Snow — Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara

We Got Snow!

January 4, 2013 · by JudyL

The first fresh, white snow of the season is always so exciting and so beautiful and makes me want to hug Mother Nature’s neck for her glorious display. For those who live up north and are sick of it already, you’re probably shaking your head in disbelief that anyone could be excited about snow but for us, it will be gone by noon – no shoveling, no slipping and falling — no hassle.

Before we moved here, if anyone had asked me if this area ever got snow, I would have answered with an emphatic NO but, last year we had a few flakes too.

I tried to stay awake last night waiting for the snow to arrive. The weather folks said it would be here late but I gave up and went to bed without seeing any snow. Several times during the night I got up to look out to see if we had snow and we didn’t so I figured it had passed us by but then when we woke up, we had snow!

Early Morning Snow

There’s a couple of inches on the ground.

By daylight, the snow had stopped. The chickens were a bit apprehensive about emerging from the coop.

Chickens Aren’t Real Sure About the Snow

The chickens are so “chicken”. They usually come bounding out of the coop in the mornings but they were not quite sure about the white stuff.

They Weren’t Scared Long

I must say they’re braver than the MO chickens. They wouldn’t come out of the coop any time there was snow on the ground.

Tracks in the Snow

It’s nice that I get to stay home and look out the window at the pretty snow but . . Vince had to go to work!

Not sure how the garden fencing will look when the snow melts but it doesn’t look so good now. I think our PVC pipe in MO must have been heavy duty because we got way more snow there and I don’t remember the fence looking like this.

Garden Fence

One last pretty picture!

Snow on the Trees

The really good news is . . it’s a little bit of moisture that we so desperately need.

· Filed Under: Home & Garden, Texas · 28 Comments

Snow in Texas

February 12, 2012 · by JudyL

You just never know about the weather! When we moved to Kentucky from Louisiana, I was so happy because I thought I was moving away from humidity and I could have straight hair and less allergies. Owensboro, KY sits right on the Ohio River, right in the Ohio Valley and the humidity and allergies were worse than they ever were in Louisiana. I had never seen snow . . ever really! I think when I was in the 5th or 6th grade, we had a dusting of snow but not enough to really call snow. So, when we moved to KY in October, I couldn’t wait for the snow. The first night we got snow, I was up all night watching it. I kept waking Vince up to give him updates. He had grown up in upstate NY and he was not impressed!

When we moved to MO, I wasn’t too surprised at the winter weather since the weekend we went there to look for a house, they got 20+ inches of snow. The summer weather surprised me because the summers there were hotter than anywhere we’d ever lived.

Here in Texas, we knew the summers were going to be hot and dry and I knew we’d have a bit of winter weather but I really didn’t expect snow ever! We had predictions for ice and snow today and we’ve had both!

The flakes are big and fluffy . . we won’t get much and it won’t stick around long but it surely is pretty!

Poor Vince! He was asleep in his chair and I went running in the house to be sure he saw the snow. Nope .. he hadn’t seen it and nope, he wasn’t real interested and nope, he wasn’t impressed. Maybe when you grow up with massive amounts of snow, you’re never happy to see it and maybe when you grow up without ever seeing snow, you’re always happy to see it. What about you? Happy to see it? Never want to see it again? It definitely makes a difference when you know you won’t have to shovel it and in a few days the temps will be back up to 70º.

· Filed Under: Home & Garden · 50 Comments

Christmas Day, 2009

December 24, 2011 · by JudyL

For the past two years, I look forward to Christmas just so I can go back and re-read this post and laugh. This may be one of the funniest posts I’ve ever written . . or maybe you had to be there. It was so funny. For two years now, we’ve laughed about this day. For any readers who have joined me since 2009, I hope you enjoy this as much as I do!

The title of the post is “You Thought We Had a Bad Day Yesterday”. I had to go back and read to see what had happened the previous day. It was the water heater!

Here’s the blog post, copied from December 25, 2009.

Oh, how beautiful! A white Christmas!

There’s lots of snow . . maybe 8″. And, the temp is about 12° and it feels like -6°.

But . . there’s a slight problem.

The snow shovel . . it’s in the storage building that we rent . . about a mile from home. We have an oversized three car garage on the ground level, an oversized one car garage in the walkout basement, about a 25 x 30 pole barn out back and we have no room here at home to keep a snow shovel . . in December! I cannot figure it out.

Vince and Chad decide they’re going to take the pickup and go to the storage building and get the snow shovel. The pickup is not 4 wheel drive. Once they got the doors open, they were good to go.

It went downhill quickly from the end of the driveway! Spinning and going sideways. Finally got the pickup backing down the street.

Notice these photos are being taken by the photographer (me) who isn’t venturing far out into the snow!

But, this is as far as they got. Just to the edge of our front yard. The shadow is our house.

They decided to bundle up and walk to the storage building. What’s a mile there and a mile back when it’s -4°? So . . off they went on foot . . through the snow.

Bye y’all! Stay warm!

Only a little farther guys!

Another half hour and you’ll be there! Remember this is how your grandparents got to school! They walked miles through the snow! But, wait . . weren’t Chad’s grandparents in Louisiana? Maybe they didn’t walk miles through this much snow. Oh well . . it doesn’t matter. They have to retrieve that snow shovel. (Don’t ask me why . . we have no place to go!)

The crazy thing (even crazier than not having a snow shovel at the house in December) is that we have two 4 wheel drive vehicles in the garage. Take one of those! This snow is nothing for either one. But, if he takes one of those, and brings them back into the garage, all that water will get in the garage when the snow melts off the vehicle. I’m understanding men less and less each day.

They were gone a long time. They stopped and talked to a snow plow man and asked him to come plow our street. And, he did! OK . . so the picture was taken through the window. Told you I wasn’t going out in this weather.

Then they get back!

But . . without snow shovels. The lock was frozen on the building and they couldn’t get it to open.

The snow plow did a great job and now they’re digging out with the garden shovel. Back they went to the storage building in the truck, along with a bottle of alcohol and a cup. They submerged the lock in alcohol and . . mission accomplished. A snow shovel for each of them.

Now they’re too tired to shovel the driveway! If it’s ok with everyone else, we’ll just stay home til April. Surely the snow will have all melted by then.

· Filed Under: Home & Garden · 24 Comments

Chicken Freedom

February 12, 2011 · by JudyL

The poor, deprived chickens have been cooped up literally for two weeks. We couldn’t let them outside because the snow was too deep. Besides, the coop is heated and we had days and days that the temps barely got into double digits and too many nights with near zero temps. They were safer, though not happier, inside the coop.

Today is sunny and much warmer — mid 40′s. The 15 day forecast shows no snow! YAY!!! Better yet — our highs for the next two weeks will be in the 50′s and 60′s.

This morning Vince went out and shoveled a clean spot and moved the chickens’ run and let them out. They’ve been running and flapping their wings . . now if they can just remember their main job in life . . EGGS!

I’m thankful we didn’t have need for the chicken jail or the chicken hospital. The two trouble causers are gone and it seems that everyone got along splendidly, even in tight quarters for almost two weeks.

Another couple of days and we might be able to use our deck again!