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Saturday, December 17, 2016

Surprise - Finally

 Woke up to -4  degrees this morning. We watch the National Weather report carefully and they had predicted that we would have 2-4" inches of snow and single digit but not negative degrees. The temperature was around the low 40's yesterday and when we went to bed around 9:00 P.M. last night it was 33 degrees outside and 77 degrees inside. It had dropped to 60 degrees inside and -4 outside. We do not pay much attention to the weather service predictions as they rarely get it right for our area.
 This is what we woke up to this morning. Because the temperature was 33 degrees when we went to bed the bottom 6-8" of snow was wet and heavy. The top portion was fine granular snow and while not as heavy as the bottom it too had weight to it. Total so far has been 15" which gives us 29" year to date accumulation. More snow is predicted for today and tonight so it could be another 15" or 1".
 Living in the mountains you do not rely on the weather predictions but stay flexible so we can handle what does come. They predict heavy accumulation and we end up with two inches or when they say 1-2" we may end up with three feet. Not faulting the weather predictors with their computer models but they are wrong for us more than they are right. Weather forecasting in the mountains is very hard to  get accurate. All we want to know is if snow is headed our way and then we prepare to deal with it.  
This male Hairy Woodpecker is hunkered down on the side of a tree out front. We shoveled a walkway to the wood shed to bring in more firewood and then shoveled an area for the dogs to go potty. Then I shoveled off the deck to get some fresh sunflower seeds out for the birds. Carol shoveled the walkway down to the driveway. That took a couple hours and then it was time for breakfast. As cold as it is outside the birds will need to eat to keep their strength up. This woodpecker is conserving energy by hunkering down on the side of the tree.
We have enjoyed being able to walk around anywhere we wanted to go with only a couple inches of snow on the ground but it did not last and now we will deal with winter for the next few months. We enjoyed the pleasant temperatures in mid December when usually we have much colder temp's and 4-6' of snow.
All the new snow and cold has not deterred the deer however, we observed a small herd out to the side of the house while we were shoveling this morning. They don't mind the cold as they have very good coats this time of year and their hair is hollow so it provides excellent insulation. This snow will probably force them down to lower elevations soon.

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