There be snow

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MapleRidge
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There be snow

Post by MapleRidge »

Hi everyone...

We had the first significant winter storm here in two years, and it set in overnight Sunday through Monday (17th). The morning was pretty ugly, with school buses cancelled, work places closed, as well as some roads. Due to the wind, its is hard to nail down exactly how much snow we had, but in sheltered parts of the property I think a foot (30cm) is a fair estimate. Snow was drifted in places 3 or more feet deep (1m). I worked form home till lunch and my wife's work was closed for the day. I made reference to the storm in my images post and was asked to share some pics, so here we go.

The first pics show my wife Sandy shoveling snow away for the house where it is hard to get close with the snow blower, then with here starting to clear the driveway while I left for work. Her choice, but the novelty wore off about the same time the fuel tank ran empty ;)
Sandy-Shovel.jpg
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Sandy-Blower.jpg
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I met the snow plow clearing the road just south of our house while driving to work...they will be busy through the night keeping up with the blowing snow. I suspect there will be closures again tomorrow due to drifting snow and poor visibility:
Snowplow.jpg
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I arrived at work to find them doing the second or third pass with the tractor and blower...grain shipments out of the elevator, snow or sunshine ;)
Tractor-Blower.jpg
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When I returned home the snow had let up a bit but the drifting was picking up. The pic below was taken on Sunday after doing my solar imaging, and the next was taken this afternoon with the new snowfall:
MapleRidge_01162022.jpg
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After.jpg
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This is a view to the south down the road from the end of our driveway:
South.jpg
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and a panorama of the winter landscape...the blowing snow doesn't show well, but the haze and lack of contrast is the result:
Panorams.jpg
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To finish the day off, it started to clear as the sun set behind the neighbors beef barn...with internal light reflections and dirt on the window :lol: A hint of the blowing snow and fresh drifts across the driveway too:
Sunset.jpg
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There are some sample pics of the scenery today...I hope that those who don't experience much in the way of winter can enjoy them :D

The news tonight showed Ottawa, ON with 16 inches (40cm) of snow :o

Brian


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Re: There be snow

Post by rsfoto »

Hi Brian,

Nice images and this is familiar to me as I lived quite some years in Germany and one day we has so much snow that it cracked the wooden plank we had over the roof as a snow barrier of the garage entrance and when it went down if I remember well we had about 1.2 meters of snow at the entrance and reallycompacted after the fall so ti took me quite some time toig et rid of that ...

Anyhow I miss it here in Mexico ...


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Re: There be snow

Post by MapleRidge »

Thanks Rainer!

Compacted and wet snow is the most difficult to shovel...it will set up like stone or weigh a tonne on the shovel. You miss it, but maybe only a bit ;)

Brian


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Re: There be snow

Post by MapleRidge »

After 90 mins of clearing snow tonight this is where I could be found...with a dram of single malt Scotch to warm my insides ;)
feet.jpg
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Brian Colville

Maple Ridge Observatory
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Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/185395281@N08/albums

10'x15 Roll-off Roof Observatory
Takahashi EM400 Mount carrying:
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Re: There be snow

Post by marktownley »

Thanks for sharing Brian, I always enjoy looking at these scenes. This winter (certainly where I am in the UK) we've had all but nothing in terms of snow this year. There's potentially a few more months of winter to go here this year but I don't think we'll see any real change is the dominant pressure patterns we've had so far this winter. Last decent snowfall we had was boxing day 2020. I do enjoy winter proper and the frost and snowfall - probably why enjoy Iceland so much, but if the atmosphere ain't being wintery i'd rather it goes straight to spring.

My 'drams' I have on the go at the moment are a Glenfiddich and a Singleton.

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Re: There be snow

Post by DJD »

Brian,
Lovely account and super pictures.Hope everything gets back to normal for you soon.
Despite having little snow this year, we did have a bad patch of high winds and drifting snow
up here in Lancashire, that cut us off from the grid.
We lost power for 4 days which meant we lost everything as we are on bore hole water and the
oil boiler pump meant no heating. The electric aga was useless as well. Plus the torch batteries and mobile
phone batteries soon failed. Pretty much like living in the past, as we went to bed when it got dark and
survived on one wood burner stove with a hot plate on top. Bottled water did not last long, but
luckily one of our sons carried up more when we run out. Laugh about it now, but it was cold and not much
fun except for the dogs. We have gotten soft in our old age. Luckily it does not happen very often.
Perhaps if it did we would be better prepared.
Best wishes and stay safe,
David


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Re: There be snow

Post by MapleRidge »

Thanks Mark...

I like the snow and winter, just grew up with proper winters in the 60's and 70's before climate change messed them up. Growing up on the dairy farm and having to milk cows, I hated the mud...so a quick spring and fall were appreciated. Dry up or freeze up ;)

I have multiple bottles to sample from, and after the snow clearing last night I had taste of The Balvenie. The others I have to offer are Aberfeldy, Dalwhinnie, Glenfiddich, Laphroaig, Longrow, Bowmore, and Craigleachie. I still have a bit left in the bottle of Blair Athol that I brought back from the trip to Scotland in 2019, and met up with you, Alexandra, and Stuart before coming home. Out of all those I guess I have now Lowland spirits, but have been looking to get a bottle of Auchentoshan...maybe a Three Wood. I usually try to keep a bottle of Lagavulin around too, but that one was cleaned up over Christmas. At a dram or two a week, these last for ages!

Pre-COVID, a few of my astronomy friends would get together a few weekends each year at their cottage and Scotch tasting was always on the to do list...which is where I picked up the taste for it. Always a great time with big BBQ meals, wine and Scotch. On clear nights there was less Scotch, but on the cloudy nights we had more time to test out something new :lol: Damn COVID...want to get back to our 30+ year routine!

Brian


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Re: There be snow

Post by MapleRidge »

Thanks for your comments and sharing the wind induced power outage story!

Society as a whole cannot function without electricity as everything relies on it. We have a generator to power the house, but seldom need to use it. A big generator is essential now at my brothers (who is on the home dairy farm) since all the manual labour jobs I had as kid have been scaled up and rely on electricity.

Winter storms were the norm, but climate change has brought fewer snow storms and replaced them with ice storms. Light freezing rain is a nuisance to drive in, but when it lasts for hours ice accretes on trees and power line inches thick which causes wide spread collapse of trees and power lines. In sever cases the power has been out for weeks when the big transmission lines are taken down. The fact it takes place in the winter is aggravated by the cold and limited options for people to heat and cook.

It puts everything in perspective. For the Amish here, it is just another day :lol:

Brian


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Re: There be snow

Post by Montana »

Lovely to see all these pictures Brian, I absolutely adore snow and wish we could have it more often. The last time we had really good snow was about 10 years ago now. Most winters we can get a dusting or two but I love going outside and staring upwards and watching the feathers drifting down. I would love to live somewhere with proper winters.

It's also fun when you can't get to work because of the snow but I guess now with Covid we have got so used to working from home there is no excuse, we can always do something :lol:

Alexandra


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Re: There be snow

Post by MapleRidge »

Thanks Alexandra, I'm glad that you enjoyed seeing the pics :)

Back under high pressure system today, and back to -17C this morning. Even before COVID I worked form home for maybe half the time in the winter since there was not much traffic into the office like the busy times of the year. COVID just made it more formal :lol:

For today, three on-line meetings with suppliers and I only need to pop into the office to drop off some cheques I have from growers for fertilizer pre-payments.

Brian


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Re: There be snow

Post by KMH »

Those are beautiful pictures! It's been a very disappointing winter here (northern New Mexico USA) so far - only one moderate storm. Still, I wouldn't care for that much snow at once!
The picture of the fire looks very inviting. Makes me want some Lagavulin (the only bottle I have at the moment)!

Kevin


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Re: There be snow

Post by MapleRidge »

Thanks Kevin, glad you liked the pics!

Lagavulin is a very fine Islay Scotch...they are some of my favorites!

Brian


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Re: There be snow

Post by DeepSolar64 »

WoW, Brian! And I thought I had a lot!!

James


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Re: There be snow

Post by Ivan »

Great story Brian, you have the same amount of snow as me. And for sure, the heaviest and most difficult to clean is wet snow. When there is a lot of it, you want to go to Mexico to palm trees and the ocean :)

Ivan


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Re: There be snow

Post by MapleRidge »

James and Ivan...

Thanks for your comments!!!

Ivan, my wife hates the cold and snow so most winters prior to COVID we would get away for week in the Caribbean. She hasn't been too happy about having to stay home the past two years ;)

Brian


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Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/185395281@N08/albums

10'x15 Roll-off Roof Observatory
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Re: There be snow

Post by DeepSolar64 »

It's been over a week here in western North Carolina since we had snow but some is still laying around in shady places. We might get some more tomorrow night.

JP


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Re: There be snow

Post by Ivan »

Brian, I understand your wife. I don't like winter and snow either, when winter starts (we usually do it in the first half of November) I say: "It started again..." :)

Ivan


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