1300 miles of snow!

OK, I confess. Our storm wasn’t as good as this, but . . . I’d give it an 8/10.

It was the perfect time, the perfect amount!

In the wee hours of Friday night while we slept, light snow began to fall. It quickly picked up intensity and snowflake size as Saturday rolled in. Throughout the day we had that picturesque scene from every Hallmark Christmas movie. Big white flakes falling thickly outside while we gathered by the windows inside. There were no worries; we were safe at home, warm and together. We could enjoy it without the stress of driving in it or getting to work or school on time. It hit at the perfect time.

This particular snowstorm system was one of the largest I could remember in a long time. It stretched 1300 miles west to east, snowing from Colorado to Pennsylvania, all at the same time. What a marvelous weather phenomenon! Who else can orchestrate something that big, but God! Were you in its path, too? Fortunate for us, our county was one of the heavier hit areas. Though we heard of deeper accumulations such as 12″ in parts of Missouri, we got 8 -9″ in our yard. I know many of you may not consider that “fortunate,” but my belief is the more the better. If I’m going to deal with snow, why waste my time with 1 inch when I can have a lot more fun with 8 inches!

Hang on, kids!!

And fun we did have! My adult children and grandchildren all came over Sunday afternoon for hours of tractor-sledding. What’s that you might ask? Though we live on a 200′ hilltop, the slopes are mostly covered in trees. The one route to descend is just not safe for sledding. It’s very steep, there are turns to negotiate and the bottom ends abruptly in a county road. So we use our three acre front yard as a place to use the tractor to tow 3 sleds at a time. My husband and adult son have created a step up from just towing. They are particularly good at doing NASCAR-like circles with the tractor at what seem like NASCAR speeds. They literally fling the sleds in a centrifugal motion. The trick for the sledders is to HANG ON!

Eight inches of snow became especially fun because the riders also had to be ready for deep tractor tracks that suddenly bumped them 6″ in the air! A lot of participants got left behind on those airborne maneuvers! Though the driver tries to keep everyone at a safe distance from obstacles, his own circumference of motion is much smaller than the sleds’ trajectory. Occasionally he misjudged and a tree or a wood raised bed or even the dog was looming up in the way! WATCH OUT!!!

Is there anything whiter than snow?

Snow is so refreshing, so clean, so pure white. No wonder God uses it to describe how He washes our sin into His righteousness. I don’t think we will ever fully understand that transformation, but we get a taste of it through snow.

Speaking of a taste of snow, my 2 year old grandson decided to eat a snowball while waiting for his turn to sled. He said it tasted like ice cream! Have you ever poured maple syrup over a scoop of snow? I’ve heard slightly heated caramel ice cream topping is good too.

I was so proud of all the grandkids. Sledding is cold, snow flies in your face, and crashes happen, but they all showed great courage and enjoyed it for the experience. I hope it was a memory they will cherish long into their lifetime.

Wilderness survival

Did you know eating snow in a survival situation is bad? If you can’t find flowing water and you are in a cold winter environment trying to survive the elements, eating snow should be a last resort. Melting the snow into liquid water not only hydrates you better, but it won’t lower your core temperature and raise your risk of hypothermia. However, there is an exception. If you are exerting hard, maybe hiking mountain terrain in deep snow to get to civilization, then eating snow to stay hydrated is better than nothing and the lower core body temperature is helping you sweat less.

A Bob Ross painting?

I was always amazed when Bob Ross (a PBS TV show) dabbled his brush loaded with white paint onto a dark looking tree. It was such a shocking difference in color that it seemed too much contrast and out of place at first. But as he kept adding the white to the branches, the tree or bushes transformed into a believable winter scene and of course, at the end, he had a gorgeous masterpiece! The above photo reminds me of Bob Ross and his eye for believable.

Here’s our barn cupola wearing a kingly cape of snow. When my husband built the barn, my only comment in the design was that it have a cupola with a wind vane. It was all worth it on a day like this!

Hoarfrost too?

The day after the storm, we awoke to fog everywhere. And the temperature being in the teens, it froze to the trees, especially the pine needles. It’s above my pay grade to know the difference between hoarfrost and frost but I think it has something to do with the temperature of the object. With frost, the object is below freezing while in hoarfrost the object is at or above freezing. Anyone know if this is right? I’ll have to get my meteorology and atmospheric scientist friend, Josiah M. to comment below. Hoarfrost is basically dew or fog vapor that has frozen into ice crystals smaller than snowflakes.

My winter visitor

We have lots of woodpeckers come to the feeders year round. Downeys, Hairy’s, Northern Flickers, Pileated’s, Red-bellied, and an occasional Red-headed. But this male is a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and is technically suppose to be migrating through. Joyfully for me, his “migration” from Canada to the warmer Southeastern US is pretty slow because for the last 2 winters he’s camped out here all winter! We did have a milder winter than usual last winter so maybe he thought why go all the way to AL or FL when he can set up winter camp here.

Birds are so saavy. If a cold spell is coming, they sense it ahead of time and high-tail it down to warmer climates (my intentional pun just for my special friends, Tom and Dan 🙂 Today this sapsucker has been at the suet ALL day so I guess he likes the Golden Corral bird buffet. Normally they drill small holes in trees for sap while also eating insects they find. Not much of either of those available this time of year here.

Make it count.

I hope you are looking for adventure in whatever situation of life you are in, whether it’s a snowstorm or a college class on Econ (love you, daughter!). You never know what tomorrow brings. Two 1st cousins of mine passed away unexpectedly this past week. It reminded me that our days are numbered and to make each one count.

Oliver is asking to go for our evening walk, so I’ll sign off. Another storm coming in a few days! Catch you guys later!

Carolyn