It hardly ever snows in the Mush...

Here we are, same Bat time, same Bat channel
as last year.


Chris on the walk home from the neighbor's
house. Notice the head lamp, courtesy of
LL Bean's shop.


The morning after the snowfall. Good thing
we moved the car down the hill this year. Live
and learn they say. No power outage this year,
but we made sure the solar batteries were on
"Full charge" this year. Chris also put some
spare water in jugs and we had our weather
alert channel on. We have learned to control
the heat in the house better as well, with the
radiant floor heat, the furnace and the wood
stove. Here's to staying warm and a mild
winter!!

Photos from the country

Well, the water heater guy came out this weekend.
The good news is the tank is no longer leaking
and is running just fine. On the other hand,
the brand new water valve ($330) fit just
great, but didn't work. So, in a last ditch effort
the Plumber (Tom) put the old valve together
with a piece of the new valve. The plumber is
going to call Bosch to see if there is something
we can do to rectify the old/new combo.

And it just so happens that we are extremely
grateful the hot water is up and running as we
got 6 inches of snow this weekend...


The birds didn't seem to mind too much, of
course we also just topped off their bird feeder.

Cutting and Removing....

Couldn't wait to long to post some more...
Here I am with my handy Stihl chainsaw,
outfitted of course with my stylish bright,
orange hard hat. I managed to cut some of
this oak wood up for next season's wood for
our wood stove. Still lots more to go on this
tree and others though.


And here is the huge burn pile I, along with
my neighbors, have been putting together
for a rainy day. Nice to have friendly neighbors,
even better when they have a nice big truck
to haul debris in. This was a huge time saver!

Blizzard of 09'

Well, it is official, we were caught

in the Blizzard of 09'. We lost power

early in the afternoon on Friday,

18 Dec and we were expected to get

snowfall above the foot mark. Here

it is in the wee hours of Saturday,

19 Dec after a sleepless night of

keeping the wood stove going and

the ever present "CRACKING" of

nearby trees.

Morning of 19 Dec, notice anything different

about our landscape?


Here I am inspecting the first fallen tree of

the blizzard. Oh yes, if your eyes wander up the

photo, you will see a few extra fell during the

night.

Well, time to wander down the drive to inspect

the rest of the property....

Hmm, the old woodshop looks different...

Looking up the driveway, no it is not an optical

illusion...trees galore. And I might mention,

not in their normal vertical planes.

This monster just missed the power lines.

To be continued....

Snow, we don't get much snow around these parts...

Back in 93' when we bought some land in Western
North Carolina, folks told us that they didn't get
much snow in the hills. Well, we learned this past
week that it can snow a lot in the hills! And, oh
by the way, they had a major blizzard in 93! We
can't really be too upset, I mean 16 years between
major snowfalls is an acceptable time period for
your average bear. Speaking of bears, we continue to be
entertained by bear, snake, panther, coyote,
bobcat and mountain lion sighting stories by our
neighbors. I think this is a "welcome to the hills"
ritual, and not an intentional attempt to scare the
bejesus out of Chris, which by the way is working.
One of these days it will be our turn to initiate an
incoming city slicker....ha ha, but oh wait...that
means we ourselves will have to encounter these
wild things, might have to think about that one
for awhile.

Anyway, back to the point of this blog...SNOW.
Here's an early shot of the gently falling snow.
Weather report was calling for 4-8 inches, no
worries, maybe we will be able to try out our
hill for sledding.

Later in the day, I'd say about the 2 inch mark.

Hey, let's go outside and enjoy the snow. Look
who's here....It is Jackie boy!


Well, after a round or six hundred of "go fetch",
it is time to come inside for a cup of hot tea.
A little later in the day we notice the bamboo
forests is sagging quite a bit...hum, should we
be worried, nah it will bounce back.

A quick look at the bird feeder, worry now?
The cardinal doesn't appear to have any signs
"oh crap", time to head south look in his eyes,
why should we care? Accumulation rapidly
increasing and it is a wet, heavy snow.

TIMBER, first casualty of the day. At this point
Chris witnesses the first tree fall. Where's Ron?
Oh yeah, he is down at the bamboo patch trying
to shake loose some of the snowfall from the trees.
Better ring the bell, call out the cavalry. Honey,
come home! Of course, selective hearing came in to
play or is that just old age...anyway I didn't hear
the calls to come home.



Not to fret, I did make it home without
a limb or whole frickin tree falling on
my noggin. Sure is looking nice in the
picture, but we are now starting to get
a little concerned about the accumulating
snow and the threat of falling objects.

Oh yes, and the bamboo forest I was trying to
save, well it is not looking so hot at this point.

More to follow....Or more appropriately,

more snow to follow.