Pax

That’s what the Weather Channel called last week’s storm – Pax. As in it “pax” a punch.

I was in Montpelier when the snow began falling Thursday, visiting the Vermont Statehouse. Only Howard Dean would have his official governor portrait sitting on the shore of a lake by a canoe with a paddle in his hand.

 

The snow started falling around noon there; by the time I left town around 2:15 it wasn’t too bad. I headed south to Woodstock, stopping along the way to put Moby into 4×4 mode. From Woodstock I headed to the Lake Morey Resort with 16 curling stones in the back and additional gear equipment. I had volunteered to shuttle the stones for the “Pondspiel” the Woodstock Curling Club was hosting last weekend.

Getting home around 6 pm, I went up to the barnyard, gave Cedar her last shot, and turned her and her nameless companion back in with the rest of the ewes. I let the boys back into their normal pen, and left the barn door open for the night. Cedar and Scampie each had a couple inches of snow piled on their backs. The winds were forecast to increase as the storms progressed and I decided the sheep needed shelter.

Friday morning at 7:30 I cranked up the snow blower and cut a path up the driveway to the barnyard gate. The snow was so high, it took me about 10 minutes to get there.

Drifts around the gate were close to 3 feet tall. I cleared away the snow on both sides of the gate, went in, pulled down three bales of hay – two for the girls, one for the guys – and just tossed them on the snow.  Breakfast time! I noticed one of the water buckets was completely covered by at least a foot of driven snow.

The pile of snow that falls off the roof by the back door is easily over 8 feet tall now. It took me at least 10 minutes to shovel a 12 foot path from the door to the driveway.

Winds got up to 25 mph, making some interesting formations around the house.