck a yardstick in and it was a guesstimate because it was over the top. All the years I lived here I don’t think we ever had this much all in one storm. Our snowblower is great only up to about a foot of snow, so we had to shovel it just to get it down to a level the snowblower could work on. (It’s electric, and a little on the small side, but quiet and no exhaust smell. Usually it does the job!) All we did all day was deal with snow and for the first time we did not finish clearing everything that needed to be cleared. We were just too tired! We did enough to get the car out if we had to, and to be able to get in and out both doors. We’ll finish tomorrow. We have nowhere to go anyway. Ironically enough, We both had a chiropractor appointment today, which had to be canceled, obviously. I’m sure we will really be needing it next week! It was very beautiful when the sun came out by the end of the day—everything just sparkled. And the extreme snow brought two new birds to our feeder, besides the usual suspects. We saw an eastern towhee, who was probably regretting his decision not to migrate this year. They are around in summer but I’ve never seen one at our feeder before. And I saw the elusive and appropriately named winter wren! I’m excited by it because it was a new sighting for us. We hear them in the woods around here, but I’d never seen one before. It was adorable. Very dark brown with a dashing stripe over its eye, and only a tiny stub of a tail, and all puffed up in the cold it looked like a little round ball with a beak. So all in all, a good day! Here’s my hubby getting started on the day. That hump behind the bush behind him is my neighbor’s car!
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Post by mach12 on Dec 17, 2020 20:46:33 GMT -5
When I worked in QA at Fort Lewis my boss was a former Italian soldier and had been a POW at Lewis during WWII. He told how they looked forward to heavy snowfall because the locals could borrow them to help with the shoveling or whatever and they got to stay until the work was done. It seemed that the local Italian Americans would check out Italian POWs and German Americans the German POWs. When they'd get snow like that they knew they would get to spend a few days with locals and were happy to do whatever they could. Many of them enlisted or were commissioned into the U.S. Army and Joe was one of them. He retired and went to work Civil Service for the Army and eventually retired there. He always said nobody wanted to escape and go back to where people were trying to kill them and if they suspected someone would try to escape and mess up the good deal they had going that he'd fall down the stairs or something. Too bad you can't get some help with the snow in exchange for some meals cooked with the gas turned off!
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Post by pooka on Dec 18, 2020 2:42:43 GMT -5
I think if we had that much snow all at once, they'd declare a weather emergency, & call out the National Guard. The biggest amount in 24 hours was a bit over twenty years ago. I think it was seventeen or nineteen inches in a little over 24 hours. The thing is, it usually warms up, & it can quickly melt away within days. As I said in the other thread about the blizzard that canceled my dad's funeral. It was a rare event that blew in with a goodly amount of snow, & it stayed frigid cold in the teens & twenties. Every new wave of snow piled up, & up. I can't remember if it was Washington Square Mall, or Lawndale Shopping Center across the street piled their snow up in a huge mound. A local radio station had a contest to guess what date it would meld away on. They called it Mount Snowmore.
We're just a bit bellow the snow line where snow comes & persists. I think being on the Ohio River keeps our temps a bit more moderate. Plus, at the bottom of the state, although a lot of the area north of us it mostly tabletop flat, it gets a bit lumpy & hilly along the river. The warm air from the river rises up, deflecting the blustery weather to the north. I used to work in a factory just north of the airport. Some of our coworkers lived a bit north. I can't count how many times snow came through, but it didn't come bellow Interstate 64. You'd be driving south on Highway 41 in blowing snow, go under the Interstate, & have no snow south of the Interstate. It's right at the top of the valley, & I'm told it follows an old buffalo trail. Yes we did use to have buffalo in Indiana. There's one jumping over a log on our state seal. They wiped them & the elk out of this area a long time ago. As I remember when we would get some big snowfalls, time seems to slow down, & it seems magical, at least for a bit. The quiet is what always used to get me. The nights are eerily near silent. As you say, no rush to shovel it all too quickly, because there's nowhere to go. I'm sure because you're so far north, you're a bit more use to snow than a lot of us. It still take time to plow roads though. It just depends how many plows you have. You're chiropractor appointment having to be canceled is funny. You will need an intense double treatment by the time things get moving again.
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Post by karitx on Dec 18, 2020 11:39:14 GMT -5
Wow, that is amazing! We would be totally overwhelmed if that happened here. If we get enough snow to cover the lawn stubble, the whole area shuts down and we enjoy it until it melts (usually just a day or two).
Eastern towhees must have made some sort of group decision to start visiting feeders this year. We've never seen them here before, but now we have three regulars. They are beautiful birds.
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Post by nana on Dec 19, 2020 8:12:14 GMT -5
It is beautiful, even though this was a little more shoveling than we wanted to have to do. And If it warms up too fast or God forbid rains before people can rake it off their roof there will be some collapses coming. We lost a lot of old barns around here some years ago when we had a big snow and then it warmed up and rained. That snow soaks up water like a sponge and there’s only so much weight a roof can take. But now that the pathways and roads are cleared, for now it’s like living on the front of a Christmas card!
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Post by vaporvac on Dec 19, 2020 16:51:56 GMT -5
That is unbelievable It's so beautiful. Reminds me of living in Montreal and Schenectady. We don't get snow like that here but when we get any snow at all we are out immediately put the Cross Country Skis! I don't envy you shoveling it though. My brother in Pennsylvania only had eight in and my dad up and Main said he had less than a foot. I think you guys got the brunt of it.
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