The gold finches are turning yellow again.
They get really dull looking during the winter.
Here is the first one to start turning on our front birch tree this past Saturday (during a bit of a snow storm!)
Happy Birthday to my sister Julie today!
I’m off to work. Have a good one!
This fact that there is white stuff on my car this morning is irrelevant to my decision to get my winter tires off today!
I passed a salter on the way into town and the forecast is for 2-4cm. Whatever! Gotta keep the tire place in business 
(Happy Birthday Jeff!)
Sunday afternoon
The snow has continued all weekend, but the sun keeps shining through too
Last night we went to Boston Pizza to use our Christmas gift certificate. We stuffed ourselves and drove home in a BLIZZARD. I kept saying we were going to drive out of it, but we didn’t until we were just about at our driveway.
Jeff is at the second day of a course today. I know he was hoping to be done his exam and home early, but it is already twenty to five and he isn’t home yet. He’s going to be grumpy! At least he has this week off so he isn’t rushing back to work tomorrow.
I finally got around to collecting my saliva sample for 23andMe.com and will try to get it out by courier today. I’m excited to find out where my ancestors stem from, and if there are any surprises!
Unlock Secrets in Your Own DNA with 23andMe.com
OK here’s hoping the sun has melted the ice off the butt of that lawnchair, because I’m going to go soak up some vitamin D!
It was -14°C this morning on the way to work with a -21°C wind chill! It was snowing, and the roads are snow covered and icy. Jeff had to plow the driveway yesterday!
The Pictou Causeway was closed for awhile today due to poor visibility. Even though the sun was gorgeous today, was really windy and drifty and cold!
Two more snow “storms” are predicted for this week. I’m travelling to a conference for a couple of days so hopefully my plans aren’t disrupted.
The Great Flu of 2013 is also hanging on. It is settled deep in our chests and we cough and hack. Jeff is finally sleeping through the night again without too much coughing. I just gave us both a dose of cough syrup (Jeff went with Robitussin, I prefer Buckley’s) because we’re both coughing so much. I still feel like my brain is going to come through my forehead when I cough.
Bad news – we ran out of seasoned firewood! I guess we need to make a better effort to have wood delivered in spring so we can have it stacked and drying. We have plenty of wood stacked, but the moisture content is still about 26%. Jeff officially declared the wood stove done for the season and we’ve turned some of the electric baseboards on. This has an interesting side effect of being able to sleep in in the morning, and not spent “quality time” sitting in the basement after work and before bed re-stoking the fire. I guess this is how “normal” people with central heating must live 
This also means, though, that my plants under the light hood in the basement have to come upstairs because there is no heat down there now and it is COLD. I’m moving my herbs (just have parsley, tyme, basil, and rosemary growing right now) up to the guest room upstairs on the front of the house where the sun is really strong in the afternoon. My pot of baby lettuce mixture didn’t do well at all so it might be a lost cause. It just wasn’t warm enough for lettuce downstairs this winter.
Wonder how long until the herbs can go back outside!?!
I think it’s close enough now to officially call a delay in the start of our boating season. It is going to be -9 tonight and tomorrow night. The lake is frozen solid and it is already the 18th of March. I don’t see a thaw coming before the fishing season opens on our lake on April 1st, but it’ll have to thaw eventually!
I’m a little sleepy this evening. Last night I woke up a couple times to “What time is it?”. The power kept going out and Jeff needed me to check my watch so he could reset the alarm clock.
The power was back by 6am when I got up. It was already starting to get light outside so I went out with Monty with the camera.
It snowed all night. I’m guessing the snow got too heavy for some power lines or branches and that took the power out.
It was mild and the snow was great packing snow.
There wasn’t even a hint of a breeze so all the snow stuck to whatever it landed on overnight.
I love winter!
It was a beautiful day yesterday (Sunday) so we tried to take Monty on a walk through our little piece of property here (3.6 acres).
It didn’t last too long. The snow is a little too deep. It is crusty on top, but almost every step we fell through. Monty’s leash got caught on everything. Here he is getting revenge on a stick that poked him.
Monty and Jeff left the woods and I went on a bit farther.
We lost a couple more white spruce to the bark beetle over the last year.
It’s impressive how fast a tree can rot. The burl on this next tree is already mushy. The squirrels and woodpeckers call them home now.
(You caught me. The sky wasn’t that blue. I fiddled with it in my new graphics program because I love tree crowns in front of blue sky and clouds.)
There are rabbit and squirrel tracks everywhere. No coyote tracks this year.
Here is the old road, or more of a trail, that went along the hydro lines before they tore them down and moved them to the road a few years ago. Our property goes up the side of the valley up to this old road. I’m looking south here, behind me is the ruin of the old little cabin. It took a lot of effort to get through the snow up to here. Hopefully after the sun this week it’ll be better.
We checked for ice dams this year. Roof looks good! Jeff is convinced our problem a few years back was because the top eavestrough was blocked.
Today is a day off!! Reading week starts this week so the University staff gets a day off. I’ll take it!
It was a sunny Saturday afternoon and +5°C so we took Monty to Beaver Mountain Provincial Park for a hike.
This park is 2 km uphill from the James River speedway along Highway 104 when you’re heading into Antigonish.
The campground has been closed for a few years I suspect. Just like the forest around our house, it was a first generation white spruce forest after a period of using the land as farmland. The spruce beetle hit the monocultured spruce and they died and blew over, just like we see around our house. Last year they cleared most of the rest of the trees in the campground for safety reasons and are trying to restore the forest as a mixed forest.
There is a good trail network that I haven’t explored yet.
The first thing Monty does when starting out on a hike (just like his Uncle Winger and Aunt Surf before him) is rub his face in the snow.
But peeing on every other dog’s scent quickly follows!
There are lots of people out cross country skiing today. Probably the better way to use the trails right now. The snow was deeper than I thought it would be. Some parts our feet kept breaking through the snow and our feet would sink up to our upper shins. Snowshoes probably would have worked better.
I LOVE these kinds of clouds. A big rain/snow storm is on it’s way later today. These were the first hints of clouds moving in.
Someone built a cute snowman on the trail!
This was as far as we could get without skiis or snowshoes. Which wasn’t very far, but it was great to get out for a bit.
There is a great view from the parking lot towards town.
Self portrait on the iPhone for Instagram!
Here are some photos from the weekend blizzard. Because we’ve had snow/rain/ice/snow the snow is packed hard onto the spruce trees with icicles hanging down.
I love this photo!
Argh! Second trip down and the snow was too deep! I had to bring down the shovel so Jeff could dig out the ATV.
Front door is drifted in!
All done!
I woke up at 5:30am and sprung out of bed to check on the blizzard!
We got several inches of snow since we went to sleep last night and it has blown around nicely. Like a snowstorm of my youth.
There are some wind gusts, but nothing of much significance yet. This storm is supposed to carry into tomorrow. YEE HA
I was watching CNN for hours last night. It was even MORE amusing that hurricane reporting! It was apocalyptic! The WORLD was ending for tens of millions of people because it was SNOWING! Reporters on the beach, reporters on the street, reporters driving around in snow. One reporter stood beside a stuck pickup truck and walked around him, reporting on the truck spinning its tires. Not one effort to help the poor guy out.
For HOURS CNN reported on only TWO stories. The snow and the manhunt for the ex-cop in California. Nothing else was covered. How is CNN a news channel?
Almost everything is closed in our province today. Yesterday the groceries stores were as busy as the day before Christmas. Everyone wants storm food.
The power is already out to many people (6697 customers out) down near Yarmouth where the storm first hit. I would prefer if we don’t lose power, but I’m ready!
If we have power, I’ll keep updating this post throughout the day.
6am – Blizzard 2013
6:09am – Plow went by!
7:04am – Getting lighter outside, sun is rising. I’ve got the fire made in the woodstove and put the dishwasher on early in case we lose power. Not too windy yet. Blowing snow, reduced visibility. First birds of the day showing up at the feeders. -8°C
7:04 am
7:32am – The list of What’s Closed or Cancelled Today includes: Canadian Tire, Home Hardware, Aulds Cove Tim Hortons, most pharmacies, the dumps, the libraries, mall opening at noon (maybe), the rec centres, and bingo is cancelled all over for today. Maritime Buses aren’t running either. The Nova Scotia Jeep Club has been called in in Halifax to drive people to and from the hospital if needed.
8:06am – Lots of birds here now, red polls, evening grosbeaks, chickadees, and juncos. Nothing much else going on. Jeff still in bed. I’m getting sleepy. The odd wind gust, but nothing major. One car just went by.
8:05am
9:44am – Went back to bed for a nap. We’re both up now. I just shovelled a shovel-width path on the porch. It’s over a foot of power snow, but not light powder, just not packing snow. Jeff is thinking about plowing to keep it under control. The ATV can only do so much. I might have to clean off the window my webcam is in before you can’t see anything! 5027 customers without power in the province. -4.5°C
9:47am
10:48am - Jeff is still plowing. I cleaned the vehicles and moved them around so he could plow. Jeff saw a big white bunny in the ditch when he was plowing – scared him away. We haven’t spotted a rabbit in months!
Just saw on Twitter that the historic waterfront in Shelburne, NS is under water. Photo here and Another One and One more. Waist deep water in some places, water over roads. Here is flooding in Liverpool More businesses closed around here, liquor stores, Sears, grocery stores, car dealerships, pizza restaurants.
Here’s a photo gallery of flooding photos from Shelbourne County.
11:20am – Jeff’s still plowing. 7990 customers without power. Snowing just lightly here now and the winds aren’t too bad. Road seems plowed, but I don’t think we’ve seen half a dozen vehicles today go by. Storm surge that hit the south shore of the province was 1-2 metres. It is receding now. Wait, there goes the snowplow again right now. They weren’t keeping up this much on Monday. Must be overtime on Saturday Transport truck off the road near Antigonish – photo. Here’s a photo from Lockeport, NS where the water is up to cars in their driveways.
12:07pm – 21,701 customers suddenly without power. Still on the western side of the province. Heading this way.
1:08pm – Just saw on Twitter that the storm surge in Shelbourne, NS was the biggest they’ve seen in that area since a Groundhog Day storm in 1976. Nothing of significance to report here. Power restored for some. Down to 13, 241 customers without.
2:23pm – Is this storm a bust? Very light snow, almost rain, no wind. CBC is reporting 17cm of snow at Yarmouth airport, 44 at Greenwood airport, 21cm at Halifax airport and 5cm at the Sydney airport so far. Hard to believe everything is closed when the road is plowed and it hasn’t really snowed since early this morning here.
2:54pm – Freezing rain. Light. Yet the car and truck windows are covered in ice. Red squirrel just showed up under at the bird feeder.
9:03pm – FINALLY the freezing rain has turned back to snow! It will take awhile to chisel the windows free from ice tomorrow. Not too much wind.
8:54 am Sunday – The wind picked up around 10pm and it not let up! I wouldn’t want to be driving anywhere today! Still snowing. Blizzard warning still in effect.
9:05am Sunday
3:41pm Sunday – Still snowing and blowing. Jeff wants to plow, but there is still so much snow coming down. At some point I’ll have to go chisel out the car and truck because there is a lot of ice build up from on the freezing rain under the snow. Blizzard warning has been replaced with a blowing snow warning. I wouldn’t want to drive anywhere today, everything is a white out.
5:38pm Sunday – Funny there is no blizzard warning anymore, it is closest to a blizzard this afternoon than it has been since Friday. We just spent a couple hours plowing, shovelling, thawing and moving the cars.
8:39pm Sunday – Storm is over! More photos coming in a new post soon.
I woke up at 5:58 am to the sound of Jeff plowing. I don’t know how he snuck away without me hearing.
My job is to move the truck and car for a thorough plow. It is the second half of January and this is only the third time Jeff has plowed this winter!
View from the driver’s seat of Jeff’s truck after I backed it up
I went to bed healthy and woke up this morning with a wicked chest and nose congestion. How did I get sick in my sleep? You picked the wrong chick to infest germs. I am fighting back. You will not bring me down. I will be well by noon. Look out germs!
Now I am starting the fire. Soon Zeus can bathe himself in heat. Then I will eat raisin bran.
Have a happy day everyone!