Wednesday, January 2, 2008








Although Dave is back to work after several days off, we still took time this morning to snow shoe in the 'back 40' again. The first day of 2008 brought another snowstorm, dropping another six inches. This time I took the camera with me, and took some photos.



The snowfall was heavy and wet, forcing the smaller saplings to bend and fall over the trails. Dave took the lead on the walk, and knocked the snow off the trees. Part of the trail was completely covered by the snow-bent trees, and most of it had snow tunnels that had formed because of the trees.


We'll now feel the temperatures drop this afternoon as we enter a cold snap. As I write this, the temps have been dropping steadily, and will plummet to below zero F by tonight. This will be a good test for our new source of heating the house -- entirely by the woodstove. I'll keep my turtlenecks, wool sweaters and the dogs close by, as back up.


Tuesday, January 1, 2008

A New Year

We celebrated the end of 2007 and the beginning of 2008 by snowshoeing in the 'back 40' last night and again this morning. We've had a record snowfall in New Hampshire ....over 44 inches for the month of December, which breaks the old record in Concord, NH, which stood since 1867.



The guys were with us this morning, Eddie and Max, who had a blast running through the fresh powder. This morning's run also gave us the chance to do some badly needed trail maintenance, which has been neglected over the year. We never go into the area after spring because the deer flies are unbearable. And if the deer flies don't get you, the ticks surely will. One fall, after an already hard frost, I expected the ticks to be killed off. I walked the trails with a machete to do some clearing; as I came out of the woods, there were over 50 ticks climbing up my kakhi colored pants. I used the machete to 'scrape' them off.