Farm in snowy mountain landscape

Central Shenandoah Valley farm with snow-covered Appalachian Mountains in background.

Photo by Lynn R. Mitchell
29 January 2011

Sunrise after the snow ... winter wonderland in Shenandoah Valley

Thursday morning's sunrise over the Blue Ridge Mountains after Wednesday's snowstorm. This view is from our deck.

Daylight brings a beautiful winter wonderland of snow-flocked trees and 10" of snow on the ground.

Snow flakes glisten Wednesday night. Photo taken from front porch.

Tree limbs droop under heavy, wet snow.

"It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness." Our electricity went out at 4:35 Wednesday afternoon and finally returned during the night. Candles, flashlights, and battery-operated lanterns brightened our night, and the woodstove kept us warm.

Photos by Lynn R. Mitchell
26-27 January 2011

Traffic at the bird feeder

Cardinals, woodpeckers, gold finches, juncos, and more at the bird feeder.

After a skiff of snow overnight, the bird feeder was busy this morning as a colorful variety of our feathered friends stopped by to enjoy the smorgasboard of goodies. They caught my attention as I sat at my computer, watching eight or ten cardinals, male and female, flit from nearby branches to the feeder and back.

The cardinals were joined by bluejays, juncos, titmouse, a red-headed woodpecker as well as a little downy woodpecker, and gold finches, some beginning to change back to their summer yellow coloring from the drab olive winter coat ... and doves strutted on the ground picking at seeds that had dropped from above.

The feeder had been raided in recent days by flocks of black starlings that run off the other birds ... but they were nowhere in sight this morning. Sometimes a mockingbird will take over and stand guard, running off any birds that try to land and feed, but none were around today.

Today it was peaceful as I watched the resident birds come and go in these final weeks before spring makes it easier for them to find food in the surrounding woods and fields.

Icy beauty

These winter beauties are showing up everywhere ... houses, highway overpasses, store fronts.

Winter continues

The Appalachians are snow-decked and beautiful.

Drifting snow has kept the road covered.

Friday's warmer temps allowed melting on this secondary road.

The neighbors' horses in a winter wonderland.

Photos by SWAC Girl
Lynn Mitchell
12 February 2010

Fire trucks stuck in snow while house destroyed by fire

~Rural driveway inaccessible to fire trucks due to snow and ice~

See video.

A chimney fire caused the destruction of a family's home in the southern part of Augusta County Tuesday afternoon. From the Waynesboro News Virginian:

Slick snow made a curvy rural driveway impassable to fire trucks in Greenville on Tuesday afternoon, leaving firefighters without water as flames ripped through a family home.
...
Fire crews from Middlebrook, Stuarts Draft and Raphine, meanwhile, struggled with the snow-covered twists in the steep driveway.
...
Fire trucks from Middlebrook and Raphine became stuck in snow as rescuers called for reinforcements in the form of backhoes, plows and the Virginia National Guard.

Flames shot from the 2,000-square-foot home and a tower of ever-blacker smoke rose high above the trees.

Firefighters at the house could do little more than watch. Those on the driveway took up shovels and worked with three backhoes to free the trucks that had become stuck — they did not reach the home for more than an hour.

The $276,000 house was gutted, leaving the parents and three children with no home. No one was hurt in the fire.

Record snowfall for parts of Virginia?

The snow began at our house this morning around 5:30 a.m. and quickly covered the deck, sidewalk, and surrounding areas that had been cleared by the snow shovel.

Everyone is home because all local colleges and schools as well as many businesses closed in advance of the predicted 20-28" of snow.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that some parts of Virginia may see record snowfalls in this gigantic nor'easter.

In the SWAC area we are under a winter storm warning through 10 p.m. on Saturday with two feet plus of snow predicted, winds kicking up with 30 mph gusts, and low visibility.

It reminds me of the Winnie the Pooh rain song, only substitute snow:

And the snow, snow, snow came down, down, down ...
And the snow came tumbling down.

It's winter in the Shenandoah Valley....

Photo by SWAC Girl
Lynn Mitchell
5 February 2010

Snow at dusk....

It's snowing again in the Shenandoah Valley....

Photo by SWAC Daughter
2 February 2010

And the groundhog saw ... snow!

It's a snowy Groundhog Day in the Shenandoah Valley where the groundhog couldn't see his shadow if he tried. The weatherman says we could get an additional 1-3" of snow today. With another snowstorm moving in on Friday, we are absolutely having a wonderful winter in Augusta County.

We were out last night and SWAC Husband was joking with a gentleman who is native to the Valley about the groundhog predicting six more weeks of winter. This gentleman laughed and said, "We're having EIGHT more weeks of winter."

Forget the groundhog. Talk to the natives!

Augusta County schools closed Tuesday ... another snow day!

Augusta County public school students are enjoying an extended weekend with schools closed again today along with Grace Christian School in Staunton. However, Staunton and Waynesboro public schools are on two-hour delays.

Many surrounding public school systems are closed ... see complete listing here.

Fishersville Mike notes it's Snow Day Number 5.

It's another snow day!

SWAC public schools closed Monday ... snow day!

Local public schools kids get an long weekend with the announced closings of Staunton, Waynesboro, and Augusta County public schools on Monday as some roads remain icy and treacherous. Grace Christian in Staunton will also be closed. Check for all closings here.

White snow ... blue skies

White snow ... blue sky.


SWAC Daughter's snowboard waits for its next run down the back yard.

Photos by SWAC Girl
Lynn Mitchell
31 January 2010

Frigid winter morning ... minus 3 in western Augusta County

Moon over the snowy Appalchians at 6:00 a.m.

Brrr! It's cold enough to freeze your icicles off. Yesterday's snowstorm continued into the night and this morning we see we picked up more accumulation to up our total to about 10" of snow in our corner of western Augusta County.

On top of that the temperature is minus 3! That's frigid!

The sun is out this morning and our daytime high is expected to be in the upper 20s. There will be some melting but then cold temps tonight will make it freeze on the roads again.

And listen to this: the weatherman said there's more snow coming next weekend with possible "substantial" accumulations. We are finally having a snowy winter. The water table has to be about recovered by now after a number of years of drought/dry weather.

It's winter in the Shenandoah Valley....

Photo by SWAC Husband

Snowstorms, neighbors, and snowboarding

SWAC Daughter snowboards in the yard.

This and that on a snowy winter afternoon....

Snow is still softly falling in the white winter landscape as darkness approaches. We've gotten about 8 inches so far, a pleasant surprise after the weatherman had predicted only 3-6". Talked with a friend in Roanoke earlier and they had gotten 10" as it still came down.

SWAC Daughter is outside snowboarding on the ski run she made down the hill and into the woods where she has a mogel jump.

Meanwhile, the next-door neighbor drove over on his tractor and cleared our driveway, then headed to his barn to clear a path. What would we do without neighbors?

The kids made chocolate chip cookies on the woodstove in black iron skillets so we've got our dessert. It's winter in the Shenandoah Valley....

Photo by SWAC Girl
Lynn Mitchell
30 January 2010

Fishersville Mike doesn't like the snow?

The alpine spruce is majestic in the latest snowfall.

Snow is falling so heavy that the ridge behind the house is not visible.

SWAC Daughter walks up hill with her snowboard as others use the sled.

How cold is it? It's so cold that the heated birdbath has slushy water in it. Temperature at mid-day was 15 degrees.

Something tells me Mike isn't crazy about the snow today. Meanwhile, we're yipping at our house ... SWAC Daughter is heading into the back yard with her snowboard as the flakes continue to fall.

With the woodstove cranked (because the temperature is mid-teens at 1:00 pm ... brrr), I've got a roast and veggies cooking and we have apple cider and hot chocolate to warm us up.

Snow is still falling heavily so we ventured outside to take photos and watch SWAC Daughter surf the back yard. The snow was mid-calf on me and in five minutes I was completely covered. The wind chill is in the single digits and it is cold!

It's definitely a snowy winter day and we're enjoying it in the Shenandoah Valley....

Update: Mike wrote to say they have a birthday party tomorrow for one of the boys so this snow is gumming up the works. I understand ... this would put a damper on something like that. They could let the kids make a birthday snowman for his son complete with party hat and balloons tied to its stick arms for a birthday to remember.

Meanwhile, Bob has taken snow photos in his part of Augusta. Gorgeous.

Update #2: Many thanks to Pat Austin at And So It Goes In Shreveport for the link.

Photos by SWAC Girl
Lynn Mitchell
30 January 2010

Salt brine on the streets ... ugh

In the past, winter weather in the Shenandoah Valley would bring out VDOT salt trucks. When salt brine first began showing up on the streets around the SWAC area, word was it was more environmentally friendly -- someone even claimed it was a beet juice base -- and VDOT was able to treat road surfaces before bad weather hit.

Snow in the forecast? Even if we hadn't heard the weatherman, it was obvious that inclement weather was on the way because of the streaks on the roads.

With this weekend's huge winter storm expected over Virginia, the brine streaks began showing up Thursday afternoon in preparation for snow, and today they were on just about every road we traveled.

A friend clued me in about two weeks ago to the problems when he suggested I may want to get my vehicle washed of all the white salt/brine/dirt after weeks of snow on the ground, and said car owners had been having trouble with corrosion, especially on the undercarriage. He said the work vehicles with the company he worked for had been having issues with corrosion from the brine used by VDOT.

Then today I read Yankee Phil's post about that briny stuff with even more explanation of it.

Buy stock in car washes....

Frosty mountain sets poetic mood for Richmond hiker

It's winter in the Virginia mountains and, for the first time in a long while, everything has been snow-covered for weeks, thanks to the longest cold snap in years.

Richmond outdoorsman Andy Thompson recently hiked the closed Blue Ridge Parkway to Humpback Rock Farm. His remembrance of that day is in today's Richmond Times-Dispatch in his piece, "Frosty mountain sets poetic mood," where he very well captures the feeling of isolation, cold (frigidness), and admiration for the mountain people who lived there a century ago:

It's hard to convey the sense of isolation up there. Less than two hours earlier, we'd left snowless Richmond; the weatherman said River City would get to 40 degrees. Up on the mountain, we were alone in a winterscape. A few old cross-country ski tracks ran alongside us. Animal prints crisscrossed the road. Treetops offered a brittle creaking, straining not to snap in the wind. It felt as if it had been a long time since another human had come this way.

As mentioned in a previous post, a two-foot snowfall would have isolated the hardy folks who lived in the mountains in those days.

Mr. Thompson reintroduced me to a poet I had read years ago, Robert W. Service, who wrote about the Canadian north and the men who invaded that land to search for gold:

In Service's most famous poem, "The Cremation of Sam McGee," the key lesson is perspective. The title character is from Tennessee and can't handle the Yukon cold. In a world of hard men, McGee was the only one who complained. There was no room for Sam McGees in a place like Humpback Rocks 300 years ago. The challenges of life were too many and too self-evident to grouse about.

Mr. Thompson's words reminded me of my relatives, the hardy stock who still live in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwest Virginia and North Carolina. Visiting my great-grandparents' log cabin on a mountain knob in western Grayson County, Virginia, I have often marveled at the survival skills of those who went before me.

Years ago I asked an elderly relative, who has since passed away, how she had survived in that isolated cabin during the harsh winters with cracks in the walls, water fetched from a nearby spring, and a fireplace as the only heat source. She had married young and lived in the cabin briefly with her in-laws around the 1900s. Her first child had been born there, and she and her husband later settled nearby where she lived out the remainder of her years. I was having a hard time imagining raising an infant under those frigid winter conditions.

She smiled at my question, shrugged her shoulders, and said, "I don't know. We just did it."

"We just did it" ... because there was nothing else to do. They didn't complain. The just did it.

Mr. Thompson's thoughts during his hike made me thankful for those hardy Irish folks.

Blue Ridge Parkway closed ... still snow covered

The Blue Ridge Parkway has been closed since the big snowstorm on Dec. 18-19 with a snow-covered roadway, ice, and down trees. Bob at The Journey has beautiful photos of his trek up on the mountain earlier this week.

Seeing the snow-covered Parkway was a reminder of how it used to be before the use of snow removal equipment to open highways and byways, making it so we are not out of commission for long after winter weather. We've become used to the convenience of winter travel ... but there was a time when a two-foot snowfall with 15-foot drifts would have trapped the mountain people in their homes for much of the season. Our biggest inconvenience now is having to wait for the scenic mountain roads to reopen.

Check out Bob's photos ... they satisfy until I can get up to the Parkway. And for those who are wondering ... the Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park is also closed.

Photo by SWAC Girl
Lynn Mitchell
20 December 2009

"In the lane snow is glistening" ... Blizzard of 2009

Let it snow!

The spruce tree is flocked.



River birch and spruce tree....



Double gate in back yard.

This 4-foot snow drift looks like a wave.

Photo by SWAC Girl
Lynn Mitchell
20 December 2009

Snow squall

After snow flurrying all morning, a snow squall hit my corner of the Shenandoah Valley in the middle of the day, coming in on a strong west wind as the temperature sat right at freezing. It poured and there was 0.5" on the ground before it let up. Not much ... but the beautiful scene made it seem seasonal.

Photos by SWAC Girl