Let it SNOW, let it SNOW, let it SNOW – NO!!
This has been a huge month for SNOW – 113 inches (not quite 12 FEET of snow), measured only once a day on the same porch railing, which I scrape clean each time. Keeping my OLD husband busy with the snow blower, and my sprained wrist is getting a good work out WITH THE BRACE by shoveling the white stuff. IT SURE IS PRETTY. We were THRILLED to get three days of sunshine to help the roofs to dump when there were no guests here at the Rivers Resort in Strawberry – 95375. Falling snow is wet, cold, and can hurt when there is ICE under the snow.
The “Garden View” that I have from the Office here on the old Post Office side of the building looks like the garden in the Disney movie FROZEN. Our roof was one of those that dumped a couple of days ago. We had 11 inches of snow on February 2nd and then RAIN on the 3rd so there was a NICE thick layer of ICE when the temperature dropped again with the next snow storm, and the next storm, and the next storm… Ice bergs like the ones that made the news on Lake Superior by filling patios with big chunks of lake ice.
Fortunately, today is a mixture of rain and snow, rain and snow, with winds to keep you inside if you are smart. That explains why I am posting just to let you all know that we are still alive and dealing as best we can with this winter. A GOOD OLD FASHIONED WINTER, like the year we moved to Strawberry – 40 years ago – when the INN was just a big mound of snow with the dormers on the second story punctuating the snow. Like winters when we lived in the house on Tanager Dr – after both boys had left home and Kathleen was in High School. I would call on Son Tom (he is the tree climber who is not afraid of heights) and he and I would get on the roof whenever the weight of the snow caused the tension rod holding the shower curtain to hit the floor. That was a sure sign that the walls were bulging! We would chop out chunks of packed snow and lever it off the edges of the roof.
That was the era when husband Tom coined the phrase “mowing the grass” whenever he fired up the snow blower to widen the road. The plow truck driver just had no more space to push the snow. We are in that space again!! No more room to push the snow! And winter isn’t over yet…It took TWO snow blowers the last two weekends to make enough space to park the cars that came with the guests. Great year for skiing, except for the fact that the storms were forecast for the weekend! The media likes to protect the “city folks” by advising not to go to the mountains, or at the least BE PREPARED!! We are fortunate that there are no mountain passes on Hiway 108. However, to have the chain sign in Jamestown 40 miles down the hill, not once but three times in ten days makes driving a challenge to be sure!
AND not everyone likes to ski in blizzards like my husband. He and a long time friend from the Bay Area would cut head and arm holes in the heavy weight plastic bags to allow them dry rides up the chair lifts and down the slopes in blizzard conditions!! Give me the fireplace in the lodge and a cup of HOT chocolate! Our skiing ended with Tom’s last back surgery in 2008. We even donated the ski equipment to the Methodist Men’s Yard Sale the year that he retired from Sonora United Methodist Church. It was a fun way to exercise but bodies were just not up to it anymore. GREAT MEMORIES THOUGH!!
