A FOOT OF SNOW! YIKES!

IT DOESN'T HAPPEN VERY OFTEN, but when it does, we are up that well known creek... no paddle, but we do have snow shovels! It is still snowing as I write this... I just came in from feeding Spook and Hoover and sweeping and shoveling ON THE CARPORT! It is 23 degrees but wind chill makes it feel like 9, wind sustained is at 14, gusts up to 30.


I had someone ask me about that big sheet of heavy plastic next to the cat boxes... I said it was to keep the snow out of the boxes and I got laughed at. "But they are up on the carport!" he said. Yeah, they are... but the wind blows the snow around, even up on the car port. My van is covered on all 4 sides with snow even tho it is on the carport which is attached to the house. OK, it does not have a foot of snow like Anna's van, but it is covered nonetheless.

Anyway, here is the reworked plastic snow guard doing its thing. As you can see, some snow still made it up on top of the greenhouses - but NOT in the boxes. BTW, the temp in the boxes averages 55 degrees but is toastier directly on the pad.


This is the new water dish - keeps the water at 45 degrees. It is smaller than the old one which held a quart and a half, but it is easier to drain and clean. Spook is getting a drink.

 

2 other warm boxes are on the left of Spook... often there is a possum in the bottom one. A visiting cat sometimes sleeps in the box above it... plastic covering the opening but snow actually got in it this time! (Another reason why I built a new box for Hoover.) The bottom box has a vent that opens to the furnace room, upstairs has a heating pad like in the boxes.

And this is how I keep the greenhouses warm when we have these unbelievable cold temps! (currently 57 and 58 degrees) It will come off to let the sunlight in as soon as it warms up a bit... Tuesday?

   I LOVE foam board insulation! I wish I had discovered it sooner! The cats love it, too - and so, apparently, does the possum snuggled down in the possum box out in the back yard.



The foam is taped to a piece of plywood (with red duct tape) because the critters use it as a highway from the ground to the cat boxes - and food, of course. The old windows (with Plexiglas) keep a snow free path for critters heading out. All this is covered in snow now.


Here is the back yard taken at about 9 inches of snow. My new wheelbarrow (a Christmas present) has a good pile of snow on it as does the Adirondack the cats and I enjoy in the winter when the sun is shining. Gotta keep that Vitamin D up so I don't have to take any more pills! The old Adirondack is in the top picture, just about in the center buried under a load of snow!



I hope you are enjoying your snow - if you got any. Most of all, stay warm and stay SAFE!