Another Storm Survived

It snowed for over 30 hours.

Two rounds of shoveling and one round of plowing, and everything is dug out again. The plow guy and I agree that we're running out of places to put the snow.

The snow always seems to let go first from the same part of the JayBee roof.

If the snow around the deck stands higher than the deck, should I stop shoveling the deck?

Arlen went cross-country skiing today. He started out by going up the hill behind the JayBee. If you look closely, you can see his tracks near the top of the hillside.

Calm Before the Next Storm (Window Trim 2)

Apparently another storm will start dumping more snow here in the middle of the night, and it will snow all day tomorrow. Today was bright and sunny, so I scrambled to get more window trim installed.

Also see:
Window Trim 1
Window Trim 3
Window Trim 4
Window Trim 5
Window Trim 6
Window Trim 7
Window Trim 8
Window Trim 9


One side of the roof on the old house has almost no snow on it, while the other side has quite a bit--along with growing ice dams.

It's a good thing no one was standing under the icicles when I knocked them down. This cluster came down intact, slicing through the snowbank below.

Blizzard 2015

Final Update: 28 January 2015, 3:30 PM.

The wind arrived first. Each time the howling woke me up, I got up and looked. No snow. The forecast was that the snow would start to fall at 10:00 PM; the snow actually began to fall around 4:00 AM. After daylight arrived, I watched the snow. It was really swirling around out there--first blowing straight sideways to the right, then straight down, then on an upwards diagonal right to left. In the last snowstorm, the snow came straight down; none of it landed on the windows or in the entryway of the JayBee. This storm is different!

9:00 AM:

I like that, without stepping outside, I can see through the kitchen window of the JayBee and assure myself that the tarps on the JayBee's west end are intact and holding up to the wind just fine.

Noon:

3:00-4:00 PM. The plow guy had come once, so I headed out to shovel the first 12-14" of snow. Blizzard is still raging on:

Next day, 8:00 AM:

The forecast was that the snow from the blizzard would not stop falling until 10:00 this morning, but it appears to be done. Headed down the driveway, I noticed all this detritus on top of the snow. It wasn't sticks or leaves, though; it was feathers!

Was there a fight or carnage during the blizzard? I looked up and saw a bird's nest. Maybe a really strong gust of wind during the storm scooped all of these feathers out of the nest?

Aw, look who's waiting for me.

Check out the curling sheets of snow coming off the JayBee's roof...

...and the sculpted snow.

3:00 PM:

After round two of plowing and round three of shoveling, I guess this storm is as cleaned up as possible. Blizzard survived. Looking at the JayBee at this point, it doesn't look all that snowbound.

Looking out from the JayBee, however, it is hard to imagine where I will put the snow that falls next.

Calm Before the Storm (Window Trim 1)

I guess we're going to get a whopper doozy blizzard starting tonight. I've been scrambling to cut trim pieces for the JayBee so I can assemble window trim indoors while the storm rages outside.

First window trim installed!

The photo below shows that the windowsill slopes downward slightly so it will shed water. The bottom trim piece has a slot cut out of the back of it so siding shingles can be slid up behind it.

Also see:
Window Trim 2
Window Trim 3
Window Trim 4
Window Trim 5
Window Trim 6
Window Trim 7
Window Trim 8
Window Trim 9


Check this out (below). Early in the day, there were small icicles hanging from the ends of the dormer valleys. When one of them fell off the roof, it landed vertically on the pavement and stayed that way for hours.

When I was up on a ladder a couple of days ago, Bear climbed up the other side of the ladder. Of course there was nowhere for him to go once he got up there, so he started dancing in circles. When he slipped and began to fall off the ladder, he grabbed ahold of my thigh. Yee OW!