Winter in the northeast, Ah for Hawaii!

The month of January was extremely snowy. We "missed" two weeks of it while in Hawaii. Rrturning home, we found that there was about the same amount on the ground as when we left. On February 7 we went out to Oswego, NY to be with Eric while he had ACL surgery on his knee. Eric suffered the initial injury playing indoor soccer in High School. The surgery went well, but the recovery is slow. We have been here for a week and will be here longer helping him out by driving him to work, clearing the driveway and just helping around the house. He will be on crutches for awhile. Below are photos taken in the last two weeks in Massachusetts, Vermont, and New York.

View from the front yard after the last snowstorm before leaving for New York. The driveway still has to be cleared.

The backyard with the "buried" greenhouse. At this point there was 28 jnches of snow on the ground. The greenhouse air heating system is not working, so I am relying on the water heating system to keep the temperature up. With the days getting longer and more thaws, the plants should be getting more heat.

This is a typical view of a house in the northern Berkshires showing the problem with ice dams on the roofs and huge icicles. This is a home in North Adams.

This is the Searsburg Road in southern Vermont. This is along the route we regularly take on the way to the University of New Hampshire for hockey games.

This Route 9 in southern Vermont west of Wilmington.

This is the home where Eric lives in Oswego, NY. Eric is presently renting from a former biologist at the college. They have moved to Colorado. Eric is in the process of hoping to buy the house. It is located about 10 minutes to the west of the college, very close to the shore of lake Ontario. The homes on the other side of the road are on the shore of the lake. State University of New York at Oswego (Oswego State) is located immediately on the shore of Lake Ontario in the City of Oswego. Oswego is noted for being in the area subjected to lake effect snow with may whiteouts and heavy snowfall. Four years ago when Eric took his invterview for his job, they had just had 10 feet of snow in one week.

Eric's dog moose in the backyard. Moose is half black Lab and half Australian Cattle Dog. He loves to chase the many squirrels in the yard.

We have enyed watching the birds at the many feeders in the yard. On the left feeder is a Red-bellied Woodpecker and House Finch. On the right feeder is a Cardinal.

Shopping center along the main road in Oswego after another 12 inches of snow overnight.

Snow pile in Walmart parking lot. Since this picture was taken, we had a good thaw with much of the ice melting and the snow settling and melting.

Winter storms

The heaviest snow fall we had was in late February. The scenes in our back yard and view of the pond were beautiful. Barre's measuring stick marked the total at 17 inches. It was a real winter picture, with the snow falling gently all day.

It took a long time for Barre to blow the snow off the driveway, but he took his time and got the job done. It includes making pathways to the greenhouse, bird feeders, and back door of the garage. He actually enjoys the job because he likes the snow! We expected to have the scene of deep snow last long enough to really enjoy it, but the following day brought a heavy rainstorm, and the snow settled so much, it was hard to believe that the previous day had deep snow. The next day, however, brought us 10 more inches of snow, and Barre went back to work using the blower again.

This picture was taken in March, two weeks after our big storm. This is taken in Searsburg, Vermont, on our way to New Hampshire. There were storms in the mountains that we did not have in Adams, and we were surprised by the high banks on the road side. Deep snow, and beautiful mountain scenery was spectacular on Route 9.

As we drove into Brattleboro, Vermont, we passed a farm that collects maple syrup the "old fashioned way" with buckets, not hoses, which send the sap to huge tanks to be collected. We stopped to take this picture, as the season was just beginning. However, the weather warmed up too quickly, and the season was shortened, but the quality of the syrup was excellent, with less gallons produced.

Celebrating the Olympics

During the two weeks of the Olympic Games, we flew the flags of Canada and British Columbia. We enjoyed watching many of the events, and stayed up later than usual every night to see the races and other competitons. Racing down mountains on skis, ski jumping, bobsleding, half pipe, luge, etc. kept us on pins and needles, hoping there were no mishaps. All the figure skating, and hockey games were of interest, too, and we watched a number of Curling contests, and began to understand the rules of the game. Of course, we wanted the US Men and Womens's hockey teams to win the gold, but were still very pleased with their success.

Winter in New England

We have had our share of cold weather through December and into January. Barre has recorded 26 inchs of snow for the winter to date. Yesterday, Jan. 14, was the first day of the month that the temperature at our house has been about freezing.

Christmas Day on West Road, Adams, Ma. The view in our yard and of our small mountain in the back yard was spectacular. We had frozen fog, and all the trees were shining with ice on the branches. Barre took this picture from our pond, with the view across the yard where he has recently planted small evergreens (notice the stakes).

The view of Mt. Greylock on Christmas morning, just a half mile north of our house.

Last weekend while visiting friends in Durham, NH, we took a drive to York, Maine to view Nubble Light on Cape Neddick, and gaze at the ocean, on a sunny winter day. Locals were walking their dogs on York Beach.

This is route 8 in Searsburg, Vermont. This was our view as we climbed the mountains in southern Vermont, as we traveled to New Hampshire for a weekend of hockey games at UNH.
It had been snowing frequently most of the week before we left on Friday.

January 2, 2010. Eric and Moose both enjoyed the snow while visiting. They walked out in the woods frequently. Moose enjoys exploring for squirrels along the stone walls, and jumping and rolling in the snow. Eric enjoys the snow, but didn't get to skate on the pond because the snow hadn't been cleared.

Clearing the snow

After the snow fell overnight into Wednesday the 9th, Barre measured the snow depth before beginning to clear the driveway, and paths to the greenhouse, and back door of the garage. In metric we had 19.3 cm (8 inches) of snow.

The first snow of the season

This past weekend we were visiting friends in Durham, NH. The first snow storm of the season arrived on Saturday, and by Sunday morning there was a beautiful winter scene of snow covered trees, and yards. The sun was shining brightly as we left for home, and the white landscape was a lovely sight to behold. As we drove west, getting nearer Adams, we noticed the snowfall was decreasing, but the views of the mountains in Vermont were beautiful. Barre did not have to use the snowblower in the driveway because the snow had melted the approximate 2 inches. Durham had 6-7 inches.