The third winter storm looms. I am sick of snow!

Yes, friends, I am sick of snow. No, make it that I'm sick of winter.

This has been the craziest winter I can remember in a long time. Usually the winters here are so mild that people can sometimes walk around in shorts, and that doesn't even include the college kids in flip-flops year-round. But oh no, not this winter. No, this winter has to make up for all of the other mild winters we've had in the past. And with it came frigid temperatures along with the craziest snow and ice storms in memory. As I sit here, the third major snow and ice event looms on the horizon. With it supposedly comes anywhere from 4 to 8 inches of snow, but it looks like a generous amount of sleet and heavy ice may join in. No doubt its going to be a winter weather mess.

In mid December we had 8 inches of snow here. Then the first week of January we had frigid temperatures in the teens. Then a couple of weeks ago we had torrential rains complete with flooding all around my area. Then this past weekend, beginning on Friday the 29th of January, we got another 9 inches of snow and temperatures back down in the teens. And now we're facing our third major frozen weather event this winter. I just saw on the news that the power companies are on high alert now since the ground is already saturated from all the previous wet weather, and if ice comes, that means that trees can topple over and take down power lines.

So anyway, I made pictures of the snow event last weekend but just didn't have time to post them. Frankly they depress me. But I figured since I made them I would share them with you and you can see our very own version of a winter wonderland. 

By the way, have I mentioned that I am sick of winter?

On a side note, my bees are doing fine. I checked them again a couple times this week, just an outside the hive inspection, and on the warmer and sunny days they're out and about flying around. But like me I'm sure they're sick of all this snowy, wet weather. For them I hope we have a warm and dry spring filled with blossoms and blooms. They'll probably be glad to get back into a routine and do what comes natural.

Check out my pictures and click on them for a larger view.

Here's the night view of the snow falling on Friday night. It was a mixture of all sizes of snow, but it was falling so fast, it made streaks in the photograph. I have to admit it was beautiful.

Here's the street in front of my house on Saturday morning, the snow untouched by vehicles. It was late that afternoon before plows came by and barely made a dent in the snow.

Here's my house. In case you can't tell, that's a Nissan Xterra buried under all that snow.

As you can see, the snow is deep in the back yard. The snow depth at the base of my hive was 9 inches, just almost reaching the top of the hive stand on the side. And of course it completely covered the entrance.

A little better look at the snow amount at the hive. You can get an idea of the depth of the snow from the side view. I cleaned off the snow from the entrance and the top so the girls could get out once the temperatures warmed up some.

The creek behind my house which is just below my bee hive. This is their primary water source. It is amazing that with all this water just a few yards from them, at one point this past summer, they decided to get water from the rain spouts behind my house. Go figure. Bees can be remarkable, but odd too.

This is a wooded area across from my house. What you can't tell is that it is an old cemetary. Some of the graves here date back to the 1850s. There are two really nice homes on the side of this plot, at one time they belonged to one of my city's wealthiest families. Maybe one of these days I'll have bee hives there too if my neighbor (who owns it) doesn't mind. Who knows..maybe my bees could keep the residents of this property company?

So there you have it. More evidence of the crazy weather of the winter of 2009-2010 here in my neck of the woods. While all of this craziness is going on, I'm getting everything prepared for the weather to break and to get my bees going for another year exciting year. Hopefully sooner than later. Real soon. Like now would be fine with me.

Stay well and bee vigilant!