A February Blizzard

February 20. 2014, the calm before the storm.  It was a beautiful sunny day.  Lindsay Nettell delivered 11 cords of firewood to us that morning.  He was trying to make as many firewood deliveries as possible that day because the forecasted storm would fill all his logging roads in the woods and he would be unable to get logs out for some time.

I thought the mat on our road would be hard enough to support a logging truck with no trouble, but the tires dug deep ruts, particularly at the end of the driveway.  Since we hadn't had a thaw all winter, the snow had just been compacted.  In a normal winter with several thaws, the mat would go through a couple of thaw/freeeze cyles and be much stronger.  Fortunately, Jonathan was able to blow away the broken snow with the tractor and remove the ruts...

....because the next day we got this.

A foot and a half of heavy, dense snow.

Blizzard?  No problem if you're properly dressed.

The sheep must be fed.

But first I had to dig out the drift in front of the hayshed door.

Forking hay into the feeder

Visibility during a snowstorm isn't quite what it is on a sunny day.

Once I put fresh straw into his doghouse, Kalevi was happy to go into his doghouse.

Fetching fresh eggs from the henhouse.

Looking out the window in the old kitchen. Claustrophobic beauty.  Kinda like admiring a big snake that is swallowing you.

Growing Daylight, Growing Hope

Despite the unremitting cold, the days begin to get noticeably longer in late January.

A clear sky portends a cold night, but lifts one's spirits.

Frost flowers.

Grandpa never lets winter slow him down.

Admiring the scenery outside on a relaxed Saturday morning.

Trust a cat to find the most comfortable spot in the whole house.

Our cedar bush takes a beating every winter but is remarkably resilient.  The takehome message: Bend under a load, but don't let it break you.

Looking out the window.  The ground is about seven feet under this bank.

Snowbanks

January 25, 2014

The Streets of South Range

What can you say?

What can you do?

Where do you plow the snow when there's no place left to plow it?

Snow canyons.

After a certain point hope fades, and you just carry on..

An Old Fashioned Winter

Cats have a tough life, don't they?

December 10.  The first "Polar Vortex" dumped lake effect snow on us nearly every day.  It makes for beautiful scenery, but when you have to plow or blow it every day it loses a bit of its charm.

Ilkka listening to the weather radio.  Highs in the low single digits all week.

December 14

Gunnar with his ladies, Helga and Sonja.

A patch of blue sky, a rarity in December.

Our snow doesn't just drift high, it also drifts low.

For you folk who suffer from snow deprivation and have never seen snow drift over your windows, you might think this is fluffy stuff.  It isn't.  It's dense, windpacked and you have to cut it off with a shovel to get it down.  You need the right conditions - lots of loose snow, plenty of wind and prolonged subzero temperatures.

The whole Kilpela clan.

Joulun aatonaaton ateria.  We had to have our traditional Christmas eve dinner a day early while everyone was still available.



Kinkkua, perunamuusia, riisiporkkanalaatikoa, rosolia, salaattia, jne.

Singing Christmas carols in English and Finnish.

Joulukyla

Gwen introduced us to the game Pillagers of Catan and sort of explained the rules to us as we went along.  

Sunrise

A female pileated woodpecker enjoying an apple in our front yard.  Males have a red moustache, females black.

I was happy to have a new goose down parka to wear when I'm feeding the sheep at ten below.  That fluffy snow you see on the trees isn't that fluffy.  You have to shake the branches hard to knock it loose and it falls like big chunks of concrete.

Skijoring with Kalevi and Savu

Playing Finnish scrabble.  Ilkka requisitioned the box for a bed.

Our outdoor Christmas tree

January 9. 2014

Our hayshed with a month's worth of snow on it.  Although it has a steel roof, the early snow started with freezing rain, so the snow did not slide off the surface.

Jonathan blowing out grandpa's driveway with our tractor.