January weather forecast: Snow! No, rain! No, snow! No, rain! No.....

Welcome to the midst of January near beautiful downtown Moonstone.  The last three weeks have featured 9 different snow falls (total 38.5”) and 6 different rain falls (total 21.4 mm) , leading to blowing the driveway 8 times and shoveling the patio 7 times.  More on that later!

January 1 was a beautiful day and we used the occasion to go snowshoeing.  There was 22” on snow on the ground, and few animals had been out due to the depth of the snow.  We firmly believe we have been put on this property to create snowshoe trails for the animals to follow.  (We have seen fox tracks and deer tracks on our driveway.)

Dealing with the amount of snow this year has proven a challenge.  (We ultimately got to 25” on the ground.)  While Brian does the snowblowing of the driveway, I adopted shovelling of the patio as my responsibility.  That proved to be a silly decision since I rapidly got to the point where throwing snow over the existing snowbanks was a LOT of work.

Because of that, we have established a new outdoor upper-body workout room.  You will note the sophisticated weight training equipment I have been using.

So, enough complaining about the snow.  Now I will complain about the rain!  We have had a number of short rainfalls which have just been annoying.  However, on January 10 in the evening, we got the results of ice damming on the roof combined with some rain.  We never get much water (2 or 3 cups), but the sounds of water dripping are enough to give Brian screaming nightmares for months.

Heavy rain and high winds followed later that night, and then the temperatures dropped below freezing.  There was ice everywhere.  We got the first glimpse, peeking out the driveway (skating rink) along the road and then across the road to the forest.  There has been lots of broken branches.

Evergreens, like the white pine in our front yard, got the brunt of the ice.  One amusing thing in our front yard was the Canadian flag, completely frozen in place.

We are now currently experiencing some mild temperatures, so Brian has a rest from snowblowing, and I have changed from shoveling the patio to de-icing the patio.  Variety is the spice of life!  (One day we will get a real life.......)

There is now only 16" of snow on the ground, and who knows what weather will come next....