Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Aftermath

Well Friday we got 10" of snow. Saturday just 3". Sunday we got 8" before we quit shoveling (above photo is from Sunday). When we woke up Monday we had another 5" on the ground. All in all that would be 26" of snow. Not far from us they had a lot less. I think our micro climate on the top of the hill added maybe 8" to our totals. Right now I'm grumbling about it, but I'll love the micro climate in the spring when our spring frosts end so much earlier than the rest of the area - provided of course that I can find the soil in the spring under all this snow.

Today it is all packed down on the ground to about a foot and a half except where it drifted. The worst of the "drifting" was in my garden. We decided it was prudent to shovel our roof. A lot of that ends up in my garden. So on my herb garden is a 3' pile of snow. I can't figure out if that is good for it or not. I know the snow cover is good. But throwing the snow off the roof compacts the snow terribly. I wonder if the poor plants will suffocate under there. Time will tell. Maybe this will be the year that my Hill Hardy rosemary survives.

9 comments:

  1. That's really pretty! But it's making me cold just looking at it. Do you get that much snow very often?

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  2. Snow seems to be the word of the day on all the northern blog-a White Christmas for sure! Merry Christmas to you and yours!

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  3. 26" YIKES! You have my sympathy! It is pretty but so is 5" :-) Good call on shoveling the roof, I hear we are headed for more weather whiplash, with Sunday temps in the upper 40s (maybe 50 down your way south) and possible rain, ugh.

    I've got to clean the hoophouse off today, and then take a look inside, but it is COLD, just 15°F with a slight breeze.

    Happy Holidays!
    Ali

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  4. That is a very picturesque image. We ended up with 12" from the big storm and another 3" over the weekend. I am glade we did not end up with 26", that would take a long time to clear.

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  5. Michelle: We usually get this much snow at once about every 4 years maybe. Sometimes it slowly piles up, but most of our snowstorms are in the 3-6" range with rain at the end to wash it away. Last year we also got hit hard in December. We had three storms hit within a couple of weeks right before Christmas and ended up with about what we have now. So the storm was uncommon, but not really unheard of.

    Tina: I noticed all the snow posts - on both coasts too.

    Ali: 5" sounds good. Even one foot seems ok. With over 2 feet my shoulders still hurt from all the shoveling.

    Dan: Luckily the kids were back. My son especially is a pretty good shoveler. He didn't get home until Saturday, but the Friday storm was light puffy snow and no big deal. The Sunday storm was very heavy wet snow. But with four people it goes much faster.

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  6. I don't think I've ever seen that much snow in real life! We don't usually get snow like that in the Missouri. It is snowing here right now, but nothing like that. Here, a few inches closes schools and shuts down parts of the city. We don't handle it very well I suppose.

    I hope your rosemary survives.

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  7. That sure is a pile of snow! We only got 10" but that brought the entire city to a standstill. Things are still not back to normal. We've even had a bunch of roof collapses since people here just aren't used to snow--doesn't occur to anyone to shovel off their roof or shovel their front walks. I heard it was only our 10th white Christmas since 1880s.
    --Curmudgeon

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  8. Jennifer: Well I grew up in Colorado so I've seen lots more snow. Maybe someday I'll move south and quit having to shovel. Sadly for the rosemary we will be above 40 for the next three days and 60 on Sunday. So the snow may all disappear. This is so typical for the Boston area - snow storms that melt out fast. It's not that great for the plants.

    Wow roof collapses with just 10". Y'all really aren't used to snow - not even the builders. Hmm do people even own shovels in Seattle?

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  9. Yes, quite a storm. We had our unfair share of snow too though for us it is only a slight variation of the norm. Normally we are covered in mole hills of snow now it's back to mountains like our near record breaking amounts last year.

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