Oh My Aching Back! Part 2

Welcome back to my snowy existence.  I last left you in the middle of January following a major snowstorm measuring a 10 on the fatigue scale.  Our town and surrounding area has been in the "sweet" spot for snow.  We've received much more snow than the rest of the state and many more inches than the area where the official snow amounts are recorded for the state.  Aren't we lucky!  I'm praying that the people praying for snow stop.

We've been raking the snow off our roof with a homemade roof rake created from a hoe and a piece of plywood.  My husband wanted to have greater reach in order to remove more snow so we decided to purchase a roof rake with extensions.  The day we went out to purchase our rake, there was an article in the paper about the need to clear snow off roofs and we knew there would be a run on roof rakes.  Luckily we were up early and hot footed it to the store to pick up our rake before most people had read the article.  The rake sure makes the job much easier.  We still need to get the ladder out for the majority of the house, however, my husband can get much more of the snow off the roof and he can get the snow off the family room without the ladder by just standing on the snow banks.

Because of the weather conditions over the last month, we have significant ice dams on our roof that really worry my husband even with us raking the roof.  He did some research and found an intervention that would help create paths through the ice dams for the snow melt from the roof.  We filled pantyhose with ice melt and positioned them perpendicular to the ice dams along the roof line.  They did there job and created breaks in the dam to allow routes for the melting.

Here's a picture of our pantyhose remedy.  Notice the breaks in the ice dams where the pantyhose are hanging.

Two weeks ago and one week after the whopper storm, we were hit again.  This time we received 18 inches of snow.  It's to the point that we are running out of places to put the snow and the piles are just growing higher.  Not only do we have piles from clearing out all the pathways, but we have piles from raking the roof.  Right now the only good thing I see with these snowstorms is that I'm getting lots of exercise and 20 degrees doesn't seem that cold anymore.  I laugh at myself because we comment on how warm it is when the sun is shining and the temperature reaches 32 degrees.

It's funny, as you look across the yard where the snow hasn't been disturbed it doesn't appear that there's all that much snow on the ground.  However, as you take a closer look you realize that the snow is over the top of the fence and that the bird feeders look like they are just hanging a few inches from the ground.  It's very deceiving at first glance.  When looking down from the second floor of the house, the yard reminds me of the canyon lands out west because of all of the paths we've shoveled.

Here's a picture looking down at our bird feeders before we shoveled the area after this particular snowstorm.  Believe it or not, there is a squirrel and raised ground feeder at the foot of the feeder pole that stand about 12 inches above the ground.  You can't even see them in this picture because of the snow depth.

Here's a picture looking across our backyard.  It doesn't look that deep, but there is over four feet of snow depth.  You can't see them in the picture, but there are several animal tracks in the snow.

Here's a closer look at one of the sets of tracks.  These are from a fox.

The animals all head for the paths we have dug through the snow.  This fox went to my bird feeder path and then down our driveway.

Our next big snow hit last week.  We received 16 inches of snow from this one and this doesn't include the 8 inches we received from two smaller snowstorms that occurred between this large storm and the one the week before.  I've been shoveling everyday.  No need for this girl to go to the gym to exercise right now!


Here are a few pictures following this snowstorm.

 

The last couple of pictures were taken before the sun came out.  We spent hours shoveling, but at least the snow was light.  We've been lucky that all of the storms through January have not been wet and heavy.  Also, we've only lost the power once for about 5 hours during the night when we were nice and toasty in our bed.

Yesterday we began cleaning up after a 36 hour storm that sent snow, sleet, and ice our way.  We dodged a bullet in our area because we only got about 6 inches and very little icing.  I have to say though that this snow was many times heavier than the previous 16 inches.  My arms are fatigued from slinging this stuff over the tall snow banks.

Today since the sun is out, I'm going out and knock back some of the snow banks so that we and the snow thrower can get snow over them.  We have another snowstorm predicted for the upcoming weekend and we need places to throw it.

Right now the state is about 25 inches from making a historical record in snowfall for the season and at this rate we're going to beat this record by a mile since we're only halfway through the season.  We currently have a greater snow depth than any other state in New England including the Green Mountains of VT and the White Mountains of NH.  Our news reports these days are dominated by the various structure collapses from the snow build up and the ongoing snow removal efforts.  The lines for snow rakes look like the lines for Black Friday. 

I hope you enjoyed my pictures.  I've been making cards as time permits and will be back later today with a post on one of my finished cards.  I'm going to get back to my crafting with a vengeance.

 

Thank you for visiting and I hope you come back soon!

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