As someone that sits fairly high in the rankings of snow lovers out there, I feel pretty comfortable saying that public enemy number 1 among snow lovers is rain. We can deal with cold, warm, winds, sun, darkness, even snow falling so heavily that it keeps you from doing anything. Rain just stinks, no way around it.
Today was one of those days where it was just best to not look outside. I can say that we survived the rain in ok shape. First, we did not get as much rain as was predicted (upwards of an inch) and it did start out as snow, with most areas picking up around 1-3″ before the change over. We did not get that down here in Jacobsville, but as we traveled to the Dreamland to watch the Packer-Lions game, just going north a few miles we got further away from the lake and the roads were covered in an inch of slush from the snow that had been made mush by the rains of this morning falling on the snow. It has stopped raining and does not look do to much more until early tomorrow morning and then will change over to snow soon after any rain starts back up.
A check of the two trail cams on my website showed they were still full covered in snow and pretty flat. I am sure that there are some corners and perhaps some other areas that are bare due to the rains, but we are under a winter storm warning for the potential of 8-12″ of snow tomorrow. So the repairs will come quickly.
Our temperature also did not get as warm as it was initially thought. We have been around 35 since sunset last night and even though we rose to 37 yesterday, the air was pretty dry all day and no melting took place.
The forecast beyond tomorrow’s snow looks good too. Tuesday we will see snow showers with a couple more inches and then fairly quiet for New Years Eve and Day, with a bit of light snow on Thursday and perhaps a 2-5″ snow Sat and again Sun.
Call me an optimist, but I am feeling pretty good about the situation at this point. The stopping of the rain and a clear radar to our south and SW is probably a big part of it.
We had a very nice Christmas holiday. On Christmas Eve, we hosted some friends and all enjoyed a delicious meal prepared by Nora, along with Christmas cookies made by Nora and Grace. Then played some board and card games until it got late and everyone called it a night.
Christmas Day it was just Grace, Nora and I for most of the day. Grace has gotten pretty good and not waking up super early on Christmas morning, in fact, both Nora and I woke up naturally on our own and spent some time with each other before Grace even rolled out of bed. We all took turns opening our presents and were surprised and happy with the things we received. Even the Huck and Bleau got some nice big rawhide bones from Santa this year and we all missed Millie. She was such a sweet heart and made us all so happy.
Late in the afternoon, some more friends stopped by to visit and we munched down on some Norwegian meatballs and then loads of Christmas cookies while we played some more games.
Not much else went on. The weather was rather boring and even a little drab, with temps in the low to mid 30’s and quite a bit of clouds. I did not do anything with the ice rink. With this weekend’s weather looking so ominous, I decided to keep the couple of inches of snow that were on it there and hope that it would help to protect the ice that was underneath. I also was hoping that the rains might help to flood the rink. Just before coming to write this entry, I snapped this shot of the rink from inside the house and it appears to have suffered little to no damage and the rains may have flooded it a bit. The plan it to let it dump snow tomorrow, then get out with the tractor and blower (yes, I finally took the loader off and put the blower on this weekend) and clear it off and resume flooding.
I suspect that our New Years Eve will be fairly quiet. I have to work and Nora’s brother is coming up with his son. He bought a place just up the road from us about a half mile and is coming up to start putting his touches on it. They should be arriving by early afternoon. So I hope to sneak in a nap and make it to midnight.
New Years Day we have been invited to our friends that live in the Yurt for their annual “Dessert in the Yurt” get together and then I suspect we will all need to go on a diet!
Hard to believe that this year has already come to a close. Not just the year, but the decade! Both have been chock full of challenges, sadness, triumphs and joy. I have been blessed beyond words to have the love and support of Nora and Grace through both as well. Not sure how I would have ever made it through both without them. I am so looking forward to the next year and decade to come. Our list of things we want to do and experience in our new home is vast, but sure will be fun doing them!
Have a wonderful New Year everyone!
Good Night from the Keweenaw..
–JD
