Record Snowfall

Snowfall in December was the most recorded in any month, ever, in this region. Over 60 inches! January is starting out very similar, with 8-9 inches already. The little tractor below has been a faithful workhorse for sixteen years, summer and winter.



Eventually the snow berms get too high even for the snowblower, so we have to climb up and remove the snow manually to make more room for further snow. My eldest son and I cleared this berm once already, but chances are that I will have to do it again.

Roof Shoveling

The record snowfalls of this early winter required removing the snow from our roof, almost exactly one month earlier than last year (which was the first time in our 35 years here that we had this much snow). The four man crew spent 6-7 hours of very hard work on the main house and shop/guesthouse.


I built a protective structure for the garden window with 2x6 and odd pieces of plywood. The huge pile of snow will remain well into spring, based on last year's experience. The weeping elm in foreground seems to handle these winters quite well.


Another shot of the snow mound. The boxwood (barely sticking out of the front edge) is buried all around this section of the house...surprisingly it faired well last year with just a bit of remedial pruning.


This boxwood and dwarf maple also suffer a bit from excess snow, but should be OK. Note that we refrain from shaping our boxwood like meatballs or squared hedges...the natural form is beautiful - and much easier to take care of!


Piles and piles! Fortunately my eldest son and family were visiting and helped us shovel new paths through the berms. In the foreground is the native Oceanspray (Holodiscus) which doesn't mind the weather at all.

Here We Go Again

Last winter broke all previous records for snowfall, so we figured that perhaps we would get a respite this year - no such luck! More records broken two days ago for the most snowfall in one storm, in 24 hours, etc. Above is photo from guest house toward Highway 57.

There is a pond here, but I had to divert the pump directly back into the pond, rather than continue charging the waterfall. Temperatures had dipped below zero (earliest cold I can remember here), so the little 100 watt pond heater was not able to keep a hole open in the ice.

I had left some of the patio furniture out, to perhaps have a final outdoor fire, but that seems doubtful now. The raised beds will soon be completely hidden.

Deer Fence

After clearing the new garden area, I extended the existing fence along two sides, requiring an additional 100' of deer fence from Benner's Gardens

I use landscape fabric and wood chips under the fencing so weed control will be minimal - weedeater string is not nice to the fencing material!

The white plastic flags on the new fence sections will be removed after two months...they are needed to teach the deer that the fence is there. I had left the flags off of a small section of a previous deer fence, and sure enough a neighborhood dog chased a deer right through it!

Expanding the Garden

The far end of the vegetable garden was less productive because of shade. So I talked my neighbor Joel into helping me remove enough trees to solve this problem and also increase the total size of the garden by more than one third. Joel kept much of the wood in trade - good saw logs, but given the very low price paid these days, the harvest will likely be more valuable as firewood.

The skid-steer made falling very safe - Joel cut and his dad Ray pushed with the machine right where we wanted the tree to fall.



Ray waits patiently for Joel and I to limb up the downed tree:



The skid_steer made quick work of moving the logs, stacking the brush and also smoothing out the disturbed area.



The old man got quite a workout!

Onion Harvest

Onions this year were quite large, but unlike all previous years, the necks did not shrivel and tops fall over. In fact the tops stayed green even after I knocked them all over. So I wonder how they will store. I did cut the necks quite long, hoping that they will seal up OK. Copra is the variety we have grown now for two years.

Potato Harvest

I dug potatoes yesterday...these are Norkota Russets. I laid them out carefully on a tarp in the shop, where they will cure for a week or 10 days before going to storage. We have had excellent results storing potatoes in a large box in the attached garage - they keep well into the spring months.