A Blizzard on May 2nd

Yessirree, we had a blizzard yesterday!  Got about 3-4 inches of snow.

But the real excitement was the fact that I was driving home from a weekend trip out of town.  The snow started before I left the cabin in Mormon Lake.  It was coming down pretty good but by the time I reached Flagstaff I had some blue sky.  Whew!  ...I thought. 

I was blessed to stay about 30-40 minutes (it seemed) ahead of nasty weather which chased me all the way toward  home turf.  The storm stretched out another "finger" and as I headed south I found myself in a full on blizzard about an hour away from home.  Snow was blowing horizontally.  

A blizzard in May!!  This has been some winter....and it just doesn't seem to want to quit!

More later....

A Snowy Walk About

I liked this shot from Our Driveway Road. The open space of land still looks to be buried deep with snow.




One of my favorite things is seeing animal tracks in the snow. I'm not sure what made these. I like how time and wind has subdued the tracks, broadening their imprint into sublte impressions.



Bunny tracks. I love bunny tracks.



I liked this ridge of snow left by tire tracks.

Wednesday morning was foggy. The fog turned into a very fine and constant snow all day long, both in town and (we presume) at home.

Solar Panel Update

Remember our buried solar panels? Snow is melting around them as this photo shows. (You can actually see them.) And the ground snow has melted a feet or so, too.

Snow Road 2010

Here's what we've been dealing with as goes our road.

It's definitely a 4WD experience: rugged, rough and bouncy. You have to stay in the tracks or, in some spots, you'd get pulled into and bogged down in the deeper stuff. The snow in many spots is iced over and very packed. The hard packed trench walls remind me of those antique cars at Disneyland. They had a metal guard rail running down the middle under the car to help keep you on track. As a kid, of course I didn't know how to steer real well. I'd go rolling along steering wildly, and my tires would bounce into the guard and then back again. That's how it is for us boucing against the snow track walls.

This is near the corner turning onto our property. That is, turning onto "Our Driveway Road" from "Our Road". ........ Just wait. It gets worse. See that big bush sticking out into the road?

This spot is right at that bush. Pretty nasty.

Here's the same spot with the rest of Our Road heading out to the The Big Road.

Looking back.

Another view looking back from past the bush.

Here's more of the rest of the road as it reaches out to the big road....where our van is parked... because it can't get in. No way. No how.


We went into town yesterday to meet some new friends for lunch. We didn't know if we'd be able to drive out in the 4WD or if we'd have to end up walking out to the van. My husband told me it was likely to be a rough ride as he wanted to maintain some speed so as to not get bogged down in any troublesome spots. Boy, he wasn't kidding. We were bouncing all over the road and inside the truck. The snow and tracks were throwing us all over the place and he was really exerting some effort to keep the steering wheel doing the right thing.

I said to him, "I can't believe people do this on purpose for fun!" Not my cup of tea.

However, we are thankful we could get out. We won't be taking any spontaneous frivilous trips to the general store or into town, but it's nice to know we can get out if we need to or REALLY want to.

Winter Wonderland Squared

Last week while my husband was snowed in at our home (and I was snowed out in the valley) he compared the present snowy scenery of our property to our Winter Wonderland experience of this past December. He said this one was like the last one, only greatly multiplied. He took some really nice photos of it all. Here are some of my favorites.

Compare the shot below, looking out our living room window, to the same shot I took in December. He's right; December was mild in comparison. Of course, the blue sky of December's "day after" photo looks much happier than this January "in the middle of it" photo.

I always like seeing the snow piled so high on top of small objects like these bird feeders. We've even got a customer in this shot. Looks like it's time to fill the feeders again. We love feeding the birds and we especially try to keep feed out for them after snow has covered up all their natural food.




And take a look at our extension ladder leaning against the porch. I think it's funny and amazing all at once.




Without knowing this section of our property, you can only guess at how deep the snow is. Maybe a foot or two?




Well, here's that same view after my husband set the camera timer and walked out into it.

What you don't see in either of these two photos is the 3 and 1/2 foot high piles of firewood up next to the trees on each side of this cleared area. They are completely buried leaving no sign that they are there at all!



Below is our "Driveway Road" heading out of our place. The trees are so weighed down with snow they're closing off the road. I like how the deep snow and long ago tire tracks make the road look dippy when it's actually not. Don't know how or why it did that. I also think it's funny how the accumulation of nearly four feet of snow did not level the previously made tire tracks. It must have, in those more exposed tracks, melted some as the snow kept coming down.

This is standing in the same spot as the photo above but turned 180 degrees around to show the road taking a right to become our Driveway. Love seeing the snow coming down in this shot and how everything behind the back trees is totally hazed out by the snowfall.



And then you make your way around the bend to our Driveway. The trees are so bent over it almost looks like a tunnel instead of a driveway. You can barely see our trailer peaking out at the back.

Here are our solar panels, battery house, and inverter shed. We have solar panels in three places, four actually. The two stands in the back, several panels on the short battery shed (in front of the tall inverter shed) and then a couple small panels hiding behind the battery house. To give you an idea of how deep the snow on the ground is, see the bottom of the panels on the short battery house? The bottom of the panels is nearly up to my waist.

I love, love, love this next shot. It's one of my new favorites. My husband took some like this for me because I liked the icy shot I took during the original Winter Wonderland so much. This is a huge Juniper tree we have on our property. Looking at it from this angle you can only see one of it's many trunks.

My new banner photo is the same scene taken from another angle. (Love how the branches come right at you in that one.)

Snowbound

Arizona has just experienced the worst storm week in... well, maybe ever. A series of three storms has been hitting us all week. We have about 2000 feet of unmaintained gravel road leading up to our door. Even when they can get out to plow "the big road" that won't help us much because of "our road". We could call someone to plow our road but it was already such a mucky, sludgy, muddy mess underneath that it still might not be passable.

With the first of the storms scheduled for this past Monday, and my need to be in the valley Tuesday and Wednesday, I headed down the mountain on Sunday afternoon to beat the onslaught.

My husband said the snow level last night was about 10 inches shy of our 4 foot high porch. And it snowed all night. And all day today.

That means.... he's snowed in ........and I'm snowed out.

So I don't have any photos for you. Heck, I don't have any photos for me! I wish I could see it and share it. But with all the clouds all week long, and all the snow...our solar panels aren't collecting much power. That means time spent on big ticket items like the computer or TV must be greatly conserved. My husband probably won't be able to get on the computer to email me any photos for some time.

When we get lots of snow, we have to trek out to the panels and take a broom to them so they can receive the sun. Going out into 4 foot high snow is not going to be much fun for him when the time comes.

So, unfortunately, I'm going to have to wait until after the fact - AGAIN - to post any photos for you. Wish I had better opportunities to post things at the actual time I first write about them. But such is my life: either on the road or without enough electricity.

He said there is that amazing silence over the land as snow continues to fall. We experienced 16" inches or so about 6 weeks ago and it created a total Winter Wonderland on our property. He says this current wonderland is way multiplied and that some of our trees are so bent over with snow he imagines they will surely break. Wish I was there.

Winter Wonderland

We just got back from 2 weeks of travelling to Indiana, West Virginia, and Minnesota. We had a wonderful time. I'm eager to write about our visits with friends and family. I will get it up as soon as I can.


But first...we arrived home with one day to spare before a blizzard hit our neck of the woods. I guess it hit a lot of necks of the woods...like, the whole country almost.


We're snowed in right now. We got about 12 inches in all, but with the high winds we had all during the storm and yet today, we have places with drifts up to around 2 feet.


The wind blew so much that our entire porch is covered with a dusting of snow, right up to the door. And we have a 10 foot deep porch!


We trudged out in 33 degree temps, in snow almost up to my knees, under gorgeous blue skies to take some photos today.


Here's some of what surrounds us today.



This is looking our our living room window



We had a little visitor to our chair cushion on the porch.

We had lots of visitors, all over the porch

This is what awaited us as we ventured out away from the house

Because the temperatures were so warm yesterday during the storm, we got a lot of ice forming on the trees. They have been crackling and creaking all day with today's winds.

It's Snowing!

Little sporadic drizzles turned into a very light snow.

It's snowing!

And now it's not.

Anymore, if it starts to rain or snow around here and you feel like going out to look at it? You'd better do it immediately...because, it's bound to stop within minutes.

By the time I brought my camera inside and began setting things in place to download my photos...the snow had stopped. It had barely started when I went out to shoot a picture!!