Suddenly Springlike

This weekend was full of first signs of spring.

The ducks came back to our pond, there were about 6 pairs out there at one time. The turkeys came back out in large groups, with the toms spreading their tail feathers and strutting around the hens.

I wore shorts outside for the first time.

Zach rediscovered his tree house.

I saw crocuses blooming and mums putting out green shoots.

We had our first springlike thunderstorm.

The snow was all gone and the ground smelled alive.

After: All Gone

I went for a walk in the park yesterday. The first of the year. Most of the snow was gone. I found two little piles on the walk, which I'm sure are gone by now.

I can't believe how fast all that snow melted away. Even the ice on the ponds was disappearing so quickly that it's probably all gone today and was hard to find yesterday.

Before: Huge Mounds of Snow

I had a friendly argument with a guy at work. I told him that the mounds of snow would be around until March. It sure seemed like it to me. He said they would be gone in a week, which seemed unlikely. The real answer was about half way in between. The mounds were mostly gone yesterday, the 19th.

Once the melt got going and bare ground started showing through, you could understand a little better about how the snow was deposited. Since it was blowing 30 to 40 mph when it was coming down, it drifted badly. However, the drifting was less obvious then the scouring. Most trees and many other things sticking up from the ground had cleared rings around their bases. The only explanation I can think of is that the wind had to accelerate to get around the trees, but I'm not sure about that. I did notice that the cedar behind the barn and the benches around the fire pit were scoured out too, which makes me think that the wind was constricted under them and blew the snow away. Then there were big stretches out in the open that didn't get very much snow at all. It was a strange storm.

Snow Tracks

We had hard snow on February 2nd & 3rd, and by the 12th it was starting to melt away. I got out and looked at the turkey and deer tracks before the snow was gone. Snow makes an excellent record of where the animals go.

There was a huge turkey highway in the front yard, about 20' wide and consistent, like a flowing river. There was also two other paths wrapping around the house and several distinct tracks in the deep snow on the north side of the barn.

Cuppy is posing on the bench and you can see the pathway between the house and the barn that I shovelled during the worst of the storm. Even with that help, I didn't see the cats for almost two days.

Ground Hog's Day Blizzard

It was supposed to be one for the record books, the storm was being advertised by the weather channel with some of the most dire warnings I've ever heard.

We got 10" to 12" of snow, blown in over the course of a full day with 40 mph winds. The wind shreaded the snow flakes into fine crystals that packed in and were heavy, like blocks of ice. The wind caused drifts to vary from 2' deep to 4" deep on the driveway.

Andrea stayed at the hospital, sleeping in an empty patient room so she would be able to get to work. I missed a day and a half of work and spent 6 hours shovelling, only to get about a quarter of the driveway cleared. Fortunately, a guy came down the street with a frontloader, offering to shovel drives at black market rates. Without his help, we would have been stuck for another couple of days.

The temperature hovered around 0°F for about 3 days, and the wind continued around 10 to 15 mph most of that time.

It was a good time to stay inside, take some Advil, and drink Hot Chocolate.

Cuppy Blue

Cuppy was not happy about the extended cold spell and excessive snow. We kept her inside much of the time, and she would sit in the window, pining for better days of running in the yard.

Yukon Zach

In his special winter head gear, Zach takes to the yard to rough it while eating his meager explorer rations.

Nick's 16th

We went to Skies rooftop rotating restaurant at the Hyatt to celebrate Nick's 16th birthday.

Zach was in high form, hamming it up and slamming out solutions with the cube.

Hanging with Daddy

Sometimes we just hang out.

Interpretive Dance

Here's another one (I know you're seeing these in reverse order, so look at the next post and you'll know what I'm talking about).

In this one, an intricate oscillating hand motion is perfectly matching the music. Zach believes it expresses the angst that the composer felt and the constrictions and confines of Victorian society on the social mores of the time. Or it might have something to do with Zeitgeist, whatever that is.

Dance Zachy Dance!

We got a little electronic keyboard which has some demo songs on it. Zach apparently thinks that Mom's sewing mat is a dance pad. Here he is trying out his dance moves on his little dance floor. Watch out ladies, he's going to be breaking a few hearts when he gets these moves perfected.

Sled Video Action

Andrea captured Zach's sledding adventures in video!

Break out the Sled

We finally got out Zach's plastic sled and put it to good use.

He had a blast.

Surveying the Morning Turkey Tracks

Zach and I went up and down the driveway, seeing if the turkeys were able to get to the corn we had set out for them and whether we needed to spread some more.

He was looking particularly spiffy and was in a really good mood, so I had to record the incident.

Laser Light Show

I'm not sure what I expected when I took my green laser to look at a Quadro with a tolerance issue. Maybe the problem would magically make itself clear under the illuminating light of the laser.

It did look cool, though.

Solar Lights

The next door neighbors, with whom we share their driveway, put little solar powered lights around the turn from the street to the drive. Then Christmas time came and they put up some really fancy Christmas light bulb looking lights around the drive.

Then the snow came and they were promptly buried. Here they are, just visible above the snow. The little solar panel got buried and they did not work anymore.

That's one heck of a large mound of snow shovelled off the street and off the driveway. If it wasn't so loose, we could make an igloo out of it.

Cracked Corn for the Turkeys & Deer

We could really see in the snow all the animal tracks, and we discovered a few days after the snow fell that our yard is an huge animal highway.

Then we skewed the results of the nature track study by making a little yellow snow. This is not the bad kind that you don't want in your snow ice cream, but the good kind for cold climate critters with lots of cracked corn.

Snow Fog

Most of the time, when it's cold, there is no moisture in the air. With the moist front that came in, one morning we got this strange snow fog. It was eerie and beautiful.

Sled Hill Lives!

The kids were loving their days off from school so Mom could haul them across the too-treacherous-for-school roads in order to go up and down Sled Hill.