We got 14 inches of snow on Saturday and awoke on Sunday to a winter wonderland complete with crystalline blue skies and pines covered in fluffy white snow. Church was closed, roads hadn't been plowed yet, and no one was going anywhere fast, so we enjoyed the unaccustomed luxury of hanging out in our pajamas until 10 drinking tea and reading books.
But reality intruded and we knew we had to get out and start shoveling. Our driveway is about a quarter of a mile long. I figured that if I shoveled for two hours a day, I could clear a path to the end on Sunday so we could get the mail and if necessary, I could call a friend to pick me up to get essentials if we ran out. By Wednesday, we'd have it clear enough to get the cars out for grocery shopping. This was important, since another storm is predicted for next weekend (although in typical weatherman style, they are still calling it a "rain, sleet or snow event" - great way to hedge your bets, guys!) We've got enough food stocked up to last a while but it's always nice to have milk and fresh fruit!
So John and I shoveled snow while Shadow played and made herself a snow cave to sleep in. She really needs to be an Alaskan or Maine dog. She loves the cold. She seems happier outside in the cold than inside by a roaring fire!
We had 1/3 of the driveway cleared and called it quits for the day. It was really funny because as we were shoveling, we talked about our options to handle future snowstorms. Should we get a snow blower? Invest in a plow to attach to the new truck we are saving our pennies for? How much would that cost? Is there another way, and is it worth it? We keep hearing that these two snow storms are just freaky, that this never happens here where we live....but how do we know? Shoveling by hand a quarter of a mile of driveway gets old...really fast. (But I did get an amazing aerobic and strength training workout.)
I said to John, "If we could only shovel or plow it down to an inch or two, the sun would melt the rest....that's all we need. Just a little help."
We called it quits and went inside to hot tea and an Alfred Hitchcock movie marathon. We were sitting in the living room watching "Rear Window" when we heard a peculiar noise. We both ran to see what it was but nothing....and the noise grew louder...an engine noise, to be sure and something else...
Then to our amazement, a man sitting atop an ancient Farmall tractor appeared at the top of the driveway...PLOWING!
We ran outside. "Who is it?" John asked.
He was an older fellow with a weather beaten face and a cap pulled low over his forehead and farm coveralls. His Farmall tractor was well used, a rusty red color, rattling and clacking away on all cylinders, but that workhorse was just piling the snow up and out of the way like magic.
He pulled up and we shook hands with our knight on the Farmall tractor. It was our neighbor (well, in the country I have learned that anyone within five miles is your neighbor - he's about half a mile down the road) Nat Coleman, who owns the farm on the end of Coleman Road.
"Driving by," he said, "Saw you hadn't been plowed out yet. Thought that snow would collect real good down here. Sorry I didn't get here sooner. Had to get gas for the tractor."
And with our heartfelt thanks, he nodded and drove off, plowed and plowed some more until our driveway was perfectly clear.
I had such tears in my eyes I had to go into the house. It was like a scene from
It's a Wonderful Life. Since when does a perfect stranger haul his farm equipment out and drive down the road plowing out total stranger's driveways?
Since we moved to Prospect, that's when.
Thank you, Nat Coleman. You are our knight on a Farmall tractor. We really, really appreciated it.
Plants are so resilient. Yesterday I took a quick walk around the vegetable garden to see what might have survived a foot of snow cover. Everything is melting, but I'm not getting my hopes up - there's a chance for yet another snow storm this week (I have a strong feeling it's going to be rain or sleet, but we'll see.)
Naughty orchid. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice - shame on me.
The worse the winter, the more money I spend on flower gardening supplies. It's a given. With three major storms and cabin fever making me feel like a hermit, we stopped by Lowe's and Wal-Mart yesterday after a trip to the business accountant. Yeah, I really know how to live. Seriously, though, I bought just one bag of seed starting mix at Lowe's and it's not going to be enough. Especially after my trip to Wal Mart.
torm, I saw dozens of red breasted robins up in a tree on the roadside, and more flew up from the sanctuary of a huge juniper bush where they huddled under the boughs for protection from the storm. Yesterday when I walked Shadow, I noticed that they were all scratching in a meager patch of earth that was uncovered roadside by the melting snow. I'm wondering if they're hanging out near my neighbor's cattle fields because the cattle dung has insects in it? Anyone know whether robins migrate? If not, what do they eat around here when it's so cold? I thought they were only insect eaters?
Two weekends of snow and ice in south central Virginia...according to my friends and neighbors who have lived here their whole lives, this is almost unheard of. The storm began on Friday and didn't let up until yesterday afternoon. We ended up with freezing rain and sleet, snow, more rain and sleet, and then snow flurries....the total amount of snow was only about four inches, but it fell on top of about two inches of ice. That's what we measure on our driveway, anyway. Another weekend watching Mass on EWTN - there's no way I can get the car out and up the hill.
Well, we're getting weather this weekend, which is the forecaster's way of hedging his bets. The ABC television station out of Richmond had one forecast, the NBC station another, and the CBS yet a third. Looking at the pretty map of the state of Virginia and all the color-coded bands indicating snow, ice or rain, our tiny part of the world appears to be right at the spot where all three colors or weather fronts meet, making it your guess or mine whether we'll see another foot of snow, a nightmare mix of snow, ice and sleet, or some sleet and then lots of rain. I'm guessing we're going to get some mix of sleet, ice and snow. No matter what comes out of the skies, I'm also guessing it will be the second weekend in a row where everything shuts down - it's going to be too dangerous to drive anywhere. We took a long walk yesterday and I got to drop off a thank you present at Mr Coleman's. And on the way back, I was rewarded by the sight of the flock of Bob White quail in the woods next to our driveway again. I don't know how they do it, but by the time I called John to come and see them, they'd bobbed and hopped out into the woods. You'd think a flock of brown birds the size of pigeons that hop up and down a lot would be easy to see in the snowy woods, but they vanished as quickly as they appeared. I hope they can find food.
to start my primrose seeds! I first grew primrose from seed in 2000, and we had a lovely patch of English primrose along side the house back on Long Island. They returned year after year and grew so beautiful. I'd never grown primrose before, and I enjoy them enormously. I "met" English primrose back in the early 1990's when I worked at Martin Viette Nurseries on Long Island. They were the first harbingers of spri
ng, those flats of English primrose and the larger plants we'd have for sale in the greenhouses by March. As always, I look for ways to save money, so I sought seeds to grow my own plants rather than purchase started plants from the garden center. It took a while to find seeds, but Swallow Tail Gardens had them, and I bought a package. It's time to actually start tunder the lights in the basement!
