Frozen, Not the Musical

 This snow pile made by the generous man with the plow seems to have shrunk under its own weight.  It started out at least 6' tall.

 It has been too cold for salt to work properly.

Sand and gravel have been the only options for improving traction. 

We only have three bags of salt left.  Somehow I doubt there will be any more in stock at the store.  Just for giggles, I looked up what Amazon prime charges for a 50# bag of salt.  I wonder if anyone is desperate enough to pay that?

 The temperature dropped so quickly that the water froze as it flowed.  It almost looks like a solidified lava flow.

Thankfully, this one will melt, eventually.

 Drainage to the street, sort of.

Joe's house grows serious icicles.

The next batch of snow came a day earlier than predicted.

This time it was fluffy.

Sorry, no more pictures yet.

Big Crash

Please pray for all the people affected by this horrible accident.

HWY 41 Pileup

Who Was that Nice Man

driving the pickup truck with the plow on the front?

The city snowplow went through after hubby left for work.  I was chipping away at the ice blocking the drainage in the street in the hope that the water would run down the storm sewer drain and out of the slush.  I was hoping that the slush pile at the end of my driveway would become lighter.  This helpful fella came along and shoved the slush up my driveway and dumped it along the west side.  This was no small feat because the snow pile there was already 4' tall and rather settled in its ways.  I might owe the neighbors a new clothesline pole come springtime.  I would probably still be outside shoveling if it weren't for him and his lovely truck.  I should have given him some gas money.  He kept going back and forth between me and the house though, and I didn't want to become a casualty of a snowplow.

The only downside is that all the slush dribbled water all over the driveway, where it promptly froze.  You guessed it; it is all icy again.  But hey, life is full of compromises, and you should never kick a gift horse in the teeth.

The snowbank on the west side of the driveway is now around 6' tall in places, and we have west winds gusting to 50 mph tonight.  It should be interesting to see how big the snowdrift is in the morning.  We're running out of places to put the snow.  And it is going to snow again on Wed. with no melting temperatures in sight.  Will a snowblower throw snow higher and farther if you feed it nitrous oxide, or will it just blow up?  We're getting to the point of contemplating shoving any new snowfall down the sidewalk and burying the apple tree, which would make for an interesting looking tree once the rabbits were done snacking.  Maybe there will be time to take pictures tomorrow.

I ran out of energy before I could even get to dad's house.  Hopefully the city will forgive my tardiness in shoveling over there.  Technically, the 24 hour limit isn't up until about noon Monday; hopefully I can get his sidewalk shoveled in the morning or early afternoon.

Mr. Weatherman or Weather-woman

How can your predictions be so wrong, and yet you still keep your job?  Or was there a convenient loophole in the forecast?    Mixed precipitation Friday into Saturday (slush storm with ice crust on top). Followed by "less than .1" of ice accumulation overnight Saturday into Sunday.  Less than .25" of snow accumulation overnight."  You failed to mention how much of that precipitation would be in the liquid state!!  Yes, it is pouring, and there is no point in spreading salt until it stops raining.

I hate rain in the winter when the ground is frozen.  Guess I'll have to set the alarm for really early in the morning to go pump out the evening's water accumulation from dad's back yard before it floods his garage, switches back to snow, and then gets really cold.  Maybe we'll get lucky and the weather forecast will be wrong again, and it will fail to get down to -2 deg. F. during the day on Sunday.

There were so many other things that could have been done with today, especially visiting my cousin in the hospital again.  I hope she will still be there on Sunday, but cancer is no respecter of visiting hours and waiting to travel in safe road conditions.

And Richard Hammond

wasn't even driving it.

Snowplow Fire

Yes, It Is Still Winter

The yard before we started clearing the sidewalks and driveway.
There will be no need to prune the lower branches on the apple tree.  The rabbits will eat them.

The yard after clearing snow.

Note, hubby is around 5' 8".

Even if spring comes early, it is going to take a while to melt that 4'-5' snowbank that is sitting on top of the garden.  And then the ground has to thaw.

Oh, and yes, now we're getting the wrap around snow.

Gee, I wonder why I don't accomplish as much on the house in the winter as I would like?  Maybe it is because there isn't much time and energy left after all the shoveling is done.

Strange Formation

Perhaps as the icicle on the end grew, it changed the weight and balance of the ice piece on top and gradually tipped it down during afternoon thaws?  That would have been interesting to see in time lapse, purely as an experiment watching a center of gravity shift.  Watching ice melt can be somewhat exciting right now, only because after the last ice storm we have been waiting and waiting for the temperature to rise enough so that we can scrape the 1-2" of ice mixed with really crusty snow off the sidewalks without having to spend a fortune on low temperature ice melt.

Strange things happen outside when I'm not looking,

including the car shaped dent that appeared in the snowbank next to my driveway on Saturday.  At least they didn't slide into our driveway and hit the Element.  Someone probably took the corner too fast.  That's the thing about snowbanks; collisions sound more like a muffled "whump" rather than "crash".

Sorry, I didn't manage to take any pictures of the dent before it snowed again.

And yes, it is snowing again.  The forecast is estimating 10" of fresh snow from this storm.  Schools are canceled again.  At this rate, they might be making up classes into mid June.

At least it has warmed up enough that Ember doesn't have to wear boots for her walks outside.

She has gotten a little better at staying still while the boots are put on all four feet, but it is still a wrestling match.
Sweep her feet out from under her, flop her gently on her back, put the boots on the front paws, spin her around, and repeat with the rear paws.  Oh yes, and rub the tummy to reduce being kicked by the back feet.

Volatile, really?

Are the roads going to burst into flames?

https://www.wbay.com/content/news/Drivers-asked-to-be-prepared-before-heading-out-in-volatile-road-conditions-505331401.html

Please use the correct vocabulary word!