Spring snow

This winter has been very snowy.  Now don't get me wrong, I like snow.  It's clean, white, and really lovely in the yard.

It's relatively warm today so the snow is really lovely in the trees.  With only 3" it was easy enough to clean the deck and the plow guy will take care of the driveway.  All in all a nice Sunday treat.  It should be mostly melted by Monday so this snow should be no trouble at all.

HB, Allen, and Max here for a visit

HB, Allen, and Max came by for a visit and to have the last bit of Christmas today.  We had a good time.  As usual Max was full of himself playing a pool came he made up called Calvin Ball.  I got out the old slot car set that had been HB's and we all had a good time with it.  I'd given Max a marble race which was a fair hit as well. HB and I had a good chance to talk.  All in all a good day.  Here's a picture of Max and the marble game.

Sign of spring - orchid bloomed

A couple of years ago we bought five orchid plants.  Surprisingly three have survived.  More surprisingly still and a sure sign that spring must be coming one has two blooms!

Surely winter will soon be over.

Quiet Sunday

BB off on a girl's weekend.  It's a good day to deal with some indoor house chores.

I've got some issues with snow/ice on the roof

After 5 days of warm weather, melting, and raking here's what the roof looks like.

Not the roof but a 6'+ pile of snow!	Still over 18" of snow after 5 days of melting and shoveling
More snow and ice	I've got some serious ice dam issues.

Looks like heat tape is on the agenda for this spring when I can get back on the roof.

Several days of warm weather

We've had several days of warm weather.  It's done much to help with the snow on the roof.  I'd gotten somewhat concerned about it as there are some plaster cracks and minor racking of the house post and beam frame.  I spoke with Dom V. about it.  He suggested I get someone to shovel the roof.  I was able to find one roofing company but they wanted $4800 for the job and couldn't get to it until after the warmer weather when it would be far less needed.  So I've spent the last several days clearing the back of the house and things seem to be better.

It does look like I'll need to put up heat tape though as this kind of buildup is definitely not good.  That's a project for next summer.

Tuesday Snow, Wednesday Snow, Thursday dig out!

Well, we've got snow.  Lots and lots and lots of snow.  Tuesday brought about 8" then another 6" or 8" of snow/sleet/freezing rain Wednesday!  Chris, our current plow guy, didn't get by until after BB got home so I had to do the driveway using friend Toro (my snow blower) to clear it and get her up the hill.  I'm a bit unclear on the concept of paying someone to plow and then having to use my snow blower so just now Chris is flirting with a bigger snow blower as an alternative.

Thursday was dig out day.  I cleared about 5' of snow away from the mailbox so we'll still get deliveries.  I tried to bring the snow blower up the the second floor via the front decks but that was a no go because the front walk is under about 4' of snow.  I ended up bringing it in through the garage then BB and I carried it up the inside stairs.  It took about 45 minutes to do the driveway deck since the snow needs to go over the ends now and not into the driveway.  I've not bothered with the front door decks or the east deck.

I'm a bit concerned about the snow on the roof.  There have been a fair number of commercial flat roof collapses and we've now bot about 3' of snow on our roof.  I've also got some serious ice dams but so far no leaks.  I'd really like 3 or 4 days of warm to get some of the roof load gone.  I was able to break off most of the icicles but they are just forming rather quickly so that is now an every other day job.   If we get one more big storm I'm going to have to do something though I've no real enthusiasm for going up on the roof.

BB and I got out to the library and ran errands today.  The secondary roads are not good with most down to 1.5 lanes and covered in 4" to 6" of snow.

Midst all this there is another storm coming Saturday.  Thankfully it's predicted to be a fairly small storm.  Lets hope.