Oh Snow!

Those of you who've read my blog for awhile know that come winter, I write about snow.



Not just any snow though...SNOW the Pacific Northwest style! Those of you in Idaho, Utah and Colorado....you're used to pretty snow. By "pretty" I mean light. Fluffy. Powdery. You can still drive in it. So these posts must seem pretty pansy-ish.



Let me enlighten and introduce you to Oregon/Washington snow. It's wet. Heavy. There is NOTHING light or airy about it. It's some of the coldest stuff on earth. When we get snow, you can bet sleet or freezing rain isn't too far behind....which has been the case here lately!



Here's a picture of what it looked like at 4" of snow, on Friday - during the morning, in my backyard.
Nothing too bad. It was definately still driveable. Manageable even.

Sort of Norman Rockwell picturesque, eh? It hides the fact that my lawn needs to be mowed. (cough, cough...Hunky Hubby...)

This is a picture of the front of my house. Cute huh? The "blobs" in the yard are a blow-up Santa, a tree and 3 penguins sledding. I mean, look at my mini-van! Nothing too bad about that, huh? Nothing a little ice scraper won't fix!

Now the following are pictures taken this morning. After a major system blew through here...we went out and measured....we have 12 1/2" of snow, with a nice, crunchy 1/2" of ice on top. Here's what the backyard looks like now....

(I didn't post pics of the front....I'll do that LATER).

We've had a few "avalanches" on the kids' slide....where the weight of the snow gets too heavy and slides down into a pile...this also happened with snow on our roof last night....it woke Stann and I up and we couldn't figure out for the longest time what the sound was! :P We're definately not used to that!

As you can see - there's quite a bit of it. We can't open our slider, 'cause it's got a major snowdrift in front of it. LOL. The kids are enchanted. They keep wanting to run outside in it barefooted. We'll get around to letting them go play in it...but I'm a little cautious as Joshua gets ear infections quickly - and I've enjoyed a pretty low-key winter thus far....

The temps outside have been pretty consistently 28 degrees. With a ZERO - ONE windchill factor. Brrrr! They've closed the pass from Troutdale to Hood River. Too much wind and too much snow...it's blowing cars off the road. Not sure about the Cascades....Hwy 26 is still open though! Not sure how visiting families are gonna get through - unless they brought chains! :) (And not the cable chains either!)

But again, let me reiterate....Oregon snow....WET. COLD. HEAVY. Ice everywhere. And it's only the middle of December, folks! :) We're probably gonna get more! I'm excited and torn. Torn because I know I'm gonna get cabin fever. But I'm not complaining...Yet! :)