Fizzle?

Is it me, or are the trees getting a bit fuzzy?

We had a skiff of snow Thursday night.  Enough to put a light white layer on things until about 10 AM.  There were all sorts of dire warnings about sleet and freezing rain, which I was just as glad not to see materialize. 

It was pretty, but not enough to settle the dust on the road. 

It wasn't even that cold.  But it was supposed to be just a preview.

The weather service has been building up winter storm Virgil for the last week.  Severe winter weather alerts have had the cats going puffy and staring at the weather radio, radio announcers have been warning everyone to stock up and stay home, events and what-not have been canceled for the weekend, the county's had the roads chlorided (or whatever that spray stuff is they put down) since Thursday....  And what do I see when I look out this morning?  A few measly flakes.  

Well, okay - it was coming down pretty good when I went out to feed this morning, but not sticking much. and the temps were still in the low 30's.  The radio's still yelling about 6-10" and northwest winds gusting to 30 mph by evening, but the Weather Channel says 1-3"... well, "Today" says 1-3" - the Winter Weather Warning says 3-5", but the future cast radar thingy makes it look like it's going to miss us to the north.

Whatever.  I'm declaring an inside day and catching up on the vacuuming.

Snow D(el)ays

Listening to the radio Wednesday-Friday was less music and more a litany of closures.  We ended up getting about 18", which is fabulous.  Weather service says we got just over 1" of moisture.  And since the ground wasn't frozen pre-fall, it's soaking in nicely.

Although waking up Friday morning to 4' was a bit of a shock.

Friday a.m. : 4'F and sparkly

We didn't bother trying to get anything cleared until Friday.  It didn't stop snowing and blowing until late Thursday night, and the county didn't get the road plowed until sometime Friday afternoon anyway.  Thursday afternoon the snow was knee deep for a 1/4 mile in both directions.  Although once you got to the top of the hill in the wind, it was probably only 8 or 9". 

I know this because T called the cow neighbors and the horse neighbors Wednesday night to let them know that a) we'd water the cows, and b) if the road was impassible, we'd walk up and check on the horses and make sure they had water.  The cows were no big deal, but the horses required a 3/4 mile slog up the hill.

Knee-deep, but oh so pretty

Snowshoes would have been helpful.  But we made it and got the ice busted in the tank.  They have a round bale, so other than that they were good.  The gray mare was uninterested in visiting, but the sorrel gelding would have happily had us stay and scritch indefinitely.

They could hardly contain their excitement - lol!

By the time we got back the wind had switched and the flakes were getting bigger.  The horses were bouncing around, kicking up big puffs of it.

Snow ponies

Cat 1 attempted to venture out of the granary for his evening visit while I hayed the horses, took one leap, and sunk up to his ears.

See the ears? Not a happy cat.

He was very quick to return to shallower ground inside, and spent the next 15 minutes complaining at me from there.

Clearing the driveway Friday morning was entertaining from a spectator's standpoint.  Not so much - or at least less frequently - from T's.  I shoveled the front while T did battle with the driveway drifts in the bobcat.  The temps and the consistency of the snow made it really slick.  That blue cast to things is probably not entirely from the snow... I sweated more, but he did more cussing.  Never a good sign when I can hear him although way up the hill over the engine! 

At one point I thought he was going to take out either the fence or clip a power pole, but he's handier than I am, and all and sundry made it through unscathed.  Midway through, the cow neighbors appeared with their bobcat/blade and between them they got things cleaned up double time. 

Saturday warmed up considerably.  I did outside stuff to the tune of dripping and snow sliding and thumping off of tin roofs.

Snow calving off the granary roof

And I took my turn in the bobcat, cleaning out the turnaround at the mailbox.  At 32', the snow was getting heavy and wet, and the tires had a lot more traction.   I was very pleased not to be dealing with the slide factor!

They're predicting we might get another 8-12" over the next two days.  Woo-hoo!   

I don't think he wanted his picture taken...

Fall, Meet Winter - aka "Hello, Blizzard!"

Talk about dramatic weather changes!


What you can't see in the pictures is the temperature difference - not to mention the multiple extra layers I had on Saturday!

Friday afternoon we had 40's - yesterday we saw single digits and wind gusts to 47 mph. And snow - not lots, fortunately, but less than an inch of snow was still enough to leave a 2 1/2' drift across our front walk and have the plows running non-stop to keep the emergency routes clear.

Thankfully in the country the roads were much better. The snow stopped by late afternoon, and we headed out to make sure the horses were weathering things okay.

With the wind out of the north, they have the shelterbelt to serve as a windbreak, and were tucked in contentedly at their bale.

Can it just be spring now?

(wails)
I wanna complain about MUD now!

I gambled on a trip home this weekend. It's never good when it rains in SD in January. Which is what it did on and off from Wednesday until Saturday last week. Thankfully, it was warmer than predicted, and what Mitchell got was, for the most part, spitting wet and almost no wind - not enough to soak the horses through, and not really raw.

They weren't cold, or at least they didn't seem to be. And with plenty of hay and a windbreak they weathered that portion of the week just fine.

But unfortunately my gamble didn't pay off. By Sunday we'd had about an inch of fluffy new snow. Marginal, you say? Oh, but that inch of snow hasn't actually hit the ground yet. It's rampaging its way around the eastern end of the state. Visibility is somewhere between an 8th and 1/4 mile - sometimes under. The road underneath may be dry, but seeing where the road is, now there's the challenge.

So I'm working from home today. I had a web meeting via Skype (kind of cool, actually) and cleaned up cat yak in between updating library resource guides. H didn't have school today either, but she hibernated until one of her friends called about 10 minutes ago. Lucky her!

The horses got extra hay last night (and they will again tonight) and they're sheltered from the worst of the wind, so with the temperature staying in the 20's they're in good shape for now. And tomorrow is supposed to be better. I hope so!