What did we get, rain or snow?

We had rain (14 mm/half"), freezing rain, snow (9 cm Thursday, 7 cm last night = 16cm)!

☔ 🌨 ☔ 🌨 ☔ 🌨 ☔ 🌨 ☔ 🌨 ☔ 🌨 ☔ 🌨

A massive system. Turning counter-clockwise, starting with a comma shape, it dumped on us. 

In the afternoon, Wednesday, we had hail! 

The winds brought down a lot of wires between Wednesday and Thursday. It began to the west, and spread to eastern Ontario. 

We were lucky! We were surrounded by people who'd lost power. Ours went out in the wee hours, and came back on at 3 a.m.

Percy would complain if he could talk. He is there, in the pond, since my 60 gallon tank leaked! 

The mourning dove just sat there for a long time. It looks totally ticked off with the snow! The trees are drooping Friday morning, today. We expect 5 ℃ today, and maybe the snow will change over to rain. 

It accumulated on the back deck. I had the aquarium pump out back, preparing to clean it. I shall wait.

✿ The daffodils are happy, cozy under the snow. They should be fine as the snow blankets them, and holds in whatever heat there is in the ground.

🐹 Fred, 🐇 Labbit and 🦨 Skunk are hunkered down in dens. Suddenly – not a sign of them.

I ended up building a Leprechaun. Instead of shovelling the back deck (again) I summoned some motivation to make lemons out of lemonade. Sadly, we had another 7 cm overnight!

The good thing is that the ground is warm from our nice weather last month. I won't need to shovel!

 

It looks pretty. 

I worry about this pine tree, however. It lost a lot of branches in past storms [❄️ A Sunday storm ☃️, Dec. 2023]. We'd just had this tree cleaned up April 3rd, from the December 2022 storm.  We spent thousands of dollars getting them cleaned up. 

 

The two bags remaining from the ditch diving are buried under the snow!

🐡 It is still snowing today.  Indoors, my goldfish plant is in bloom, as is the orchid cactus. They are a welcome sight. I can look forward to spring. I appreciate seeing it in blog posts from warmer climes! 

🌲 Tree clean up, at last!

 Dec. 17th, 2022, that was a storm. I had to look back and see what the trees looked like. The limbs simply broke off under the weight of the snow.

Jan. 14, 2023, more snow! This is Caitlin in her Polar Trek coat. JL brought it back to her after his trip to Antarctica. 

Jan. 2nd – I'm whittling away at it! 

The snow came and went. And still the branches mocked me. Jan. 2nd - 6th, I got on my horse, and used the reciprocal saw as much as I could. Every good morning, out whacking away. The bigger branches were too much for me. 

March 12th, more snow, the branches still kept calling for me. The broken limbs look like human broken limbs.

Everyone liked the branches. The deer would sit in amongst the branches, nibbling the greens. Even the turkeys liked it as shelter.

 

I had had enough. I Googled 'tree services near me,' and found someone from down the road. I gave Robin and Steve a site tour explaining what I needed done. Robin then emailed a quote. We had a plan. April 3rd, 2023, the troops arrived late morning, as anticipated. The tractor, chipper, truck and 4 humans.

They paired up with the two large white pine trees. The stacked the branches in piles, which they picked up with that cool machine. Alexis was wearing the same Polar Trek coat as Caitlin. I didn't have a chance to ask her about it. They wore headsets embedded in their ear protectors and communicated with one another. 

Jamie attacked this tree in the wind. We've a big storm coming today, thunder and lightning is crossing the province, and I am glad they got all this done. It was worth every penny.

 

tree climbing from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

I love this machine! They clamped a tree prior to chopping it. It was so safe. They can change the clamps for a scoop. 

Aussie Tree Care from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

The young lady is Alexis. She is a new grad from Algonquin College! She was up the tree, with a helper. They had harnesses, and all sorts of safety equipment.

Steve is a great teacher, with years of experience in the UK and Australia. 

tree clean up from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

The cats weren't too happy. Nutmeg was just antsy. Cinnamon watched from the office window. He's a little more relaxed than she is!

They kept on working. Jamie chopped the limbs into 16" pieces for the wood stove insert. 

They'd been gone about a half hour when Clover deer showed up! Everything looks good again, aside from the branches they'd lost.