Enough Already!
So this is quickly rounding into form as the snowiest winter of my adulthood. Though I’ve yet to add up the cumulative snowfall here, I would guess that after the 18 to 20 inches we got yesterday and today that we’ve got to be at 5’+ at this point for the year and February is just getting revved up.
It’s funny but Vermont definitely seems to be a place that has its little micro snow-belts. When I was a kid growing up in South Woodstock (@ 20 miles north of here) it was not uncommon to have this much snow or more on the ground every year nor for it to stay on the ground well into the first part of April even. The town we’re in now though, Weathersfield (Perkinsville is a village within Weathersfield), and particularly this southern slope of Mt. Ascutney, has typically not been a very snowy spot. Which means that if we have a lot on the ground already, then others in the area must be getting really wailed on.
On the plus side for all of us I came across a wire story that said Punxsutawney Phil had predicted an early spring today! Here’s hoping. We went out to check on the stud barn this morning and even the big tough machos had been cowering inside since last night some time, with not a track to be seen outside in the fluffy white stuff. That barn is thankfully nestled into a little hollow and is therefore protected from the prevailing NW wind that tends to rip off the top of the mountain. The big boys were really just playing the hand that was dealt to them. They may behave like nit-wits at times but that doesn’t mean they’re stupid after all.
In the case of the Main Barn and the Arena, which are far more exposed, we had to lock in the north side of each building late yesterday so that they wouldn’t become wind and snow tunnels overnight. It’s always kind of neat visiting those barns on nights like that, and especially the Arena where 150+/- animals are housed, seeing all the alpacas comfortably bedded down and cozy while the storm shrieks outside. In any case the Toolcat and it’s plow certainly had a full day today and it would be nice, snow days with my kids not withstanding, if we didn’t have too many more like it. Ah, winter in New England.
Same here, though we probably have 3-3.5ft on the ground now with ever expanding snow drifts. Even if we wanted to we couldn’t let the alpacas out, due to the snow we’ve been shoveling off the barn roof! The skid steer, big tractor & Fransgard snow thrower, little tractor with bucket, Kubota RTV and friend’s snow plow have been VERY busy here.
When I commented today to the UPS man that he made up the drive again he did mention that it was certainly getting narrower. Tomorrow supposd to be sunny and, well not really warm, but at least not below zero, so I guess it’s time to fire up the tractor and spend a few hours widening the way into the house. Oh yeah!!!! I get some tractor time!
And how bad it is with polar bears? With the polar circle going down to Vermont you can expect bad encounters pretty soon. i hope you will all be safe…By the way, even in deep South of NY state this winter is quite interesting with snow and/or ice coming down regularly.
As a little story, I left for Brazil (i passed 2 weeks there for work) in the middle of a snowstorm and after a 1 &1/2 hour to de-ice the plane we take off; more exactly we try to take off : The plane had one engine shutdown at (very) few seconds of taking off, in the middle of the acceleration…….Nasty! Thanks God we just had to change plane and left (still under the same snowstorm) 7 hours late on the schedule….Winter is not a boring time!