Monday's Late Season Snowstorm

This post is now in its third incarnation.  I started it on Monday (I think?), wrote the bulk of it this morning and am just now finishing it 12 hours later, tonight.  Yeesh.

I'll also both preface and add to it by saying that I couldn't BELIEVE the amount of melting that went on today!  Wowzer:  inches and inches!  This being the winter of heaviest (most) snow since living here at Swamp River Ridge, I haven't had to go mud-boggin' just to get out to the main road . . . until this morning.  Yep, there is one spot that is so soft that I was actually spinnin' my wheels, trying to get up the hill.  A lot of sinkholes are forming in places I've never before seen them, too.  I'm keeping my eyes on 'em and starting to plan for the day I find one too huge to drive around . . . or a culvert washed out.

Annnnnd, with that, I'll finally finish this darn post!  Tonight's ramblings are in blue.

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Oh, but plans are meant to be foiled, aren't they?  No, no, it wasn't anything big, but I was planning on jumping up this morning with the first chirp of the alarms to go out and get at least an hour of woodwork in before heading into town for the office.  Instead, I woke up half an hour ago . . . and I should leave in half an hour.  (Not gonna make it, am I?)  And, I feel a bit like I've been run over by a truck.


I blame it on the dogs.  For the past FEW nights, they've been asking to go out around 1:00 / 1:30 AM.  Then, Maisy (or Tucker) barks incessantly.  Maybe it's the raccoon?  Maybe one of last fall's leaves fell from a tree.  The times I've gone out to listen, I can't hear a thing.  So, by the time they're barking to be let in, I am in a bark-induced coma of sleep.  Generally, that means that I don't get up to let them in until morning . . . but I know I must be sleeping with one ear open because I'm waking up just BEAT!  (Yeah, yeah, I know there's all that emotional stuff kicking around in my brain, too.)


An-y way . . . .


Here are the pictures I took of Sunday night's into Monday morning's late season snowstorm.

The view out the front door.  Can't even see the bright red of the little car in front of the garage, can you?

The view out the side door.  Granted, it *WAS* beautiful, but that snow weighed as much as wet cement!

The white stuff was so wet that it didn't take long to slide off the roof.

The open yard in front of the garage is . . . where?!

My woodpile was FREE of snow before this.  (Sob!)

This picture & the one below:  the view down into the valley from behind the garage.

WHAT valley?!

8" (nearly) of heavy, wet cement.

Poor Tucker:  the snow was halfway up his ribcage.  He always reminds me of The Little Engine That Could when he has to plow through deep (to him) snow:  "I think I can, I think I can!"

Because there had been so much melting BEFORE this snowfall, the banks at the sides of the winter driveway were lower than usual.  Sooooooo, as I was plowing Monday morning, there were places where I couldn't tell WHERE the road WAS!  (Like here.)

I haven't (ahem, hadn't) gotten stuck once while plowing all winter (a first).  (And, no, getting "stuck" on the driveway does NOT count!)  However, due to my previous picture illustrating how I couldn't see where the damn road WAS . . . I drove off it!  Of course, I was all dressed for work with my hair and makeup done (for once) when it happened.  Sigh.  FORTUNATELY, I still had the bucket of ashes in the back of the truck, so . . . much shoveling + liberal application of ashes . . . and I was out and back on my way.

Those of you who watched the video already know this, but the main road, once I got out to it, was in just as bad shape as the winter driveway was.  And, actually, there was MORE snow here:  10-12".

But, my GAWD, what a difference the Big Lake makes!  This is what I found when I got down to the highway!  Who woulda believed it!?  I think the conditions we experience here "down by the lake" and "up over the hill" are comparable to towns at the base of mountains.  The weather can be innocuous down in the valley, but climb up to one of the passes, and it's another story, entirely!