UP Dreams: SNOW

They say you haven't proven yourself worthy to live in the UP until after you've survived the winter here.

And since November and December were so mild this year, I know I can't even COUNT this one as a winter I've survived...gotta wait until next year!

Oh well, whatever this winter has been about so far, I LOVE IT.

I have never seen snow like this.

I know my Iowa friends would say, "we have plenty of snow here!" And of course, that is true. I remember a year when my parents drove us to school on a one lane highway with snow higher than the cars on each side. I remember many years of driving to Mt. Carmel from Breda, plowing through HUGE snow drifts in my little pickup truck.

So how is the snow different in the UP? For one, whatever the forecast, once winter gets going, it snows every day. Sometimes huge-as-your-hand clumps, sometimes a sparkly dust, sometimes in feathers so light, they seem to fall in slow motion. Sometimes from a clear sky...I don't get that. Except that it makes the sky positively GLOW.

It really is that color

and glows that much

I love the pink

so many beautiful sunsets here

In Iowa, snow is usually an event, and sometimes it snows a lot. But slow and steady definitely wins the race, here, and then when the lake-effect kicks in, well...it piles up. People plow big empty spaces in the middle of their yards for future snow piles.

In Iowa, there is a lot of blowing and drifting, which means deep snow some places, and very little snow other places.

Here you can look across a pristine field of snow, all of its features masked by several feet of snow. The spruces bend to the ground with, literally, tons of snow.

I know these are aspens

and this is a barn

and a sad little house

tons of snow

pretty glowy clouds, too

In Iowa, if you get six inches or more of snow, you can pretty much count on a day off from school. Jordan can tell you, he is not so lucky here. It's because, I am convinced, that I live in the best county in the whole of the UP for snow removal. The road commission employees take their jobs so seriously. Of course, it is a matter of life or death to keep the roads under control around here. If you want to know how dangerous it is, ride with Bob and me to Ontonagon some morning so you can watch me chicken out and close my eyes as he drives down and down and down (faster than I would drive) on snow and ice on the curvy road to the Military Bridge

this was a VERY good day

and then back out of the valley to Rockland. I am such a chicken, I know. On the other hand, considering the amount of snow we have, everything is kept so under control. The icing on the cake is that the road guys and girls even do driveways and lanes...that is an awesome perk of living in this county!

there are about ten deer hidden behind the pile of snow by the driveway, really

I worry about the length of winter around here, and all the wildlife. The Paynesville deer herd is getting larger every day, raiding the yards and the bird feeders for every morsel they can find.

sometimes they share nicely

sometimes, someone gets left out

and walks away sad and hungry (couldn't you just HUG her?)

coming running to meet up when we pull into the driveway

There is a little mouse who sneaks into our mudroom entryway to look for spilled birdseed. And of course, we are feeding about fifteen types of birds every day.