Since it was warm today...

I thought I would post some pictures of our snowy winter wonderland. The temperature got up to 55 on the mountain today. Most of the snow is melted off our roof and driveway. Our road is a bloody, muddy mess but we still have 8-10 inches of snow on the ground. Even more in the deeper parts of the woods. But it does almost feel like spring. We even took the kids on a night hike this evening. It was nice to be outside and not freezing.

You know you live on the mountain when...

• You see more snowmobilers on your road in a day than you do cars in 2 weeks.
• The 5 ton plow truck gets stuck in the snow on your road and has to radio the highway plow truck to pull him out.
• You and your spouse stand admiring and talking about the positive qualities of your woodstove. This is after 2 weeks of a smoked filled house, CO2 detectors blaring, finding a manual online (who knew our stove had a damper? That's helpful to know!) cleaning out the chimney and buying a new one piece elbow for the pipe. And weeks later still periodically saying to each other. I love our woodstove, don't you?
• You have to transport the Home Depot employee and all his equipment to your house in your own truck because his won't make it and shovel a path around your house from the 2 feet of snow so that he can install storm doors.
• The UPS carrier leaves a note in your mailbox that says "Left your package at John Smith's house on the corner". I guess that's one way to meet the neighbors.
• You step outside to get your ash bucket for a morning's cleaning of the woodstove and think, hmm it's awfully warm out here. You check the temperature and realize, golly, it's a balmy 10 degrees compared to the -12 the morning before.