While the Mid-Atlantic States are being pummeled by winter storms, we here in Northern New England are waiting patiently for a decent dump of snow. (Okay, not so patiently — whaaaa!)
We got about 6 inches of snow in December, and it was cold enough that we had a barely-white Christmas, but we’ve been cursed with icy rain and the dreaded “wintery mix.” At least we got 3 or 4 inches of actual snow yesterday, which was just enough to make today’s Interlakes School District Nordic ski races (pictured above) a success. (I’m not complaining about the sunshine and blue skies!) There have been years when Nordic ski teams from far and wide have come to the Sandwich Fairgrounds to practice because we have some of the best snow in the state. Understandably, we are a bit restless at the moment.
Our tractor was feeling melancholy from neglect, so Todd got right to the plowing yesterday, paltry though it was. It was nice to hear the orange work horse chug to life. (I would prefer a real horse, mind you, but Todd is convinced that owning anything that eats while you sleep is a mistake. Rats.)
One benefit of our current condition is that there’s enough of a firm crust on the previous snow and little enough new snow that it’s easy to walk about the woods. Yesterday afternoon I popped down the old roadbed called Hardscrabble that runs between Maple Ridge Road and Basket Street. It was lovely (as you can see), and there was no need for snowshoes or skis, though I did wear micro-spikes on my boots. A Sandwich old-timer told me that Hardscrabble was once the road to town.
Nature isn’t wasting time reclaiming Hardscrabble, and beavers seem to be leading the effort. Their pond bisects the old road, and it’s finally iced over. There’s currently no ice skating on any of our ponds, though. We seem to be in a pattern of hard freezes followed by strangely warm weather. Tuesday’s high is predicted to be zero. That should help, except for the snow graupel that is now hardening on the pond surfaces. (Nope, I didn’t make it up. Graupel is an actual meteorological term. It’s an ugly cousin of hail, which is setting the bar mighty low, if you ask me.)
At least it’s cozy inside our little house, with the wood stove crackling away. We’ve taken down Christmas decorations except for the tree, which is slender and doing its best to be unobtrusive. It needn’t worry…yet. We cut it ourselves in mid-December, so it’s still quite fresh, and anyway, we tend to follow the Denver tradition of keeping up holiday decorations until the end of the National Western Stock Show, which this year is January 23. (We moved to the big woods of New Hampshire from that cowboy town.)
Here are a couple more photos from inside the house during yesterday’s snow:
What’s going on in the photo on the right, you ask? That’s looking out the kitchen window at my winter woodpile cooling rack (a board, really). Todd builds the porch firewood stacks so that my view isn’t completely blocked, some light gets in during these short days, and I can simply open the window to place a dish outside to cool. Sometime’s it’s a pie gracing the cooling board, but in this photo you see Rosie’s dog dish with a scrambled egg cooling. Do not start. Rosie gets an egg for a late morning snack (call it elevensies or second breakfast, whichever hobbit meal you prefer) even though, yes, I realize that she is a dog.
Normally by mid-January the stone dogs in front of our house (that do not get scrambled eggs) are up to their necks in snow, if not completely buried by ice sheets calving from our roof. Here you can see that they are merely frosted and still visible beside them is a pot of sad frozen herbs (sage and tarragon).
And so I implore the weather gods and goddesses — spare the low-landers with their two-wheel drive vehicles the scourge of winter storms and send them to New Hampshire. We want to snowshoe, ski, and sled. We have four-wheel drives vehicles, snow tires, and plenty of snow plows and sand, so for Pete’s sake, let it snow!
At least Rosie doesn’t eat while you’re sleeping!
Ha! Of course she would if she could 🤣
Very much amused at Todd’s philosophy about owning things that eat while you sleep – but do horses actually eat at night?? Hmmm.
I’d take any amount of snow but it’s not looking likely here. I do see snow in your forecast so hopefully you’ll be buried enough in it soon!
I’m with you on the snow goddesses and gods sending snow our way! Looking at a high of
0 and a low of -11 on Tuesday with no snow insulation!!! 😩
Thanks for the lovely post. Xo