New Year Snow

For probably the first time I can remember anyway, we ended last year without any snow at all. We've had plenty of brown Christmas' over the years but never have we gone this long without at least some snow that melted right away. So our reward was to get pounded on New Year's day with an old fashioned blizzard. We spent the day downstairs in front of the fireplace reading, napping and playing games. I wish we got similar blizzards more often. The above picture in the patio outside our basement family room and underneath the deck on the backside of the house. I was experimenting with taking a "slow exposure" with my smart phone and this was one of the failed attempts. It supposedly can be done with some sort of an algorithm and a "live photo" but I think I need something in motion more obviously than snow. The tarped object is my woodpile, now probably eight years old and much reduced in size but with plenty more where it came from.

After the blizzard, I took a photo from the bedroom window, not wanting to venture out in the cold that never made it into positive temperature territory.

As you can see above, more firewood is available should I ever run out of the several year supply still underneath the deck above. Behind the stack is a large pile yet remaining to be split and as  you can see, the main part of the derecho tree still needs some chain sawing and splitting too. I finally got all the debris picked up and piled in two different piles which I hope to burn in the weeks to come. Cutting up the rest of the tree however, will probably wait for a while yet.