Tuesday Evening – Freezing Rain Warnings

It’s so strange how the people born and raised out here think this has been a bad winter. Sheesh I don’t think we’ve had a snow drift on our property once. We’ve had an icy driveway problem, but the temperature is usually between -10 and +10. That’s right. +10. It was +10 today and tonight it is going back down to -11.

(Step aside for a sec… Did you know that is why they have so many traditional Maritime houses sided with wooden shakes instead of plank siding? It is because of the drastic temperature changes here during the winter. The quick freezes and thaws out here weather the wood quickly. Only 4 inches of a shingle shake is exposed to the elements with a 12 inch overlap. Wooden plank siding has only a 1 inch overlap. And it’s easier to replace one shake! Ya ya – I was reading my Harrowsmith magazine today…)

One day the world will be white outside our windows. The next day the white is replaced by brown ground and grass. The next day we’ll be back to white. It’s been like that for the last month. Although we’re in Eastern Nova Scotia… I think Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick have had tons of snow this winter.

We’ve had a freezing rain warning flashing on our weather forecasts for tomorrow since this morning. 6 hours of freezing rain followed by +8 temps. Hopefully it doesn’t start until I’m safely at work.

Another aside… Wanna hear another odd ball thing out the people out here? They keep talking about going coasting. I had no idea what on earth they were referring to. Turns out they don’t say they are going tobogganing or sledding – they call it coasting!! Is that because the hills aren’t so high here? haha – I don’t know.

With the lengthening days, Jeff and I were able to go for a beautiful wander through our woods today after work. There is very little snow in the bush – just a bit here and there for the snowshoe hares to hide out and pretend that we can’t see them. I discovered another white pine I didn’t know we had on our property. We have 3.6 acres. It is a great size. We have a lot of dead spruce trees that were attacked by a spruce beetle. Some of the dead spruces have snapped right in half.

There are lots of overgrown apple trees around the old foundation back up in the woods too. I like standing back there trying to imagine what the foundation of flat rocks once was. There is some broken pottery inside the square. It looks like there is a round dug well lined with rocks in one part of the building. The other part is dug out – basement? There is nothing else left. Zero signs of walls. Just these flat rocks stacked up about 6 inches off the ground. Behind it though is a newer well – round cement with a cement lid. I’d love to know the history of this.

Anyway, I have to go watch that trashy Big Brother tv show again. I’ll leave you with a picture of our red squirrel that lives in our shed. I took this picture through the window. I’m surprised at how well it turned out!