It's a bit embarrassing when guests from the Twin Cities arrive and say, "Hmmm, we actually have more snow than you do." For an area of Minnesota that usually has more snow than we know what to do with, it's hard to deal with a dry winter. Fortunately, that has changed now, thanks to the storm system that planted itself over the northeastern part of the state the past few days.
As usual, we started to hear about the possibilities of this storm several days in advance. The system was predicted to bring a mix of rain, slush, and eventually all snow. The numbers listed as possible depths were 6 to 11 inches. I've learned to be skeptical of these, because inevitably, I am disappointed. This is especially true in a year like this one, when El Nino patterns are influencing the winter weather.
This time around, I had a new plan. I told Kent at the Coop that I was planning not to read the weather reports, not to track the storm advisories, and not to look at the radar. In other words, I was going to see if reverse psychology works on the weather. He laughed and expressed his doubts.
Sure enough, it didn't start to snow when they said it was supposed to. Better than that, it didn't really rain either. That would have been worse. We had few brief spells of light mist on Saturday, but nothing to cause damage. Sunday morning it was still merely overcast, and Greg took off to go to town. He called me shortly before he arrived in Grand Marais to say that it was snowing heavily. Still nothing here, but at least I wasn't feeling sad about that. By eleven, it did finally start to snow.
It continued to snow all day, all evening, and through the night. We had gone to Shar's to see the football game. At the end, when the Saints were shooting cannons full of confetti into the air, I checked to see if our own "confetti" was still coming down. It was. Good sight.
Today, we measured eight inches by midday. Greg has been out plowing all day, with just a brief break for lunch. He said that underneath, it is a heavy wet snow, and that was slowing things down. Trees were bending over under the weight of it. I went out to shovel stairways, and released some of the cherry and birch trees from their burdens. We don't have many pin cherry trees left, and I really enjoy the short time in the spring when they cause the ground around them to turn white not from snowflakes, but fallen petals. It's satisfying to see them spring back up.
So we are once again in full winter mode. More shoveling to do tomorrow as I go around and bank the cabin foundations. Time to power up the ski groomer and give the trails a set of new tracks. Do you think the reverse psychology worked?
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