"First Snow of February....."

February 1st dawned with about 6" of new snow. After shoveling and using the snowblower to get that cleaned up, it began snowing again. The wind also began picking up, and continued to get stronger throughout the rest of the day. By the time Don had walked home from work, we had the beginnings of "blizzard like" conditions.

We awoke yesterday to much more snow, and the winds had carved some spectacular drifts. Copper usually goes out right when we wake up, which she did, but turned around after only walking about 3' from the door. Her body language clearly said...."I don't think so!".

Later, when I was dressed and ready to go and "play" in the snow, she did make the attempt, succeeding this time, to go out and take care of business. However, she did not do her normal "checking the perimeter". She made it as far as shown in the photo, turned around, and immediately went back into the house.

She did not look pleased.....

I shoveled out to the chicken coop and the compost (which is located next to the back gate). After shoveling a path from the chicken coop to the greenhouse (the chickens will spend time in the greenhouse when the weather is nice enough for them to be out in their run) I opened the coop to check on their water and food. The force of the wind had blown snow into the coop, covering the entire floor, so I had to shovel the snow from inside, too. I'd thought while shoveling outside the coop that the chickens were a bit more talkative that morning. I couldn't see inside due to the snow on the windows, but after opening the door, I understood that they were exclaiming their dismay at the snow inside!

A view from the chicken coop.

After the backyard clean up, I headed out front. Thank goodness we have a snowblower! With the garage under the house, we have some fairly high sidewalls along the driveway. High enough that it doesn't take long for the snow to pile up too high for me to continue tossing more up there. My clean up strategy has to change. ;) I now have to throw the snow towards the street before some of it can be thrown up and over the sidewalls. After the amount thrown up yesterday (and still not done), I had to throw it further towards and out into the street. From there, I was able to move it off the street and throw it up into Tracie and Bridget's front yard. Thank goodness their driveway is on the other side of their house!

We live in a great neighborhood! Everyone was out helping each other do clean up. While I was using the snowblower over at Andy and Angela's, Andy and Lonny shoveled the snow from our deck.

More snow is predicted for the upcoming weekend. Something to look forward to.........