Starting late afternoon yesterday the snow came and this morning we were at 10 inches deep and its still coming down.  Look at how much snow came down on that chair, this deck was perfect cleared before the snow started yesterday.

In area’s that drifted it was close to three foot drifts to push though with the snow blower and a good amount of hand shoveling, the wood stove is going strong and I am loving my never ending kettle of hot water and the joy of putting our wet gear out to dry. 

This storm earlier in jan was the biggest so far this month,  yes that is 15 inches of snow in one day

This is the third week in jan where we have gotten at least a foot or more of snow per week.  This means we have lots of snow cover here on the farm, now I get that for some of my readership they would be looking at that amount of snow and just be shaking their heads going no, NO… NO!!!!!

And it is work.. just as my snow breaking dogs that are trying to clear trails lol 

However as a land owner and as a gardener, I am thrilled! This deep snow pack is a wonderful thing, right now it means that if we do get deep cold over the next 6 to 10 weeks of winter, my older and my baby trees and come again plants are all beautifully protected under that deep layer of snow. If we get freezing rain, warm snaps of 0 to 4 or 8c it means that it can not melt this type of snow pack fast enough to create any issues with them. 

Last but not in any way least, this kind of deeper snow pack means much needed moisture in the spring as it melts and it also means that it will slow down the budding out and flowering on my fruit trees! This increases the odds that I will get a good fruit crop this year. 

For a good number of my fruit trees, I need a certain amount of cold days and I am pleased to be marking them off successfully this winter, so if the spring works with me, I could be heading  into a very good year when it comes to stone fruits. Then again, we could get a very hard late frost, time will tell.

How is it looking in your neck of the woods if you are zoned where you get winter? Do you have a good snow pack? or are you bare ground? Last winter we have enough straight very deep cold days that we had some good kill off of different garden or forest pests. So far this year, we have not had that kind of longer straight deep cold, but it will be fine either way, as it takes time for them to build their numbers back up.  I still have time for a good cold snap.

This deeper snow has been driving the wild turkey hens onto the farm early for a bit of extra feed in the cleaning up under the bird feeders, we even caught a doe feeding on the horse hay this week.