Saturday, December 20, 2008

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!

30 comments:

  1. The pictures are beautiful! I hope y'all don't get any freezing rain. I hate that stuff!

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  2. Wow! That's a lot of snow! Our forecast predicts that we will get 10 inches of snow this coming Tuesday night. Still, that's not as much at ya'll have had up there this week. Freezing rain is no fun. Stay in and stay warm & cozy. Beautiful photos. I love the snow on your porch railing.

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  4. The pictures are awesome! I love the first one with the snow falling.
    Hope you and the chickens stay warm.
    Merry Christmas,
    Tracey

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  5. It's beautiful. I would love to visit somewhere that gets snow, but I don't want any here at our house! We are just not used to that pretty white stuff. Not sure what to do in it ya know?

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  6. Well Oregon sure looks pretty in all that snow. I really like it on those big, beautiful pines!! Tell A Happy birthday for me!! :)

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  7. Yikes! That is some serious snow. Those chickens are smarter than we give them credit for.

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  8. Wow!! I can't believe all the snow! I hope that you are managing it and that it hasn't cause the poor chickens too much trouble. I also hope that you don't get ice on top of all that. Ice could be catastrophic now! Good luck!

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  9. We can sympathise with you! We had a historic ice storm that left us without heat or lights for 4 days last week, and this week we are thigh deep into the second snow of the week....And there is a prediction of a mixed weather snow storm for Christmas Eve and Christmas day! I'll take deep snow over ice any day!!!Interesting weather, but it sure is pretty! Your photos are just beautiful...

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  10. Talk about a white Christmas! You have more snow than we do. Your land looks beautiful.
    Don't you love how that blanket of white makes everything so quiet. That is one of my favorites.

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  11. Woke up this morning to half an inch of freezing rain on top of our 6 - 8 inches.

    Sigh. It was so nice yesterday!

    Oh and here's a funny...
    We have a very steep hill next to us that the locals park on the bottom of and walk up in weather like this. Yesterday apparently someone attempted to navigate the hill. They played ping pong off of other cars and now eight cars are wrecked.

    It's funny in an idiotic kind of way yanno? Those poor people who innocently left their cars at the bottom! I bet they were a bit unhappy.

    PS obviously you are closer to the coast than us, or higher, or both.
    The Farm got a foot plus! My poor goats!

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  12. Wow Danni!!! Good thing you guys don't get much snow! LOL!

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  13. I'm getting the same stuff...although not quite as much as you have. It's dang cold though. A literal shock to the system. It sure does look pretty though, doesn't it?

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  14. Even tho the snow promptly covered up Mr Jims clear paths....its a nice feeling to know that you got out there and had it done for just a minute!

    And I gotta say. Those chickens have the right idea. Staying inside, all buttoned down, nice and cozy. And all your warm oatmeal treats? They are not gonna know what to do when all the snow melts....aside from expecting breakfast in bed that is.

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  15. I didn't see Dot in the looking out lineup.

    Supposed to get down to 9 degrees tonight here in the Appalachians. In a way I'm glad because we've have the really muddy mess going on and I just soon it freeze up.

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  16. Only my turkeys and peafowl have been brave enough to venture out in the snow...and not very far.:) My DH grew up here and said he can't remember ever having this amount of snow/weather for such an extended period. We had over 3 feet now. At least it's packing down a little...

    Hopefully we can all avoid that freezing rain....

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  17. We're getting hammered too Danni...I'm firing up the SUV to counteract this crap!!!

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  18. We hav ethat much here in Mcminnville. Stay warm.

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  19. Wow! I wonder how our neighbors in Cascadia are doing. I guess I better check in on them! Just stay inside, warm and toasty, and pray for NO freezing rain. I'm sorry for the inconvenience of the snow, but it's gorgeous on all those Doug Firs!

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  20. I am looking out my window and doing the exact thing, shaking my head in disbelief. After all this just doesn't happen here! I must say except for the extra care the animals have needed it has been fun...a grand adventure!

    As long as we don't get freezing rain on top of it all then it will all be good!

    Glad to you see you are enjoying it as much as I am...too bad my camel and your chickens same to have the same opinion about the stuff, lol! Kim

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  21. Here in Wisconsin we got almost 2 feet of snow in 3 days. I live just west of Milwaukee and on Friday it was coming down at a rate of 1 inch every half hour. Today we are -4 with wind chills of -31. More snow is expected on Tuesday. So far this December we have had over 27 inches of the white stuff. It will definitely be a white Christmas. I love your pictures of the snow in Oregon.

    Linda M

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  22. I wouldn't be able to get a thing done, if I were there, for looking, and looking at all the beauty!

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  23. Your place looks beautiful with all that snow.I don't suppose the chickens would walk about in that snow....would they sink?

    Have a lovely Christmas and New Year
    Sue

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  24. Ok Dani it's time for you to go outside and build a snowman. A nice BIG one with all of that snow.
    I mean if it happens so rarly you really need to learn how to enjoy the snow. maybe some snow animals to keep the snowman company, oh and a snowwoman, and snowkids too!

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  25. Yeah, a snow man...you gotta do it! That's the only thing that makes snow ok...that and snow angels!

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  26. Dang, and I was whining. I hope you either own a snowplow or are happy with omelettes, fritattas, egg salad, and souffle.

    This has been interesting in stressing my design (I mentioned that I used to be an engineer, right?) for the ladies' house. I'm taking advantage of being stranded here to consider how I might upgrade their palace next year.

    1000 eggs! Wow. I remember when we were so stoked to have gotten those little soft-shelled mini-jobbies every coupla days.

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  27. I know it must be hard to live in that much snow but it sure is beautiful. Wish we could get a little here for Christmas.

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  28. My chickens loved the snow. They seemed to really enjoy playing in it. But after a day, they were ready for the warmth again....me too.

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  29. The weather around here has just been CRAZY! This has been the most snow I've seen in my years living in Oregon, that haven't been in the mountains!

    Thankfully, so far we've had steady electricity!

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  30. I have to agree! The snow pics are beautiful. We don't have snow here in our desert, although one year, about 20 years ago, it got down to 1,500 feet on our local mountains and the hill near our home had snow! Thank you for sharing your pics. I hope you are warm now!

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