The snow has stopped!

For the second time this season,we have had more than a foot and a half of snow.  Just before Christmas we had 2 feet. Last night and today 20 inches fell.  there was wind and some drifting but Thank God,not what they were predicting, HOWEVER they also ONLY predicted 5-8 inches of snow for our area.  It is also bitter cold.  We keep missing out on the snow blowers in the home improvement stores,so we have decided to order one off line. Ron and Amanda worked like dogs with the shovels, and then 1 broke,so they had to take shifts. We do not live in a development,  so shoveling is a lot more than most families have to deal with. Our door is probably close to100' from the road and the driveway is wide and long.  They have to shovel from the door to both of the trucks, then to the street. THEN they have to shovel at least a path wide enough for a wheel barrow to our barn and the coop for the geese which is about 250' from the door.  We need to be able to get to firewood.  We have a large wood box by the door but of course we have to keep that filled.  Our splitter died,so, we are going to have to brake down and buy a cord of wood til we get it fixed. There is plenty of wood, but it all needs to be split, and we have already depleted what was.  Sadly,we are burning pallets and branches LOL.  I dealt with a great deal of pain in the left wrist and hand today (missing 3bones,some muscle  and ligaments,lots of arthritis and break down already happening...this was my on-the-job-injury)  The knees also,but the vicodin helped them,not so much the hand.  I made some inchies(pictures coming---I have to figure out how to make a slide show,so I can get some of my creations up here) and did some OWOH blog hopping,but no cooking or baking. I have some chronological photos of the snow  to share.

These first ones were from 4:30 this am,snowing quite heavily:

This is a maple tree with a rogue evergreen,outside our kitchen /porch entrance. I have taken a picture of this same evergreen as the day progresses so you can see the increase in snow.

 

Here(look hard) is my daughters truck about 50' away from the house next to one of our "medium sized" Fir trees...that boxy looking thing is our old wood stove, my hubby is slowly breaking down to take to the scrap yard. The first picture is zoomed in a little closer. 

Ok second batch of pictures is from about 7am.  what the little rogue evergreen.

Branches and ground slowly meeting :) still snow quite heavily. It started to dawn on me that I was getting snow on the lens,but dismissed my fear and kept snapping away...it is only my little Kodak Easy Share 4px.

Ok, this is Ron's truck backed up fairly close to the stoop, you can still see Amanda's truck.  It was so pretty,but no one was up and no shoveling done, so I really couldn't venture out,just standing on the door threshold.

This tree is about 20-25' tall, right next to front door, I am holding the camera vertically,and looking up at it. At one time people used to slow down to look at this tree at Christmas as it was always so full of white lights and beautiful, all the neighbors always complimented us on it. Alas, it just got too tall.  When we first moved in, in 1986 the tree was about 7'.

The kids xtra-lg swing set,still up,all that remains is the slide,2 seat-glider and the 4-seater glider.  The frame is of excellent quality, from Sears,and was guaranteed for 20 years,it is older than that, and no rust or anything. Every spring we discuss whether we shouldtake itdown ornot,and every spring, we say the samething,when we do sell the house,most likely it will be a family buying it ( it is a large house)  they may like that there is a good sturdy swing set cemented into the ground.  Of course,I can admit, that for me,there are just too many memories of laughter and the kids there,when I hang laundry out. (clothesline tree right next to it) I'd like to think, Ron  shares those same sentiments. His hand built sandbox still stands on the other side of the swing set, while this is showing breakdown and wear, he hasn't brought himself to demolish it either.

I am sorry they are  bit hard to see, the snow was blowing right at me, at the small crack in the sliding glass door off the den to take these pics.

These last pictures were taken a little after 1pm.

Here's that little rogue evergreen.

and Amanda's truck.   
and Ron's truck, partially cleared and shoveled away from.  I can actually stand on the stoop now. :)

This next picture is the bottom of our big Fir tree, followed by the same looking-up-shot.

 

Notice to the right of the first picture my wind chimes, and I want topoint out, that normally this view allows me to see to the street,not now though.  Oh,and as my daughter said to her boss when she called out due to the snow, "we have no road."  and we didn't until after 3:30pm.

Again here's 2 of the swing set and then one of our Beautiful Blue Spruces (behind the sand box)  There are 3 of these in a row, again maybe 8' when we moved in, in 1986, now they are a towering 20'.  In the more distant pic, you can see the big maple tree my clothesline goes straight off the back from, right by the slide.  It is just shy of  50' long and is attached to a White Mulberry tree on the other end right in front of our huge garden.  The ladder on the right edge of the photo is part of a scaffolding that my husband has up...roofing the deck off our bedroom on the second floor. (I thought this would have been long done by now...but son moved out, and he has no help)

 

I hope you enjoyed my little snow tour of just a small fraction of our "front" yard.  I really hope to get more accomplished tomorrow,which is actually today. LOL :)