It snowed, seriously?!
Had to shovel, just in case the trick-or-treaters actually show.
This reminds me way too much of 1979 when mom and I cleared the driveway of snow and leaves by making leafy snow cylinders, or leafy, dirty sleeping snowmen. They were too big and heavy to stack. Everybody is saying it is going to be cold and dry because of El Nino, but the evidence is pointing to cold and wet so far.
First, park several thousand airplanes at the Whitman airport for the EAA convention. Watch the weather forecast fill with scattered rain showers. Watch the radar as the rain clouds aim for Oshkosh.
It would be interesting to know if all the airplanes flying around somehow manage to seed storm clouds, or if this phenomenon is just a classic example of Murphy's law.
It would be nice if we had more than one day of clean air. Last week for 5 days the winds blew ozone North from Milwaukee, Chicagoland, and possibly from Gary. Yesterday we had one day without an air quality advisory. Now the winds are blowing smoke down from Canada's wildfires in Quebec. I hope the Canadians can get those fires under control soon; they've been burning for at least a month now. It would be really nice if the weather pattern went back to a bit more normal with weather patterns blowing from west to east.
On the garden front, things are progressing more slowly than I'd like. The compost bin needed to be relocated again, primarily because the last 3 years it was receiving grass clippings from my yard and the neighbor lady's yard and it was getting full. Celia passed away last year, and the new owner has started mowing his own yard after being reminded that the city doesn't observe no mow May. Hopefully the compost bin can stay in its new location for a bit longer. Spreading the done compost is taking extra time, but the main garden has finally been tilled, composted, re-tilled and planted. The old fence was getting rusty, so a new one needs to be installed before the seeds start sprouting. The store still didn't have 2' tall chicken wire, so I had to go with 3' instead. Hopefully, it will be fairly simple to cut and fold down sections for entrances, because I'm short. The rest of the planting beds around the yard still need work, but at least most of the tomatoes have been planted. It would be nice to get some rain.
down a road frequented by white tail deer, do so with the radio cranked and the windows open. The expression on their faces as they walk away from the road rather than into traffic is priceless.
The snow stopped. Best guess, there was at least 8", probably more. It was difficult to tell with all the drifting. The snowblower auger drive belt has been replaced, and the snow overnight wasn't as sticky as the stuff from yesterday. Being able to use the snowblower in some places saved my back a little. It's time to get back to the chores that were set aside for a day to clear snow, lots of snow.
Precipitation is predicted again on Wed.-Thurs.; although they are predicting rain this time. That presents a different challenge involving a pump and 150' of hose at dad's house to keep the really big puddle that forms from overflowing into his garage.
I am looking forward to spring, when the ground thaws and the water soaks into it. Oh, and more variety in outdoor colors other than white, black, and brown would be nice. Spring will arrive eventually. This week a few foolish Robbins and a sassy Cardinal were spotted. The Robbins must be eating squishy crab apples, because there aren't any bugs or worms available yet.
Please!
It snowed two days ago, the wet heavy stuff. Heavy enough to snap the drive belt on the snowblower's auger. I think I found the correct replacement part at Fleet Farm yesterday, but I haven't had time to install it yet.
It doesn't really matter if the snowblower is working or not, because what is falling from the sky is more wet, packy snow. There's no point in hurrying to fix the snowblower, when I'll be using a shovel to clear this batch to avoid destroying another drive belt. Beginning to end (sometime tomorrow) the storm will probably have dumped 8-10" here.
On the plus side children all over town probably had a blast today making snowmen and sledding (if they could get to a hill).