Day 4.008: Wintry mix a.k.a. Big mess

It was time for another winter storm - this one brought a couple of inches of snow at breakfast time and then it started to get messy.

I shovelled the snow and then had breakfast - by then there were plenty of stories of accidents and problems on the road so I decided to work from home. A couple of hours later I went out and shovelled half-an-inch or so of sleet (ice pellets) - that was like shovelling sugar - heavy and awkward: spilling out of the shovel and rolling down the snow banks. By mid-afternoon the sleet was giving way to rain but the temperature was well below freezing so it was freezing on contact and turning the sugary sleet on the drive into a sheet of thick rough ice.

Exile #2 and I spent some time scraping off the top surface and then Exile #4 and I spent some time trying to get under the ice and break it up - with some success. Satisfying but muscle-straining work.

Although it was a fairly major storm, the end result will have been a reduction in snow depth as the sleet and ice weigh the snow down - it also did strange things to the snow piles on the deck.

And glazed the trees (these are the bushes by the front door:

Unlike in previous ice-storms, the grass is safe underneath the snow-pack. Tomorrow may bring more snow - and a chance to see how much damage and/or prettiness the ice has caused.

Day 4.007: Where's a St Bernard when you need one?

Here are the girls dragging E5N1 up the sledding hill at the town park. In the end I had to go and assist them. E5N1 was fine by the way - just finding the slope a bit much for his little legs (this was Saturday lunchtime after our Five Rivers walk).

Here are a couple of movies - one of Exile #3 taking a leaf out of Exile #4's book in terms of song-choice and one of me riding with her down the hill (with shrieking and flying snow - but no singing!)





The kids did some more sledding today - at a surprise party for one of their friends (there was no school for Martin Luther King Jr Day today). It was a nice day for it - if a little cold - there is still plenty of snow and it was a window before the next messy storm comes in tonight.

Day 4.006: Rivers all

Before the weather closed in yesterday, we managed a short walk at Five Rivers which was great - everyone was in a good mood, up for walking (and posing for our regular group photograph).

There wasn't much going on except snow and ice (and snow on the ice) but we had a very nice walk and only one of us ended up with snow-filled boots and wet socks (here's a clue - he's pictured above more than once!)

Day 4.005: Making movies

There was fresh snow this afternoon as predicted. Not much compared to what was already on the ground but enough to keep us inside this afternoon.

This is the fruit of our indoor-time.  Storyline by Exile #3, camera operation by E5N1 and Exile #4, animation and voices by Exile #3 and me. Enjoy!



I made the film using my Pentax K200D and the tethering software: PK_Tether which worked a treat.

Day 4.004: Soda, pop?

One of these cans is not like the other. The one on the right was found while clearing the party drinks out of the fridge this week.

I grew up calling it 'pop', now I know it as 'soda'. Of course this particular beverage is known as 'diet' - which not only avoids the accent issue over how to pronounce 'Coke' but also avoids the whole 'Is Pepsi OK?' issue!

Anyway, having given it plenty of time to calm down, opening the deformed can was a very uneventful 'pffft' - not what we had been fearing based on its appearance.