And MORE snow

A prediction of "less than an inch" of snow for Friday turned into heavy snow that send me home from work almost as soon as I got there, for fear that I would not be able to get back in.  I think we ended up with five or six inches of new soft fluffy snow on top of what we had.  These tracks show how I was able (barely) to get out of our lane on Friday but by Saturday morning drifting discouraged me from trying again.

This seems to be my classic snow picture now -- snow on the tractor.  The accumulation keeps building.

My grape vines and garden under a blanket of snow.  At least the garden will have a good start of moisture when all of this melts.  The prediction is for warmer temperatures next week to start the melting process, but also some freezing rain and snow on Monday.  At this time last year I was taking pictures of daffodils four inches out of the ground with big buds and was watching snow geese flying overhead.

I took this early on Saturday morning, so there is still frost on the remains of last year's grapes.

Here are the tracks of Friday's drive out now drifted on Saturday morning, though this wasn't the worst of it.  We had it plowed out by late afternoon on Saturday.

The sun shines through frosted trees.

I took a look at my bee hives though it was only about 30 degrees so too cold to open them up and look inside.  Here there are dead bees on the landing board of the weaker "north" hive, which in a way is encouraging as it indicates there are live bees carrying them out and leaving them there.  So, dead bees are actually signs of life.

Here is a dead bee (probably) on top of the snow a foot in front of that same hive.  Since we had another inch or so of fluffy stuff on Saturday (I took this today -- Sunday) this tells me that this bee and the other two dead bees I saw were flying in the last 24 hours.  Again, this is encouraging sign of life in the hive.

The stronger "south" hive had no dead bees in front or on the landing board, but I saw three live bees either walking around on the snow in front or climbing out of the top entrance.  This one was walking around in one of my footprints and seemed to be cleaning itself, then took off.  We have been having such a prolonged stretch of bitter cold weather that I was fearful that there would be no bees surviving, but these signs suggest that both hives still have survivors.

My bird feeders have been very busy with all of this snow cover, but are being actively raided by squirrels --here there are four fox squirrels on the two feeders enjoying my sunflower seeds.

Another eight inches of snow

We received another eight inches of snow on top of the ice and snow that we had received over the weekend, and this snow was immediately followed by high winds that brought a lot of drifting, as well as temperatures dipping below zero.  The schools were closed for three days, and I was stuck at home all of the work day before we could get our road cleared just before 5 p.m.

Here the tractor is covered with snow that is drifted around its base.  I tried several times to get the tractor started but it would run only a few minutes and then die.  I presume there is ice blocking either the fuel line or the air intake.  Each time I returned to the tractor to try again, my footprints from the last trip would be obliterated by drifting snow.

Here the straw bales that serve as a wind break for my bee hives are covered with snow with snow drifted around them.

The hives themselves were covered with snow and the bottom entrances were completely blocked by the two past storms.  I cleared off the bottoms to open the entrances but it was too cold to expect any activity.

Ice and snow

As this unusually harsh winter continues, we received a snow fall of about 3 inches followed by a lot of ice.  Here ice is gleaming on the trees in the forest next to the house.

A small weeping cherry tree in our front yard is encased in ice, with the forest in the background.

Trees along our lane covered in ice.

The tractor covered in ice and icicles.

My grapevines covered in ice.

Apple trees covered in ice.  I really should have put away that picker.

Pear and peach trees covered in ice.

My beehives covered with ice and snow -- snow covered with a crust of ice covers the bottom entrances.

Sun shining through the icy trees on the following day, Groundhog Day.  Though the sun was shining to show the groundhogs shadow he was no doubt unable to escape his ice encrusted home to take a look.  I don't know what that predicts for the weather, but it can't be good.

I took the opportunity to take some pictures of birds around the bird feeders that have been so busy with all of this snow cover.  Here a cardinal is perched on a small dogwood tree next to the feeders.

A goldfinch in winter plumage perched on a feeder.

A purple finch finding seeds among the seeds knocked from the feeders above.