The Blizzard of 2013

It's hard to tell how much snow we got here in Newburyport. I heard 19 inches on the news, but in most spots on our property it was between 24-30 inches. There was a lot of drifting — up to 5 feet in some parts of the garden. We live on a snow emergency route, and our road was plowed early this afternoon. We were able to get out and do the bulk of our snow blowing and shoveling today, though we'll have to tackle raking a few roofs tomorrow.

Here are some photographic highlights:

The garden at 11 a.m. on Friday, February 8. 

The garden at 8 a.m. on Saturday, February 9. It's still snowing and blowing in this photo, and if you look carefully, you can see Fletch in front of the chicken coop. As soon as he heard Kirk heading out to shovel a path to the workshop, he came bounding through two feet of snow for his breakfast. By the time I snapped this photo, he had given up and was skirting the chicken coop, where the snow wasn't up to his ears. Kirk grabbed him and let him in for breakfast.

The front porch at 11 a.m. on Friday, February 8.

The front porch at 10 a.m. on Saturday, February 9. Looking at the orchard shows how deep the snow is in the front yard — most trees are covered up to their first branches! This was probably helpful in stabilizing them against are intense wind gust last night when the storm was at its height.

The perennial border at 11 a.m. on Friday, February 8.

The perennial border at 8 a.m. on Saturday, February 9. Another look at the orchard as measuring stick in the background. For reference, the electric meter almost off frame to the right is about 4 to 5 feet off the ground, and the holly bushes are about 3 1/2 to 4 feet tall.

Our carrot greenhouse hoops are completely buried under that giant chunk of snow. Not going to get to those for a while...

The cold frames, cleared of snow on the tops so the glass doesn't break. We left the snow around the sides for additional insulation.

The chicken coop, after I shoveled out a foot of snow that had drifted in. The hens are stayed in for the day, but we'll probably let them out tomorrow to hopefully tramp down the last bits of snow.

The cutting garden, with 5-foot drifts along the fence.

Kirk using the snowblower to get down the brick cross-paths that delineate the garden quadrants. As you can see, the snow is about knee-high where he is standing, and higher towards the foreground.

Did I mention that the National Guard had one of their trucks get stuck outside our house? They had a parade of vehicles heading from the armory, but three of them were stopped outside for quite a bit until they got unstuck. Not every day you see soldiers in full gear on the front lawn.

Jonas getting started on the front walk from the driveway.

Tiegan taking a break in the driveway along the perennial border. She's over 4 feet tall, btw.

Our street and the carved-out sidewalk. If you look closely, you can see that our white mailbox has been toppled, and is held up only by the plow-zone snow bank. 

The front yard and house, with a view of the carved-out driveway. You can see the parts of the roof we'll have to clear before it is expected to rain on Monday. Also, Jonas is in this picture. He is exactly 4 feet tall, and you can see that the snow banks he's trying to shovel a path through are shoulder-high for him. So yeah, it's a lot of snow!