My town in the NYT

Does this mean a lot of New Yorkers will be coming here soon?
Here's the article.

We are Chicken Farmers

Because we have so much free time, and we love fresh, organic eggs, we decided to get chickens! Some friends of ours with a large flock graciously gave us a few of their layers and sold us one of their nifty homemade "Arks" - a great summer coop.
Here's the set-up. The red shed in the background will soon be converted into a winter coop.

Sam checks the voltage of the electric netting.

A few of the girls in the ark.

Stephen really wanted an omelet for breakfast.

"I'll lay you an egg when I'm good and ready!"

Peckin' around.

Late Spring in NH

After so many months of posting our snowy pictures, I thought I'd show you what late spring in our yard looks like. The leaves have only recently been fully unfurled, a bumper crop of dandelions are in full bloom, and the ferns are popping up in the woods.
And the daffodils are waning, but not completely gone.Note the "sagging" iron railing in the background - those were straight last fall - the snow falling off of the roof and piling up there (that door is rarely used) somehow caused that to happen!

The Last Little Bit

Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen!
Well, here we are on May 1st, and this is the last bit of snow left in our yard. It held on pretty well - through several 70+ degree days during Holy Week! I guess my prediction on April 10th that it would take "forever" to melt was a bit off. As much fun as it was in the winter, by now we are glad to see it go!BTW, if you've been following my snow posts this winter, Concord, NH fell short of the all-time snow record by 4 inches this winter!

The Big Melt

Today was officially the first day I left the house without putting a jacket on since last fall! Yay!
As the snow recedes, the bulbs are poking up.
The backyard is melting fast.
But these mounds on the north side of the house will take forever to go away!

We're at number 2!

After record-breaking snow amounts in Dec, Jan, and Feb, March has been pretty lackluster. But we just got another 4 or 5 inches, putting us at Number 2 on the list of all-time snowiest winters (since they started keeping records).
(From wmur.com)
Snow Totals (10:45 a.m.)

1. 122" 1873-1874
2. 115.2" 2007-2008
3. 115" 1872-1873
4. 113.2" 1995-1996
5. 111" 1886-1887
5. 111" 1887-1888
7. 103.2" 1898-1899
8. 103" 1874-1875
9. 100" 1875-1876
10. 100" 1971-1972
The average snowfall is around 60 or so inches per winter.
Not everyone is excited to have more snow on March 28th, but since I know that we won't really have spring weather to make it all go away for another few weeks, we may as well get another coating to freshen it up a bit (old snow by the roadsides gets really dirty and gross looking) - and try to break the record, as well! For some reason, that's exciting to me. It makes one feel very hearty to live in a climate like this.

The cats are somewhat less excited - Ron-ron is the only one who ventured out for a bit. He likes it better when the surface of the snow gets icy and he doesn't sink in.

A Sign of Spring

When you see the "Frost Heaves" signs go up, you know spring is just around the corner. A humongous corner that takes a couple of months to get around, but we do eventually get to the other side.

Getting Buried

It's not even March and NH has already had more snow than we've had for over 100 years - nearly 100 inches. (Average is more like 45 inches per year.) Here are a few pics:

I guess it'll be awhile before we can use this door.
The swingset is disappearing!
And the boys are clearing the deck for the umpteenth time.

Shiny Trees and the Icicle of Damocles

(Note: These pictures are much more impressive if you click to see the larger view!)
Whenever we have freezing rain followed by a sunny day, we are treated to some particularly beautiful "shiny" trees!

And we had this mighty impressive icicle.

I say "had" because after this photo the kids threw ice chunks at it to break it off.

Snowy Pre-feasts of 2007

Here's a pic taken of our church during Holy Week, April 2007

And here's one of our backyard taken a few days before Christmas, 2007. (Click pic for larger view - you can see the big fat snowflakes falling.)

Yes, we did actually have a few months without snow in between those two times.