January Thaw

It seems to me we usually get a significant winter thaw in mid-January in these parts.  Yesterday we were well over 40 degF, and today we may get well over 50 degF.  The big factor will be the fog.

The warmer-then-normal weather has everything melting.

All the recent rain and melting has the relative humidity very high.  We have had dense fog for two days now.  Even the roads were foggy and misty well into the afternoon.

The warm weather has the creek up a little, but no major flooding is expected.

We are down to a few slushy inches of snow - we had 18 inches last weekend!  One of the things that amazes me are the 'varmint' trails which can now be seen that were under the snow.  The snow cover doesn't stop the mice and voles - they leave tunnels under the snow you can now see.

Most of the snow is off the roof.  A little patch still exists where the snow-guards limit it from sliding off.  They have done their job well this year.

A little snow is left on the shed roof over the barn entrance.  I expect it will slide off in the next day or so . . .

The fog continued into the night.  All was very dark.  A little light from a house up the hill behind the creek  through the trees was all you could see.  The river babbled on through the night.

We awoke to more fog and mist.  All was very dark - we had lost power.  We surmise someone hit a utility pole in the early morning.  I fired up the generator and got the pellet stove and fridge plugged powered up.  The power came back a few hours later just as the sun was rising.

Time to stack more pellets in the back room.  The fog makes me feel lazy . . .