snowfall – New England's Narrow Road

January Snow

The winter has not been a good one. Last year (2013-14) there was a lot of snow and truthfully I handled it much better than all the sleet and freezing rain this year. Up until today there has been only a crusty frozen few inches covering the ground. The driveway is a mass of icy ruts from the melting, rain and re-freeze.

When it rains in winter I have water issues to deal with. After the all-day rain last weekend, I had many inches of water to push out of the garage. First I had to dig trenches in the driveway to direct the water off to the side. Thankfully I had a door put in on the back wall, and it comes in handy in pushing the water out the back.
The water problem is an easy fix. The garage has a drain, but it’s clogged with sand. It’s been like that since I moved here a few years ago. So a new drain, in the back corner at the lowest point would solve the problem.
Just like all the other problems, big and small, nothing can be done about fixing them without money to hire someone to do so. So I deal with the issues as they arise, as best I can.

At least today it’s snow coming down and not rain. It should never rain in winter. In fact it should never get above freezing. That is when all the problems occur. Ice forms and makes walking treacherous and shoveling impossible. These are the things I forgot about while living in Florida for 27 years. I remembered the snow, but not the ice. Shortly after I moved north in 2005 I fell and cracked my head open on black ice. A few stitches later and lesson learned.

If we end up getting more than the 3-7 inches predicted, I will have to start up the snowblower and try to clean up the driveway. It was a bit difficult getting the thing started last time, which was the only time I’ve had to use it so far this season. Usually by now we’ve had a number of big storms here in New Hampshire – like the big one in October 2011. My daughter is disappointed as she likes to go snowboarding. The slopes have been making snow, but it doesn’t compare to nice, fresh powder.

This snowfall looks so pretty. Maybe the rest of the winter will be normal.

I Love the Snow, But Not Today

I do love watching the snow fall and it sure is falling today, February 25, 2011 in New Hampshire. South of here there has been a mix of rain and freezing rain, but it’s been all snow – all day – here. I was out earlier to shovel off about 5 inches since they say it is heavy (yes, it is) but I am under the weather today and certainly don’t want to go back out. It’s warm enough for the snow to also be sliding off the roof, so I have that to shovel on top of the 5 or 6 inches that has come down since I was out before.
Also the plow guy will show up at some point and I’ll have to move my car.
So I usually don’t mind the snow, but when I am sick I would rather not have to deal with it.
My side of this duplex gets lots of shade and I’m looking at this snow and thinking it will be here until June.

Two Days of Snow On The Way

Well, I have kept the path cleared to my front door this winter and it hasn’t been easy. The plow guy pushes all the driveway stuff right up into the front of the house which means I have to shovel through that. Then the roof emptied it’s load onto the front steps and that was a heavy bunch of stuff to shovel. Now up to 2 feet of snow is expected over the next 2 days and I’m wondering how high I can pile the stuff and what will happen when the next batch falls off the roof?
Winter has come all at once to New Hampshire.

February Storm of 2010 Left us Without Power

Early Friday, Feb. 26 I woke up to a dark house. I’d had the wood stove going for a few days by then, so all I had to do was go down to the basement and throw more wood in. Thank goodness for a big stove that keeps burning all night long.
Then I went back to bed hoping for power in the morning. It came back on 3 days later – Sunday night at 5:00.

Cooking woodstove — Cooking on the wood stove

I heated food on the wood stove – anything left over or thawing out that needed to be eaten – and spent most of my time lugging buckets of snow downstairs to melt for washing dishes and flushing the toilet. We have a well which won’t work without electricity. I could use just whatever water was left in the holding tank once the power went out, then no more.
Fortunately we’d had a bunch of snow so I had all the “non-drinking” water I needed.

playing in snow — The kids had to play outdoors – yay!

The kids found things to do to keep their minds off the fact that they couldn’t play video games or go on the computer and the dog was having fun too. We all got a lot more fresh air than usual.

I took the camera when we walked up the road to give some cornbread to an elderly neighbor. The snowy scene made a perfect photo. Besides calling the power company to get updates, there was not much to do other than the basics of survival. Being “powerless” gives us all a good idea of how life was for our ancestors and we all agree that we would not have wanted to be them!

food and grill in snow — My outdoor kitchen

Then I dug through my “outdoor refrigerator” to find the thawing chicken and marinated it for cooking on the grill.
In fact, I have lots of food to cook and my freezer is now bare.
In December 2008 I went without power for 8 days when the ice storm hit and had no way to keep warm. My goal was to have a wood stove for just such emergencies, so I am thankful that we could stay warm.