March Snowstorm

There has not been much snow in the bay for the last couple years.  When Jen and I started spending our winters here about 15 years ago, we'd average 12 to 15 feet of snow a year.  Our biggest year was 2007 when we had 37 feet.  In late February this year, we were at about six feet of snow for the winter and spring seemed to be here--most of the snow was already gone.  Then on the night of February 27th, it started snowing and didn't stop for four days--we ended up with 4 1/2 feet of snow!

The boardwalk and deck were bare before the storm started.

The sky brightened for a while between snow squalls.

The snow was sticky enough to stick to our mid-winter solstice tree on the deck.

The sun even came out for a while.

For some reason, the windspeed quit working on our weather station.

The area behind the lodge is tough to snowblow because of all the snow shedding off the roof.

It was nice seeing snow on our village white and the tree when we went to bed the second night of the storm.

The next morning we woke to an additional 22" of snow!

Morning on the second day of the storm!

Clearing a path to the weather station.

The snow was so wet and sticky, the augers on the snowblower immediately clogged with snow.  We ended up clearing all two feet of wet heavy snow by hand--a great workout!

You can see how sticky the snow is as it comes off of Jen's shovel!

Clearing the boardwalk by hand.

Working our way towards the dock.

Almost There!!!  We ended up taking two days to clear the wet heavy snow from the dock by hand.

Getting ready to shovel off Prime Time.

The last day of the storm brought lower temperatures making the snow dry enough for the snowblower.

Clearing the deck.

It was a relief not to be shoveling this by hand!

Did I mention the area behind the lodge is tough to clear because of all the snow shedding off the roof?

Clearing the snow off the roof of the laundry room.

Did I mention we were very happy to have the use of the snowblower back?

The crew cabins behind the lodge got their share of snow even through the trees.

The day after the storm, the sun came out and the temperature dropped down to 10 degrees overnight.  That caused our waterline to freeze temporarily shutting the lights out and shutting running water down for a week so far.  More on that in a separate post.

Colder temperatures made the snow much easier to clear with the snowblower.  It took us two more days to finish clearing all the snow.

Clearing the boarwalk through the woods up to the cabin on the point.

The snow caused some limbs to hang down over the boardwalk. 

Breaking into the open.

Where'd the open go?

Later afternoon sun on Prime Time when we finally got all the snow cleared.