Well, it's not rain but........

The snow has finally stopped! Slightly warmer air today is beginning to melt the ton of snow that fell yesterday and has fallen almost continually since mid December. The boughs on the hazelnut trees are bent so low, and the snow is so high, that the tips of the boughs are now buried in the snow.

Up here in the hills, we had close to a foot of snow yesterday and last night, and then a warming trend and a very light rainfall for about an hour or so. This made the snow extremely heavy, resulting in several power failures during the night. Every time I would drift off the sleep, the power would come back on, and the magic little voice in my landline telephone would say "Your power has been disconnected. Please reset the time." This strange little voice (I haven't figured out a way to turn it off) would set Sadie to barking, which would wake me up. I would get up to reset things, the troops would all figure it was a good time to go out for a pee, and we'd begin the process of going to bed all over again. I think that occurred four times last night. In total, the power was out for a couple of hours.

The light rainfall early this morning finally did me in, even though it lasted such a short time - the snow is now so thick and so heavy that even with my 4x4 I could not get out today. Thankfully my university remained closed due to weather, so I felt no compulsion to get there though I did have to cancel a doctor's appointment. Tomorrow is my first class of the semester; I hope that either the university stays closed or Rob the Plowman shows up to get me out of here.

The heavy snow/light rain also created another problem - I can no longer open the pasture gate to get through with Martin's feed and water, and the snow is too heavy to shovel out the way by reaching over the 4' gate. I tried climbing over with a ladder, but it is just too slick and icy for any stability and I have enough back problems without risking life and limb. So I tossed a bale of hay over the fence, and eased a bucket of water over, and hopefully that will tide him over until the snow melts enough to be able to open the gate or safely place a ladder over it. He can reach his stable in the little pen in the pasture, so is safe and warm.

Charley's bowel woes seem marginally better today. Oliver's little mouth tumours are being watched closely - we will biopsy if there is any further growth. One is on the lip, and another (which I hadn't noticed until the vet showed me) is on the gum. Belle and Sadie and Allie the cat are doing well, as are the piggies - bored but healthy, touch wood.

Four bored dogs moping along the partially cleared driveway.