This is an easy post to write and share. I know some of you aren’t used to the kind of snowfall this area can get, so I thought I’d put up a few pictures to show you. Understand this; I’m posting this Tuesday night. On Thursday there wasn’t a single bit of snow on the ground. It started snowing Thursday although it hadn’t really been predicted to come until Friday at some point. Even on Friday, there might have only been one inch of snow on the ground.
Not any more. I took these pictures Tuesday morning after I’d shoveled the driveway for the 7th time since Saturday. This isn’t a storm by the way; this is just what it can be like where I live when what’s known as “lake effect” gets going. Officially the city of Syracuse says the snowfall is under the 26 inches I know we have. Where I live is right on the line of what’s called the “snowbelt“, which means sometimes we’ll get more snow than the city and sometimes we get what the city gets, as we’re just slightly north of the city.
You wouldn’t think 5 to 10 miles could make a big difference; trust me, in this area it does. Actually, about 30 miles north of here they have at least twice as much snow as we have. By the time the snow season is over, we’ll probably have between 150 and 190 inches of snow; some communities up there will have nearly 400 inches, if not more. That includes the city I went to college in, called Oswego. Yup, we’re gluttons for punishment, but our summers for the most part are beautiful.
By the way, you might wonder why I don’t have a snow blower. I used to use my dad’s old one but it broke and I sold it. Then we hired a guy for a few years to do the driveway, but it seemed we were really losing money on the deal. So the last two years I’ve done it. Last year we would have needed plowing only 3 or 4 times, and at $250+ a year, that made no sense. Right now it sounds like a good idea, but you just never know.
And now, the images:
My driveway after I just finished shoveling |
A view of my front yard; 26 inches all around |
My neighbor’s house; see, as much snow as mine |
Trying to show how much snow’s on the roof |
The tree out back just off my deck |
Just a quick shot of some of the woods out back |
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Mitch Mitchell
I’m just a tad bit disappointed, I thought there would be pictures of you shoveling. Not that I need proof that you did it … hey, what kind of shovel do you use since you broke the blower, THAT I’d like to see! How long did it take? I don’t mean from Saturday to Tuesday, I mean how long would it take to shovel the 26″ in one session?
Again, who needs a gym! And what kind of hot soup do you have waiting for you when you’re done. It’s BEAUTIFUL though. 🙂
Kissie, no one shovels 26 inches in one season. When it gets like that you just hunker down & hope for salvation. But I will say the longest it took me with one of the clearings was Monday morning, 75 minutes. And I couldn’t get a picture of myself shoveling! lol
No soup; actually, I didn’t eat for a couple of hours either.
I could never imagine that, Mitch. The first time ever I saw the REAL snow is during my Korea two years ago. Having to shovel your way through the driveway with that thick of snow is way beyond my comprehension. The picture speaks for itself, that’s for sure. Wish we could have at least 10% of the snow you’re having in our backyard. 🙂
@wchingya
Social/Blogging Tracker
Ching Ya, I’d take 10% of it for my backyard as well. lol
Hi, Mitch. You did a great job shoveling 🙂 I know some might not like lots of snow…but, your place looks awesome…just like a postcard. So, winter has indeed kicked in, eh?
– Wes –
It sure has Wes, but it could have waited at least until winter actually began. It is pretty, I have to admit.
Snow plow! Forget shoveling-too dangerous. We got a good blanket of snow here in Chicago the other day. it’s subzero wind chills though so everything iced now. can’t wait for spring! Snow does look great in pictures, though 😉
Jessica, I actually sold my snowplow many years ago, and I’m sort of reluctant to buy another one. But it might have to come to pass one of these days. Just shoveled again and my shoulders are aching a bit for the first time.
Santa can come now :)That’s a lot of snow!although it takes some effort to clean all that snow, winter without snow it’s like Christmas without Santa.
did you have a snow fight?
Mia, we must have insulted someone. I shoveled the driveway again last night at midnight to hopefully make sure my wife could get her car out this morning. She did, but said it looks like it might need to be shoveled again… ugh! lol
Beautiful Winter pictures, I don’t remember when I saw that much snow, probably the last time was when I was a kid. Remember once, the snow was that much, that even the school was closed for a couple of days as there was no way to open the doors from snow, about 6’1.
Carl, I have a picture on my computer of the snowbanks as high as I am tall, and I’m 6’1″. That could be our legacy very soon if the weather guy isn’t incorrect on what could be coming this weekend.
Unfortunately you are right Mitch, the weather is becoming crazy. I am currently in Thailand and it is raining everyday. This is not typical for the season, for first time in 5 years, I see rain during December, usually it is dry from December to April without a drop. I guess it will destroy the holiday of many people.
Hopefully it’ll stop raining just before the holidays, Carl. But the weather is really weird, isn’t it?
I don’t know if it was the same storm, but London, Ontario, got more than 40 inches of snow this week. You should move to Prince Edward Island, Mitch. We’ve gotten only an inch or two!
(Uh oh. I shouldn’t have said that.)
Charles, ours wasn’t a storm. That’s kind of our regular snowfall when the winds get kicking up the lake effect machine. Now, there’s a noreaster coming up the coast for the weekend, and that will be storm snow; I’m not looking forward to any of this.
Beautiful pictures, Mitch. Of course, it’s always beautiful when one doesn’t have to shovel it.
It never occurred to me that a snowblower would be a bad investment “up nawth”. I have chatted with Central Virginians who would agree with you – for THIS region – but, Syracuse?
Anyway, what about a cooperative agreement with your neighbors? Or, are you liking those new-found muscles in your shoulders? LOL
Cheers,
Mitch
Mitchell, a snowblower is actually a great investment overall, and I’m starting to lean that way after just removing 6 more inches from the driveway from overnight; ouch! Overall it’s a crap shoot; last year I’d have lost a lot of money, this year I would have saved myself some physical labor. Still, it’s a great workout as long as I don’t let it get too high to where it could hurt me.
Yeah, after all, we are Men of a Certain Age, LOL.
My idea of exercise is to hold the door open so my sons can go outside to shovel. Strained my neck looking around, though, so I’m going to cut back on that.
Cheers,
Mitch
LOL! The best reason to have kids I guess.
Great pics and timing 🙂 As I am on a plane right now heading your way 🙂 Rochester has a brutally cold winter
In San Antonio it hasn’t snowed since 1985 🙂
Thanks for adding the post to BloggerLUV
Guess I will be finding out how cold and snowy it is for myself in a few hours Can’t wait 🙂
Stumbled
Yeah John, you picked an interesting time for a visit, but it’s not quite the same in Rochester as it is here, so you might get off easy. I hope your visit is fun.
I am in Toronto, Canada and it is starting to happen here now…although they only call for 10cm on Sunday (4 inches)…but Barrie (just north of us) got 40-48 inches earlier this week! That is nuts…reminds me of when we were kids and it seemed all snow banks were 10 feet tall.
They did used to seem pretty high, and truthfully they were. I have a picture somewhere on my computer where the sides of my driveway have 6′ snowbanks; I have a bad feeling we’re on our way to something like that again.
Mitch,
I was at a conference in Michigan last week and met a man from Syracuse. I was telling him about you. Can you believe there are actually people in Syracuse who do NO social networking. He said he thought it was a waste of time because he preferred face-to-fac contact ALWAYS.
Oh yeah, we talked about how the snow can keep people from interacting there. That’s how the subject of online social networking came up.
He’s definitely missing out then. Syracuse is one of the fastest growing cities for social media. We had a conference in August that got almost 500 people to show up that was only advertised maybe 6 weeks. Our tweetups average 30 to 50 people. And the guy who created Four Square went to Syracuse University as well, and there’s some special thing they do with SU as a test market. And in times like last week, when we ended up with 50 inches, social media was definitely the way to go with so many things being canceled.