11/18/2008

I'm dreaming of a White Bedrock....

A lot can happen in 48 hrs. around Bedrock. Take the Weather for example!

Late Saturday night, the all day rain turned into some very serious freezing rain. Meaning that the ice build up became quite an issue for Trees, Roads and of course, roof tops. It kind of starts off slow like this.


The weight of the ice and snow, eventually becomes far too much for almost anything trying to support itself against it. As an example, this is the 55 foot Colorado Blue Spruce that is the center piece of our entrance to the cave. Again, it's 55 feet tall and usually has a width of a little over 35 feet. In the Summer, I ride the lawn tractor underneath the bottom branches, with barely any ducking required!


Considering the incredible number of trees down all around our place, I'm just thrilled that the old Girl did so well through all of this.

Oh and as you can see, a little snow also fell after the rain. About a foot or so. But then to compound all the issues from the earlier freezing rain, the temperature warmed up to a few degrees above Zero. That foot of snow became compacted into about 6" of sloppy mess. Naturally, the temperature immediately dropped well below freezing and created a solid 6" block of ice. What would happen next you wonder? How about another 8" of snow! Instantly, the roof becomes a priority! Now I know I don't have my Daughter's incredible talent with a camera, but hopefully this will give you some idea of what I was up against. The top fluffy 8" just fell off the roof with a push or pull. Getting that solid 6" underneath, well that was another story!


Someone asked me yesterday, "Why didn't you do all this as it was coming down? You know, just to try and keep up." Well I'll tell you what. If you use your logic and your basic math skills here, here's the 4" wide hand rail leading up to the front door. It's obviously on a standard step angle and made of 2" x 4" wood.


Yep! That's about 10" or so, even at that angle. That's what came down in about 2 1/2 hours! Now despite my obvious lack of skill with a camera, I think the background in that shot gives you some idea of how much there was on the flat ground.

All the fallen Trees and branches have been cleaned up and all of the snow was taken off the roof. Now I only had one small concern. I needed to figure out how to help this poor bugger.


As I was on the roof and shortly after getting safely back down on the ground, the Spruce in the middle there was creakin' and crackin' for all it was worth. Something had to be done, or I would be losing one of the trees that has been blocking the sight of the road for years.

It was really too bad there was no one else around. I think everyone would've got a kick out of seeing the carnage, as my only real option was to get underneath it and slam into it a couple of times. (Remember the Horse in the Bud commercial?) Note to those of you that may someday find yourselves in a similar position. Looking up is just plain stupid!

And so, the snow has made everything white and beautiful, and all crisis' from the ice has been averted. All I had to do was get my aching old self up and head out to work this morning.


Uh-Huh! That's what the roof looked like at 5:00am. Now that my friends, that's a cooler!

My sincerest thanks for dropping by....

8 comments:

gadzooks64 said...

Wow! Stunning pics!

I wouldn't mind all of that as long as I could stay inside with my internets and the hope that the UPS guy would still deliver.

Anonymous said...

Winter in Canada.....OHHHH the joys!!! Glad you managed to dig yourself out.

Y

Anonymous said...

Wow and I thought I was cold when I took the kiddos to school this morning and it was 45 degrees.

Unknown said...

How, that looks amazing. It's a scene that I haven't seen since I left Cleveland years ago. Lubbock doesn't have that much snow. My back aches for you my friend.

Be safe! My best to the family!

IT

Memphis MOJO said...

Glad the cave is back in good shape!

Astin said...

I'm so glad I live in the balmy southern climes of Toronto. We had about 0.00003mm of flurries a couple weeks ago. Didn't stick.

But you knew what you were signing up for when you decided to live in snowy northern exile :).

muhctim said...

What kind of kharma from previous lives send people to live in a tundra in their next life???

BWoP said...

What is snow?