The snow that wouldn't stop

I may have mentioned previously that it doesn't snow much in my part of Oregon. Oh sure, maybe once or twice every winter we'll have a bit of snow, say 4 or 5 inches, but usually, really cold weather comes rarely and passes quickly.

For the last week, however, northwest Oregon has been caught in a very unusual weather system. In the last 6 days, we've had temps fall into the low teens (and single digits) at night and not get higher than freezing during the day. Snow has fallen daily.

Finally, today, the weather "event" that the forecasters have been talking about all week hit. It started snowing at 10:00am this morning and didn't stop all day.

At noon, I couldn't open the chicken door any wider than a few inches. The snow acted as a door stop:

The chickens remain highly suspicious of the white stuff:

Nothing I could do would coax the chickens out in this...it was just too scary:

The chicken run sure looks cleaner than it has in a long time!:

Boppity bravely ventured one rung down the ramp but no further. Even despite the urging from behind:

I've never seen snow so deep around here:

Fortunately we covered the wood pile before all this began:

I hiked up to the barn to check things out:

With no wind blowing, it was a beautiful day for a walk:

Jim valiantly shoveled the walks around the house, only to have them covered again with inches of snow within two hours:

We've been shaking our heads all day, amazed at the transformation around us. We've now got about a foot and a half of snow!

Supposedly a warming trend is on the way. The concern now is that the transition back to warmer weather will bring that dangerous stuff known as freezing rain.

Here's our forecast for the next few days:

I hope everyone is staying warm and cozy, where ever you may be!