Ski at Last!

After a week, the snow has compacted to a point where I can do some reasonable X-C skiing on it. (The dogs had a much tougher time of it, as paws don't make for good snowshoes.)

Now, the trails and fields near my house still were not anything like the tracks and trails at Whitegrass or Backbone Farm, but nonetheless it was good to be out again and getting my workout in the snow!

More Pictures from "Snowmaggedon II"

We are on the back end of a blizzard, which added nearly a foot to our current totals, and have turned the first mile of Pocahontas Road into a pile of drifts and whiteouts. Here are some pictures that I took this morning.

#1: A view of the front of our house. Our fence has disappeared under the snow (Notice the lamp post and plant hanger to the right)

#2: Looking down Pocahontas Road

#3: The McKenzie Farm; taken from our deck

#4: Habtamu (one of my two sons) enjoys life in a snow cave!

#5: Looking to our side yard and lower woods

From what I can tell, the winter is not over yet. I don't know how many inches we have received here, but I would guess that including the pre-Thanksgiving snows, we are close to 100 inches or more. A True Garrett County Winter!

While I have no pictures of Pocahontas Road south of us, the wind has drifted piles of snow, coving the right lane altogether and creating horrendous whiteout conditions. This afternoon, we drove into three of them, and I can only say that I feel for those people who are trying to navigate it after dark!

Another Snowstorm is Here

We are being hit with more snow just a few days after receiving 30+ inches from Mother Nature. However, the worst of it will be to the east. I might post some new pictures, except I don't know if you will be able to tell them from the old ones!

My favorite story out of this is that while D.C. has been receiving record snowfall, a Senate committee had to postpone a hearing on...global warming. Yes, when over the past few years, D.C. had not received much snow, the pundits claimed that "global warming" was the culprit. Now that it is snowing, no doubt we soon will hear that the storms are due to "global warming." In other words, with the Greens, it always is "heads I win, tails you lose."

Update: Like Pavlov's dogs, the editors at the state-worshiping "news" magazine Time have reacted to the recent snow by declaring that, indeed, the record snowfall is the result of...global warming. So, if it does not snow in DC, that is due to global warming, and if it snows, that, too, happens because of global warming.

The Big Snow: The Morning After

The sun and clear skies have returned to Garrett County (at least for the time being), and here are some pictures taken from our deck.

#1 Looking North toward Pocahontas Road

#2 Looking toward Northeast and Little Savage Mountain

#3 The McKenzie Farm behind our House

#4 Our Side Yard to our Upper Woods

We Have Survived the Great Blizzard of 2010

We were told when we moved to Garrett County nearly three years ago that sooner or later we would have The Big One. Here, The Big One is not an earthquake but rather a blizzard, and the Great Blizzard of 2010 has come and gone and has buried us under about 30 inches or so of snow.

Rather than telling you about it (other than we have dug ourselves out of the snow and the roads are relatively clear), I am posting some pictures that will tell some of the story.

#1 Looking up Pocahontas Road (our house is on the right)



#2 As you can see, we have to dig out our cars (the dogs seem amazed)



#3 Our neighbor, Dave Williams, helps dig out our driveway



#4 Our front-yard fence almost is covered with snow



#5 Johanna is on our deck putting out food for the birds



#6 Some Garrett County scenery just up our road



#7 My son, Alex, helps dig out the Subaru

Waiting Out the Storm

It is snowing - and snowing - outside, and has been for most of the day. I suspect that before this storm has passed (sometime Saturday afternoon), we are going to see about two feet outside our place.

I do love living in mountain Maryland (our place is at about 2,600 feet, an elevation most people don't equate with this state), and I love to X-C ski in the snow. However, this storm is going to be a bit, well, inconvenient. The plow trucks are performing heroically, even if theirs is a losing cause.

We have plenty of wood, food, and time. And a Subaru.

Patrizia Ciofi Sings Monteverdi

This one is a real treat! Italian opera star Patrizia Ciofi sings Monteverdi, accompanied by the incomparable Emmanuelle Haim and a number of fine musicians playing period instruments.