On the left, my daughter Jacqui shoveling out to the barn. On the right a view of the town where I work in Wilton.
Snow, snow, snow and yes...... more snow. That is life in Maine. You really do not truly understand how many different forms snow can take-unless you live here. Now, there are plenty of places in the world where it snows-yet-this is from what I know.
I was raised in Massachusetts and thought I really knew all about it. However was I mistaken-in a most major way! The snow there is for the most part-perfect for snowballs and a pain to shovel. I grew up in Southeastern Mass and we have had our share of snow. It is located somewhat near the ocean and it affects the snow in making it heavy for the most part when we get a lot of it (for that area). The snow easily molds in your hands and can harden and sometimes hurts when thrown at you. If you get a really good snowball going that is. The snow there falls mostly from December until February. There are always crocuses poking through the ground in early March-except one winter when we had over a foot of snow back when my girls were young on April Fool's Day in the early 90's. As a Flatlander we can recall the large storms by the year they occurred-such as the Blizzard of 1978. Mostly the snow falls in storms of anywhere from about 2 inches to about 10. Between the storms the snow mostly melts away. We lived to the east of the "Snow" belt which was route 495-to the west they always got the snow and we did only half of the time. We did get a lot of sleet and sometimes even rain. Most of it is gone by the beginning of March and Spring temperatures melt away the rest of it. It was the snow that I remember most. Perfect for building forts and making snowballs and sledding. There was a hill near my house that the neighborhood kids called "Killer Hill". I'm sure every neighborhood had one of those. The hill that our parents would kill us if they knew we were sledding down. It was a hill way out in the woods. It was always accessible in the winters in Massachusetts. After most snowfalls the snow would melt enough and sometime all together before the next storm arrived. So the trek was not that bad. This hill was covered in trees and we had to dodge around them in order to reach the bottom. It was certainly a frightening experience and one always went back for more. I seriously do not recall anyone ever being injured on it though-there were always those legends that made it all the more exciting. There is the snow fort snow, the snowball snow, the snow that you have to shovel so you can take the dogs out for a walk- snow. And last but not least the yellow snow-which leads to no further explanations!
When I was nineteen I had the opportunity to travel. I went to Europe in the Fall of 1989. I travelled all around the continent of Europe and Great Brittan on an Australian based tour group by Contikki Tours. I travelled with people aged 18-35 so there were a lot of parties on the tour. One of the places that we went to was Switzerland. We stayed in a gorgeous sky resort town called Lauderbrunnen which was in the middle of the Swiss Alps. We arrived at night and when we woke up we went outside of our ski lodges and took in the most beautiful scenery imaginable! I still have that view etched in my mind forever. There were trees in full greenery at the resort we were at and the snowline of the Alps above us! It was incredible! You could just breathe in the freedom and nature at its most serene. The mountain that we were on was 19 thousand feet above sea level and was called Jungfrau. That day we had a skiing trip. So we all gathered in town to take the cog rail up the mountain to the top. It was truly incredible the steep incline at which we ascended. The air was crisp and infectious with anticipation of all of us on board. Our eyes were glued to the window as we arrived at the snow line. There were people from Israel on the tour who immediately began reaching out the windows to grab the snow from the roof of the cog rail. The look on their faces was amazing-they looked like small children. It is wonderful to see the look on someones face-the first time they see snow. It was magical and I felt blessed to be a witness to their pure joy. As we climbed higher and higher we noticed that the roads ended since the altitude was so high. The chalets were nestled precariously in outcroppings with small footpaths leading from one to the next. We passed a huge cow-and to this day-I do not know how that cow balanced to agily-I know I could not have done the same and I only have two legs! Then there was actually a mountain goat-I felt like we entered the world of the movie "Heidi"-how Disneyesque it all was! When we arrived at the top we all practically ran to the ski area. It cost the equivalent at that time of $8.50 to rent skis and to ski down a slope. I noticed that there were not any ski instructors and I had no clue as to what to do. After learning how to put the boots on I turned to a friend on the tour from Oregon and asked, "So, how do you ski?" And smiled. He laughed and yelled back as he set off, "You bend you knees and go!" Well, I followed that advice and later learned how little it was and how easily I could have died. I did that-I bent my knees and skied straight down (you are supposed to sky-side to side...) So, naturally I built up tremendous speed and nearly knocked down a few other people on my way down and was yelling "How do I turn on these things!" The wind was my answer. The snow was heavy and it had been slick from the warmer temperatures. I was only wearing a sweatshirt and jeans. So down I flew-amazing I wasn't killed on that excursion-so little my teachings on the subject! I also thought, way too late- that I was never taught how to stop. So, I stopped the only way I could think of-by crashing where there was no one around. I crashed and my skies went flying. Some adorable French guys were nearby and laughed and found the skis for me. I then decided that this was how I was going to stop-providing they were nearby! So that was my Switzerland snow experience.
The last but certainly not least experience is my Maine snow adventure. Adventure it most certainly is, since I have learned a tremendous lot while living up here. As I mentioned that there are many kinds of snow. Now, up here one of the first things that I learned is that it is so cold that the snow does not melt all winter-but piles up to great heights. The banks are often so high that it is scary pulling out of an intersection. You inch out slowly hoping another car is not coming around the bend. For the most part, there is very little other traffic on the road, you can almost travel for miles without even encountering another car. I have also learned to drive in the middle of the road-since there is more time to recover the car if I go into a skid! As I mentioned before, there is this windy road nearby called the Borough road and people have reminisced to me of years back when they would get drunk and then snow bank their cars over and over again-on purpose! They seem very creative in their entertainment up here! Most of it involves either beer of their famous Coffee Brandy and driving in the snow-or both! there is very little traffic on the roads-if any up here-so I can see how that could actually be quite interesting-though not practiced anymore as more people have moved into the area-like me. Thank Goodness! Granted I'm sure it might still be practiced in some of the more remote mountainous regions-though I doubt many have lived to talk about it!
There are still many moose spotted in this region and you always have to keep a lookout for them, as well as deer and the many occasions when stray farm animals that have broken loose. Most of them are in the barn for the winter-but there have been occasions when I have spotted my neighbors horses in my other neighbors yard eating their rosebushes and have had to lead them back-they usually know the way. One time a horse broke free and ran over to another neighbors yard and died on their dog house-crushing it. That had to be interesting to remove. In the Spring there are a lot of these escapes when the snow thaws. They get all excited to be out of the barn after being cooped up all winter and find any excuse to break over the fences. One time coming home from work-I had to stop because there were over twenty cows out in the middle of the road. I had to run over to the house to let them know and wait for them to be brought inside. During the winter, there are a lot of stray dogs around. I have seen packs of them in the road foraging. Maybe, some of them abandoned by their owners due to the economy. You see them more and more these days.
The plows are much more aggressive out here and are huge. In Massachusetts the plows had been gone for the most part out of the towns budgets and most of them are hired out independently-there had not been that much snow in the years before I moved up here. In this area-the towns need them. They are not only an essential part of the town-but huge as well. They are known to run people off the roads if you are travelling too slow-not everyone up here has a four wheel drive! But they also knock over the less restrained mailboxes.
I never understood the mailbox thing until my first winter. Most mailboxes are way up high and are cleverly and independently attached. Some are on tall poles and are attached to the poles on dangling chains-which I find effective, since the mailboxes just dangle with the plows going by and are usually not lost. Some are on logs, some are built inside logs. They are all built to withstand the powerful plows going by. I do not know how may times I had my mailbox tossed and had to find in through several feet of snow. I always find mail in the Spring when the snow melts though, and sometimes-I wish I hadn't!
People have to line the dooryard (driveways) with tall poles-this is for the plows to find the area to plow-which would otherwise not be found in just an average storm here that falls weekly. I have since lost the fire pit and tried to find it today (so the plow would not hit it) Alas, still not found to this moment. People frequently throw the ashes out from the wood stove onto the walkway so that it prevents some icing-sometime straight from the stove-organic of course. This only leads to a huge mess- and I have since given that practice up. You also have to make sure that you have plenty of sand for the driveway. This winter someone came by in a truck and went around house to house charging $10 to spread it out on the dooryards! I thought it a wonderful idea-since the winters here create one monster of an ice pit in the driveway. You must have excellent traction and even spikes on your boots to even get to the car on days when it is not snowing! I have fallen many times and still never underestimate the power of it! I have since purchased some spikes that I can attach and remove-greatest invention! My kids just sled down the driveway hill to the bus stop on their sleds. They are so creative.
After the snow has piled up several feet, there is a huge coat of ice over it that makes it almost easy for kids to walk on and us to suffer in trying to catch them or rescue them from going down hills they cannot return to the top on! My youngest daughter Tiffany loves to slide down the hills on sleds and her but and scream for me to rescue her. It is almost a game now. I careful trek down the very steep hill to the bottom, keeping balance on the very high icy snow-by digging in an old shovel as I make my way slowly down. I bring her up on the sled that I tie to my waist and trek back up via shovel. Then when I am almost inside the house taking off my boots, she yells out again for the game to repeat. Great work out-let me tell you!
There are many stories about those who plow up here in the country. I have heard from some who have been here many years that they would all hang out in the garage waiting til after 5p- to plow (mostly getting drunk) and then going out to plow to get the time and a half in pay. How true that is-I would never know, I haven't been here that long and this was before my time. When I first moved up here I was amazed that I could have my neighbor's father plow my driveway for a six pack of beer-cans! I found out from someone else (Everybody seems to know everybody else up here!) that he used to work for the town and was one of those talked about. Now, I never bothered to peek and see if he actually drank that beer that I gave him while he was plowing my driveway or not-I was afraid to! Just as long as he did not knock over my mailbox!
Then there is the yukky snow that builds up in the tire wells that you need to kick out or it slows down the car. This needs to almost be done on a daily basis up here.
In the fall there is the much waited for snow-people still get nostalgic up here remembering vainly the days sat by the wood stoves. When that first real accumulating snow occurs everyone stops to embrace it-even Mainers! Then it does not stop. The days grow shorter and colder. The temperatures drop down to way below zero-this winter it had dropped down to 50 below! There there is the wind that follows. The initial snow of the season does not usually bring this-but it is fast behind to remind you that your house better be draft tight. About September-when the nights are below freezing, people hit the stores buying lots of plastic to put up on the windows with staple guns to fight the wind we know is close behind the early scenic snow. We go out and add to our winter wardrobe and buy even warmer boots and jackets and find all of the thermals packed in the attic and the wool socks. You need wool up here-that is a must. I always try to crochet a new blanket to add to our growing supply in the living room and bedrooms. There are never enough blankets-my bedroom is on the end of the house and the wood stove does not reach it well and in the cold winter nights and I have my littlest daughter and I sleep in our thermals all snuggled under twenty or so blankets.
That early snow is always fun for the kids to play in and not that bad shoveling. Then more is added along with the winds that will actually knock you down if not prepared for it. As the snow piles up outside the roads become more precarious and they are not plowed as much as before due to the towns budgets. The chains are added to the buses that pick up the kids and the kids wait at the bus stop all clad from head to toe in their winter gear, complete with the essential snow pants for the windchill!. My youngest goes through three pairs each winter and grows out of them by next winter.
We have a barn with sheep, so every storm we are out shovelling to get to them. This is the time of year when we cannot have the garden hose fill up their trough out in the field-but we have to trudge out large buckets of water and bring in the frozen ones to thaw out before dumping and refilling again. We fill up the water for them in the kitchen sink. Also the snow is piled up so high, when there arrives a day when they can no longer go out in their beloved field and are virtually snowbound until Spring thaw when we are finally able to open the barn doors again. This time of year we add wood shavings to their stalls and are constantly breaking ice for them. In the winter, those buckets freeze solid in hours-if that and we always have spare ones filled to replace them from inside! My sheep are Icelandic though and love the snow. I have seen them outside during a small storm with inches of snow on their backs-not frazzled by it one bit!
Up here, the average snowfall is 90 inches, but usually by the end of the winter is seems like a lot more than that. Last winter we had a record of over eight feet of snow in total! The Blizzard of 78 is weak in comparison to the average winter up here! I do love it or I would not still be up here. There is a definite pride in surviving all of it and the battle stories at work are a testament to it. Just last night we had 26 and a half inches of snow and most of us still made it in to work! I had to first shovel out to the barn and make sure the sheep were taken care of. My daughters were home from school and maintained the wood stove and kept up on the wood supply and watched the animals. I had to then shovel out to find my car! I gave in and begged my daughter to help. I went into work for a later shift-but after digging out-some of the drifts were up to my shoulders and the snow left by the plow at the end of the drivway was brutal! I am going to try to upload some pictures of this snow of today. The snow today was of the Spring snow variety, where the temperature was around 30. It was still powdery for the most part and easy to shovel-though there was a lot of it. The snow had drifted into my yard and in the back I can no longer see the dog house or the side of the barn-so high was it piled up! Some drifts were way over my head! Nature is incredibly amazing here and never ceases to show me the power of it. I felt so spoiled growing up in Massachusetts!
As you can tell most of the people ski here and my daughters have learned how to ski in gym class! Sugarloaf is nearby and all of the other resorts within a half hour for the most part away from us here in Cheddahville! I have since learned to ski properly and love it! I can even now ski down a section of Sugarloaf called "Chicken Pitch" in that most people fall on this section. It is on Tote Road and in not really an expert slope-but I can now ski down it with out "ski-sitting" down it on my but-as I have before!
You cannot travel in your own backyard up here-you definitely need show shoes for this-which I have as well. There are also the snowmobiles. They are everywhere! The Maine snow trails are well groomed and lead all of the way to Canada. There are always snowmobiles parked at the local corner stores and gliding through the fields on any given day here. You can be as poor as dirt and still have some sort of snowmobile up here! Gotta love the priorities! In the depths of winter as the snow is piling high most people take to skiing, or the snowmobiling, and snowshoeing. The most interesting part is very rarely do people up here stay inside. There is always something to do that is outside. There might be piles of snow outside and you can no longer see out the first floor windows anymore-but you get outside and experience it! My daughters are always outside and in the Spring I can always find their sleds in various parts of the yard-long lost from not being brough in.
The best part of the great depts of snow and frigid temperatures in coming inside. It is essential that one wear many layers in the winter. It is easier to peel them off as you go inside to warm cozy houses where sometimes only Spring clothes suffice-since the wood stove is blazing and roasting everyone inside. You peel off the outer layers and hang them on racks to dry by the woodstove. The clothes usually have that woodsy smell of cedar or birch or elm, whatever was burned in the stove. I also put some oils and herbs on the pot of water on the stove like lavender or apple and cinnamon. The air gets so dry that it is almost unbearable during winters up here. The air dusty as well. My sinuses have felt the pain of a woodstove and some people mention they wake up with nosebleeds since the air is so dry! I have learned to hang my clean clothes to dry in the main room of the house to alleviate some of this and constantly replace the water on the stove. Also, lots and lots of moisturizer! This is key-each person up here has their own brand of preference regarding this-so valuable that it is here! I try many.
Despite all of this, nothing beats the pride you get after conquering so much nature to make to work on time! As well as the felling of curling up with a book by the woodstove. My dogs lounging by the base and my cats finding any spot by the windows possible. The snow piled up on the window sills or in the case of the snow last night-sticking to them. I pile on the blankets until the woodfire reaches my bones and then bask in the warmth of it all and of what is outside. A brief respite from the fury of nature is won in those lacadasical moments and treasured. Those moments make it all worthwhile. My daughters snuggling by me reading their own books by the glow of the kerosine lamps when the power is lost.
The snow in the depts of winter is dry and powdery and due to the cold-and does not happen at all. It can actually be too cold for snow! This happens in January-where we have frequent subzerio temperatures. You need to heat up the car for a half an hour just to get inside. There were many times when I had to heat up some water in a kettle to pour over the door-just to open it. You cover every inch of skin and run fast through the snow to get the keys inside to heat it up! Tires freeze when it is 25 below zero and the driving is sluggish-not to mention that you have to make sure you kick out the snow in the tire wells!
Needless to say there are many types of snow-And I know there is many more that I have to learn about. People have asked my why live in Maine. As you see above, there are many reasons. And when I can affornd snowmobile and to ski-there will be two more!
I was raised in Massachusetts and thought I really knew all about it. However was I mistaken-in a most major way! The snow there is for the most part-perfect for snowballs and a pain to shovel. I grew up in Southeastern Mass and we have had our share of snow. It is located somewhat near the ocean and it affects the snow in making it heavy for the most part when we get a lot of it (for that area). The snow easily molds in your hands and can harden and sometimes hurts when thrown at you. If you get a really good snowball going that is. The snow there falls mostly from December until February. There are always crocuses poking through the ground in early March-except one winter when we had over a foot of snow back when my girls were young on April Fool's Day in the early 90's. As a Flatlander we can recall the large storms by the year they occurred-such as the Blizzard of 1978. Mostly the snow falls in storms of anywhere from about 2 inches to about 10. Between the storms the snow mostly melts away. We lived to the east of the "Snow" belt which was route 495-to the west they always got the snow and we did only half of the time. We did get a lot of sleet and sometimes even rain. Most of it is gone by the beginning of March and Spring temperatures melt away the rest of it. It was the snow that I remember most. Perfect for building forts and making snowballs and sledding. There was a hill near my house that the neighborhood kids called "Killer Hill". I'm sure every neighborhood had one of those. The hill that our parents would kill us if they knew we were sledding down. It was a hill way out in the woods. It was always accessible in the winters in Massachusetts. After most snowfalls the snow would melt enough and sometime all together before the next storm arrived. So the trek was not that bad. This hill was covered in trees and we had to dodge around them in order to reach the bottom. It was certainly a frightening experience and one always went back for more. I seriously do not recall anyone ever being injured on it though-there were always those legends that made it all the more exciting. There is the snow fort snow, the snowball snow, the snow that you have to shovel so you can take the dogs out for a walk- snow. And last but not least the yellow snow-which leads to no further explanations!
When I was nineteen I had the opportunity to travel. I went to Europe in the Fall of 1989. I travelled all around the continent of Europe and Great Brittan on an Australian based tour group by Contikki Tours. I travelled with people aged 18-35 so there were a lot of parties on the tour. One of the places that we went to was Switzerland. We stayed in a gorgeous sky resort town called Lauderbrunnen which was in the middle of the Swiss Alps. We arrived at night and when we woke up we went outside of our ski lodges and took in the most beautiful scenery imaginable! I still have that view etched in my mind forever. There were trees in full greenery at the resort we were at and the snowline of the Alps above us! It was incredible! You could just breathe in the freedom and nature at its most serene. The mountain that we were on was 19 thousand feet above sea level and was called Jungfrau. That day we had a skiing trip. So we all gathered in town to take the cog rail up the mountain to the top. It was truly incredible the steep incline at which we ascended. The air was crisp and infectious with anticipation of all of us on board. Our eyes were glued to the window as we arrived at the snow line. There were people from Israel on the tour who immediately began reaching out the windows to grab the snow from the roof of the cog rail. The look on their faces was amazing-they looked like small children. It is wonderful to see the look on someones face-the first time they see snow. It was magical and I felt blessed to be a witness to their pure joy. As we climbed higher and higher we noticed that the roads ended since the altitude was so high. The chalets were nestled precariously in outcroppings with small footpaths leading from one to the next. We passed a huge cow-and to this day-I do not know how that cow balanced to agily-I know I could not have done the same and I only have two legs! Then there was actually a mountain goat-I felt like we entered the world of the movie "Heidi"-how Disneyesque it all was! When we arrived at the top we all practically ran to the ski area. It cost the equivalent at that time of $8.50 to rent skis and to ski down a slope. I noticed that there were not any ski instructors and I had no clue as to what to do. After learning how to put the boots on I turned to a friend on the tour from Oregon and asked, "So, how do you ski?" And smiled. He laughed and yelled back as he set off, "You bend you knees and go!" Well, I followed that advice and later learned how little it was and how easily I could have died. I did that-I bent my knees and skied straight down (you are supposed to sky-side to side...) So, naturally I built up tremendous speed and nearly knocked down a few other people on my way down and was yelling "How do I turn on these things!" The wind was my answer. The snow was heavy and it had been slick from the warmer temperatures. I was only wearing a sweatshirt and jeans. So down I flew-amazing I wasn't killed on that excursion-so little my teachings on the subject! I also thought, way too late- that I was never taught how to stop. So, I stopped the only way I could think of-by crashing where there was no one around. I crashed and my skies went flying. Some adorable French guys were nearby and laughed and found the skis for me. I then decided that this was how I was going to stop-providing they were nearby! So that was my Switzerland snow experience.
The last but certainly not least experience is my Maine snow adventure. Adventure it most certainly is, since I have learned a tremendous lot while living up here. As I mentioned that there are many kinds of snow. Now, up here one of the first things that I learned is that it is so cold that the snow does not melt all winter-but piles up to great heights. The banks are often so high that it is scary pulling out of an intersection. You inch out slowly hoping another car is not coming around the bend. For the most part, there is very little other traffic on the road, you can almost travel for miles without even encountering another car. I have also learned to drive in the middle of the road-since there is more time to recover the car if I go into a skid! As I mentioned before, there is this windy road nearby called the Borough road and people have reminisced to me of years back when they would get drunk and then snow bank their cars over and over again-on purpose! They seem very creative in their entertainment up here! Most of it involves either beer of their famous Coffee Brandy and driving in the snow-or both! there is very little traffic on the roads-if any up here-so I can see how that could actually be quite interesting-though not practiced anymore as more people have moved into the area-like me. Thank Goodness! Granted I'm sure it might still be practiced in some of the more remote mountainous regions-though I doubt many have lived to talk about it!
There are still many moose spotted in this region and you always have to keep a lookout for them, as well as deer and the many occasions when stray farm animals that have broken loose. Most of them are in the barn for the winter-but there have been occasions when I have spotted my neighbors horses in my other neighbors yard eating their rosebushes and have had to lead them back-they usually know the way. One time a horse broke free and ran over to another neighbors yard and died on their dog house-crushing it. That had to be interesting to remove. In the Spring there are a lot of these escapes when the snow thaws. They get all excited to be out of the barn after being cooped up all winter and find any excuse to break over the fences. One time coming home from work-I had to stop because there were over twenty cows out in the middle of the road. I had to run over to the house to let them know and wait for them to be brought inside. During the winter, there are a lot of stray dogs around. I have seen packs of them in the road foraging. Maybe, some of them abandoned by their owners due to the economy. You see them more and more these days.
The plows are much more aggressive out here and are huge. In Massachusetts the plows had been gone for the most part out of the towns budgets and most of them are hired out independently-there had not been that much snow in the years before I moved up here. In this area-the towns need them. They are not only an essential part of the town-but huge as well. They are known to run people off the roads if you are travelling too slow-not everyone up here has a four wheel drive! But they also knock over the less restrained mailboxes.
I never understood the mailbox thing until my first winter. Most mailboxes are way up high and are cleverly and independently attached. Some are on tall poles and are attached to the poles on dangling chains-which I find effective, since the mailboxes just dangle with the plows going by and are usually not lost. Some are on logs, some are built inside logs. They are all built to withstand the powerful plows going by. I do not know how may times I had my mailbox tossed and had to find in through several feet of snow. I always find mail in the Spring when the snow melts though, and sometimes-I wish I hadn't!
People have to line the dooryard (driveways) with tall poles-this is for the plows to find the area to plow-which would otherwise not be found in just an average storm here that falls weekly. I have since lost the fire pit and tried to find it today (so the plow would not hit it) Alas, still not found to this moment. People frequently throw the ashes out from the wood stove onto the walkway so that it prevents some icing-sometime straight from the stove-organic of course. This only leads to a huge mess- and I have since given that practice up. You also have to make sure that you have plenty of sand for the driveway. This winter someone came by in a truck and went around house to house charging $10 to spread it out on the dooryards! I thought it a wonderful idea-since the winters here create one monster of an ice pit in the driveway. You must have excellent traction and even spikes on your boots to even get to the car on days when it is not snowing! I have fallen many times and still never underestimate the power of it! I have since purchased some spikes that I can attach and remove-greatest invention! My kids just sled down the driveway hill to the bus stop on their sleds. They are so creative.
After the snow has piled up several feet, there is a huge coat of ice over it that makes it almost easy for kids to walk on and us to suffer in trying to catch them or rescue them from going down hills they cannot return to the top on! My youngest daughter Tiffany loves to slide down the hills on sleds and her but and scream for me to rescue her. It is almost a game now. I careful trek down the very steep hill to the bottom, keeping balance on the very high icy snow-by digging in an old shovel as I make my way slowly down. I bring her up on the sled that I tie to my waist and trek back up via shovel. Then when I am almost inside the house taking off my boots, she yells out again for the game to repeat. Great work out-let me tell you!
There are many stories about those who plow up here in the country. I have heard from some who have been here many years that they would all hang out in the garage waiting til after 5p- to plow (mostly getting drunk) and then going out to plow to get the time and a half in pay. How true that is-I would never know, I haven't been here that long and this was before my time. When I first moved up here I was amazed that I could have my neighbor's father plow my driveway for a six pack of beer-cans! I found out from someone else (Everybody seems to know everybody else up here!) that he used to work for the town and was one of those talked about. Now, I never bothered to peek and see if he actually drank that beer that I gave him while he was plowing my driveway or not-I was afraid to! Just as long as he did not knock over my mailbox!
Then there is the yukky snow that builds up in the tire wells that you need to kick out or it slows down the car. This needs to almost be done on a daily basis up here.
In the fall there is the much waited for snow-people still get nostalgic up here remembering vainly the days sat by the wood stoves. When that first real accumulating snow occurs everyone stops to embrace it-even Mainers! Then it does not stop. The days grow shorter and colder. The temperatures drop down to way below zero-this winter it had dropped down to 50 below! There there is the wind that follows. The initial snow of the season does not usually bring this-but it is fast behind to remind you that your house better be draft tight. About September-when the nights are below freezing, people hit the stores buying lots of plastic to put up on the windows with staple guns to fight the wind we know is close behind the early scenic snow. We go out and add to our winter wardrobe and buy even warmer boots and jackets and find all of the thermals packed in the attic and the wool socks. You need wool up here-that is a must. I always try to crochet a new blanket to add to our growing supply in the living room and bedrooms. There are never enough blankets-my bedroom is on the end of the house and the wood stove does not reach it well and in the cold winter nights and I have my littlest daughter and I sleep in our thermals all snuggled under twenty or so blankets.
That early snow is always fun for the kids to play in and not that bad shoveling. Then more is added along with the winds that will actually knock you down if not prepared for it. As the snow piles up outside the roads become more precarious and they are not plowed as much as before due to the towns budgets. The chains are added to the buses that pick up the kids and the kids wait at the bus stop all clad from head to toe in their winter gear, complete with the essential snow pants for the windchill!. My youngest goes through three pairs each winter and grows out of them by next winter.
We have a barn with sheep, so every storm we are out shovelling to get to them. This is the time of year when we cannot have the garden hose fill up their trough out in the field-but we have to trudge out large buckets of water and bring in the frozen ones to thaw out before dumping and refilling again. We fill up the water for them in the kitchen sink. Also the snow is piled up so high, when there arrives a day when they can no longer go out in their beloved field and are virtually snowbound until Spring thaw when we are finally able to open the barn doors again. This time of year we add wood shavings to their stalls and are constantly breaking ice for them. In the winter, those buckets freeze solid in hours-if that and we always have spare ones filled to replace them from inside! My sheep are Icelandic though and love the snow. I have seen them outside during a small storm with inches of snow on their backs-not frazzled by it one bit!
Up here, the average snowfall is 90 inches, but usually by the end of the winter is seems like a lot more than that. Last winter we had a record of over eight feet of snow in total! The Blizzard of 78 is weak in comparison to the average winter up here! I do love it or I would not still be up here. There is a definite pride in surviving all of it and the battle stories at work are a testament to it. Just last night we had 26 and a half inches of snow and most of us still made it in to work! I had to first shovel out to the barn and make sure the sheep were taken care of. My daughters were home from school and maintained the wood stove and kept up on the wood supply and watched the animals. I had to then shovel out to find my car! I gave in and begged my daughter to help. I went into work for a later shift-but after digging out-some of the drifts were up to my shoulders and the snow left by the plow at the end of the drivway was brutal! I am going to try to upload some pictures of this snow of today. The snow today was of the Spring snow variety, where the temperature was around 30. It was still powdery for the most part and easy to shovel-though there was a lot of it. The snow had drifted into my yard and in the back I can no longer see the dog house or the side of the barn-so high was it piled up! Some drifts were way over my head! Nature is incredibly amazing here and never ceases to show me the power of it. I felt so spoiled growing up in Massachusetts!
As you can tell most of the people ski here and my daughters have learned how to ski in gym class! Sugarloaf is nearby and all of the other resorts within a half hour for the most part away from us here in Cheddahville! I have since learned to ski properly and love it! I can even now ski down a section of Sugarloaf called "Chicken Pitch" in that most people fall on this section. It is on Tote Road and in not really an expert slope-but I can now ski down it with out "ski-sitting" down it on my but-as I have before!
You cannot travel in your own backyard up here-you definitely need show shoes for this-which I have as well. There are also the snowmobiles. They are everywhere! The Maine snow trails are well groomed and lead all of the way to Canada. There are always snowmobiles parked at the local corner stores and gliding through the fields on any given day here. You can be as poor as dirt and still have some sort of snowmobile up here! Gotta love the priorities! In the depths of winter as the snow is piling high most people take to skiing, or the snowmobiling, and snowshoeing. The most interesting part is very rarely do people up here stay inside. There is always something to do that is outside. There might be piles of snow outside and you can no longer see out the first floor windows anymore-but you get outside and experience it! My daughters are always outside and in the Spring I can always find their sleds in various parts of the yard-long lost from not being brough in.
The best part of the great depts of snow and frigid temperatures in coming inside. It is essential that one wear many layers in the winter. It is easier to peel them off as you go inside to warm cozy houses where sometimes only Spring clothes suffice-since the wood stove is blazing and roasting everyone inside. You peel off the outer layers and hang them on racks to dry by the woodstove. The clothes usually have that woodsy smell of cedar or birch or elm, whatever was burned in the stove. I also put some oils and herbs on the pot of water on the stove like lavender or apple and cinnamon. The air gets so dry that it is almost unbearable during winters up here. The air dusty as well. My sinuses have felt the pain of a woodstove and some people mention they wake up with nosebleeds since the air is so dry! I have learned to hang my clean clothes to dry in the main room of the house to alleviate some of this and constantly replace the water on the stove. Also, lots and lots of moisturizer! This is key-each person up here has their own brand of preference regarding this-so valuable that it is here! I try many.
Despite all of this, nothing beats the pride you get after conquering so much nature to make to work on time! As well as the felling of curling up with a book by the woodstove. My dogs lounging by the base and my cats finding any spot by the windows possible. The snow piled up on the window sills or in the case of the snow last night-sticking to them. I pile on the blankets until the woodfire reaches my bones and then bask in the warmth of it all and of what is outside. A brief respite from the fury of nature is won in those lacadasical moments and treasured. Those moments make it all worthwhile. My daughters snuggling by me reading their own books by the glow of the kerosine lamps when the power is lost.
The snow in the depts of winter is dry and powdery and due to the cold-and does not happen at all. It can actually be too cold for snow! This happens in January-where we have frequent subzerio temperatures. You need to heat up the car for a half an hour just to get inside. There were many times when I had to heat up some water in a kettle to pour over the door-just to open it. You cover every inch of skin and run fast through the snow to get the keys inside to heat it up! Tires freeze when it is 25 below zero and the driving is sluggish-not to mention that you have to make sure you kick out the snow in the tire wells!
Needless to say there are many types of snow-And I know there is many more that I have to learn about. People have asked my why live in Maine. As you see above, there are many reasons. And when I can affornd snowmobile and to ski-there will be two more!
Thank God I didn't have a car for this storm. Love your blog!
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