It's Snow Much Fun in Winter 2021

Some of you might be wondering why we haven't posted any of our adventures lately. Well, I'll tell you. We've been busy digging out of snow.

Truth be told, we haven't had much snow this winter until a 3-day storm rolled through the last week of January and dumped at least 2 feet of powder at our house. And it was just 10 days prior that we were riding around in a topless Jeep in 50-degree weather. Life in the mountains can be funny that way.

The snow forecasters do the best they can when predicting how much snow is going to fall, but with the myriad of variables and unknowns combined with factoring in various elevations in the area, we usually get a pretty wide snowfall range prediction. We were expecting anywhere from 2-4 feet.

This was our front deck the night before the snow started. Completely bare.

One of our cats, named Samsonite, begs to go outside when he knows it has snowed -- I don't know if he smells it, or what. As soon as we get up in the morning, he makes a beeline for the front deck door to be let out. The ginger cat, named Zamboni, is a bit less excited about going out in the snow, but because his "big brother" goes out, he will usually follow suit. (And that cat can turn just about any object into a toy.)

Later that morning, we had gotten this much.

Then in the afternoon, we were up to this much and it was time for round one of clearing the driveway.

And the snow continued to fall into the evening and overnight again.

The next morning, the first thing Samsonite wanted to do was go out in the snow on the deck. Or so he thought... I love how at the end, Samsonite peers UP at the pile of snow in front of him and then looks back at me.

But they did both eventually go out in it.

It's still snowing and we've got a bunch of removal to do.

By midday Thursday, pretty much every road in or out of Tahoe is closed.

Later Thursday afternoon, I decide I've got a date with a shovel on the front steps.

Nearly 21" here.

One of the side decks has 22".

After I dug out the snowblowers on the two side decks and my husband completed round two (or was it round three?) on the driveway, I came down to check out my Subaru. It drew the short straw before the storm and had to spend it outside.

A few more inches fell overnight, so of course, the cats had to investigate again, but this time, I cleared a small path for them so they had more room venture to out.

TGIF. And since Friday is my day off, I figured what better way to spend it than shoveling the 2+ feet of snow on the front deck? So I vehemently attacked that snow, lifting each giant scoopful and throwing it over the top of the railing down to the driveway below. It took me less than an hour to finish. And I didn't even throw out my back.

As I was scooping and throwing, my husband was down below with the snowblower, removing it from the driveway. After the snow gets tossed and lands below, it compacts and gets even heavier and harder to move. So much so we broke two shear pins in the snowblower during this effort. But we got it done.

The decks and driveway might be clear, but we cannot say the same for the roof! (Bonus points if you can spot Samsonite!)

One of the fun things about having a big snowstorm is that when it finally moves on, you get to drive up a few thousand feet in elevation and check out the incredible amounts of snow that fell up there. We've had a very light winter so far, as I mentioned, so the snow walls lining Mt. Rose Highway are not that impressive this year, but a fresh snowfall is always pretty.

Finally, on Sunday, we got to "play" out in the snow. Some snowman photos shared by family in Minnesota inspired us, so we got to work. It's been a while since I've built a snowman, but all I knew was that it needed to be HUGE. It took the both of us putting our body weight into rolling that huge base down the hill in our backyard into position. We strategically chose a shady area, but it was in the 40s that day and for the week following, so everything was already melting. Sadly, we didn't expect the snowman to last very long.

I think next time, we need to go even bigger.

After that wintertime highlight, I took advantage of the continued 40-degree weather and enjoyed a 10-mile walk along a path in town with a good friend. The mountains always look their best with some fresh snow on them. Don't you agree?