It was a low snow winter until lately. 12 inches last week and then 18 more fell 2 days later. It's the real fluffy stuff. We shoveled off our roof yesterday. It was waist high on my wife.

I talked to the mailman today, forgot to ask him what his total moisture fall has been for the last month or 2.

He must have a nice weather machine, that keeps track of everything, wind speed and all.

We has snow on the ground last Friday, then Saturday we had a cold rain. The temp stayed right at 35* here in the valley, timber was getting heavy. Across the mountain to the east, one man had over 1/2 inch of freezing rain.

I took my rain gauge down a while back, so I'm not positive how much we dig get? But it was a steady cold rain.

Some parts of West Virginia had some serious flooding the other day, locally everything is good, far as I know. I'm down to 24* now, so that will help dry up everything.

We have been lucky with snowfall this winter,15 inches so far!
But it has been colder than the last few years.

I talked to the mailman yesterday, as the crow flies he lives about 5 miles from here. But his house is right at 3,000 feet in elevation, the highest top of the mountain, just to the north is over 3,200 feet.

These numbers go back before Christmas. So far he's had 2.20 inches of rain, plus 26 inches of snow. From here in the valley, lots of times you'll be able to see it snowing in the mountains for 2 or 3 hours before we even get our first snowflake.

On the other hand, if you're up high in the mountains, sometimes you'll be able to see snow squalls off 20 or 25 miles, places that are getting hammered. It's about the same as hit and miss thunderstorms.

I think it's been colder than average here too. We've had quite a few days/nights when she was making ice. I've had several folks tell me that their woodpile is getting small. Other folks have told me about their heating bills, fuel oil and electric.

We are in the process of tapping trails with snow shoes so that the snow mobile can pass. Then I can dog sled!

My Tundra skidoo gets stuck if we go off the already, prestorm, tapped trail. Snow goes over the windshield when you are on the old trail and steering is surf style. It's tricky and eventually you veer off trail.

The mountain snowmobiles with the big paddles dig trenches and are having fun. But they don't make a useable trail. My neighbour has 2 old Elans. He blew the motor on one and the frame on the other. I got stuck in the yard a couple of times. My arms are now 6 inches longer. Snow is crotch deep when you step off the trail.

There are many varieties of snow. This year it has been fine and there is no bottom to it. There is too much air in the snow.

I saw where 2 moose crossed our woodlot. Moose are up to their bellies when in the trees.

Deer make trails and bound in the clear. They are in trouble.

Snowshoe hare are sinking a good 6 inches. I saw lynx tracks yesterday. They are taking small steps and sink 2 inches. Their feet are HUGE.

It is good snow shoeing as there is no crust. I must sink 20 inches.

The sun is getting stronger and this fluff will settle down eventually. But the deer are going to take a real hit.

I agree about the deer, they are in a bind. If the snow is up to the belly of a moose, that would be shoulder deep on a deer. With the wolves, they wouldn't stand a chance.

We've had 2 little snows this week, not much here in town. Just enough that school was closed 2 days and a delay on the third day. Our kids have missed school, I think it's been 11 or 12 days so far?

We have snow in the mountains, I had 11* F. this am. It's really warmed up today, up to 46* now. 4:30 pm.

On snowshoes, sinking 20 inches, that would be slow and tricky too.

I use ski poles while snowshoeing. The deer are making troughs as they move. Then they bound a few leaps to try and get near a coniferous tree where there is less snow.

All my trails are now tapped with the skidoo. My son was a huge help. Dog sledding is on the menu today!

Snow that deep is hard on all animals! I remember back about 25 years or so
we had a couple feet of snow that got a hard crust on top. The deer weren't
heavy enough to break threw the crust, and slide down the slide of the hills
or mountains and split there pelvis and broke legs. Come spring gobbler season
we found a lot of dead deer.

It will be 5 C. tomorrow with a touch of rain. That should firm up the snow and help.

I'm off today to check out a toboggan dog sled. I used to have one but lost it when an outbuilding collapsed, several years ago, due to snow build up!

The toboggan sleds float more on the snow. There are no runners to dig in. This new sled would go better than the basket sled I usually use. But it will be slower.

Gotta have all the toys.

I'm glad that you got your trails opened up. The way you described the snow, I figured it'd take a while longer.

Curious, when you opened the trails with your snow machine, I'm sure just one pass would be wide enough for your basket. Two dogs wide and all. Or is it best to make 2 passes, steering a little bit wide? If a dog falls off in the powder, it'd be up to it's ears.

Talking about the deer winter kill, we had one about the same time. It's been over 20 years ago, don't remember exactly. It was 2 or 3 years after Mossberg introduced their 835 Ultra Mag. 3.5" 12 gauge. And I think a year after Browning started their 3.5" BPS. One day in spring turkey season, I found 4 or 5, maybe 6 deer? We'd been cold, and the carcasses kept fair, but still enough to sniff them out. They were cutting timber on that property that spring, they found a pile of dead deer.

I've been wearing my Toque (toboggan) a good bit this winter. If you get a chance, I'd like to see a picture of this new toboggan. But with that much of base under your trails, that should last for weeks and weeks.

Thinking about that snow, it may have been back in 1996? We had a pile of snow in the mountains and then it rained. We had some bad flooding in this area.

We still have a little bit of snow in the mountains, here local. The rivers are fishable, little bit of ice on the flood control dams.