5:18 PM
| Sunrise at | 8:22 AM | in direction | 96° | East |  |
| Sunset at | 7:41 PM | in direction | 264° | West |  |
There is another side to the story of lots of snow .. a very sore back. My back has been prone to problems more this year .. it's based in lifting some things incorrectly when younger, exacerbated by a really bad fall while hiking across some ice back in 2003. My youngest doberman (then) was on the end of the lead and ran, with me behind her across an ice flow on the path. My feet were pulled right from under me and I fell directly on the lower portion of my back from tail bone up about 8 inches.
And too, my bone density scan showed slight deterioration in the spine .. so when I shoveled snow last week, it being as deep as it was and pushing it the full length of the deck in most cases, it apparently caused muscles around the base of my spine to tense. I have not been overly active this weekend.
It's an interesting conjecture to think through what may happen at break-up as a consequence of the increased snow and the extra accumulation right around our deck edges. We talked about buying a snow blower that would direct snow over the railing of the deck out onto the yard, but the cost was prohibitive for this year, at least. Having that would have placed the snow onto areas where the trees are already gathering in their water for the spring rather than in position to flood our basement.
In the past, I have gone out, shovel in hand, and shoveled the heavy snow away from the deck onto sunny areas with drainage for trees. You can bet I am not doing that this year. For one thing - the back, for another I don't think either Gary or I could easily get to locations where we need to shovel without having snow down our pants as a consequence!
So, if the melt is gradual - i.e., the temperatures stay cooler, gradually increasing to warm days, then much of the snow will melt at ground level as well as evaporate from the top. If it warms up quickly, like it did the first year we moved to this house (2007), then Gary will be down trying to divert water away from our basement and the downstairs apartment.
Be that as it may, I do have good photos of our snow fall.
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| Snow fall on tree trucks of crab cherry tree near my office |
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| Patterns of light and dark across snow accumulation |
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| My favorite dumping point for snow shoveled off the deck. A rose bush, peony and johnny-jump-ups will appear in spring - really! |
The mounds in the photos below represent the accumulation of snow plowed throughout the winter, but I can attest that they grew several feet when my son-in-law plowed early on in the storm. Strangely, these mounds will probably not cause much overflow and rivulets during break-up. The thirsty plants really do suck the water in to commence growing quickly once temperatures rise above freezing.
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| The mound of snow is higher than the yard - which is about four feet higher than the graded surface of the driveway. |
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| Mounds of snow removed from the driveway everywhere! |
And, now, I present before and after pictures of the access to our house from the stairs to the deck.
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| Before |
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| After |
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| After as seen from the deck - notice the bottom rung of the steps is level with the base to which Gary shoveled - at least I think this is the bottom rung. |
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